Live4Ever - Tracks Of The Year 2023

So, here we are again. Another year ends and so, as sure as night follows day, another year-end list.

But this is no ordinary year-end list. It’s a year-end list by your favourite music website compiling the best songs of another packed 12 months and, as such, demands your respect and consideration.

We would say that of course, but there’s no denying it’s been a year to remember, not least for what was a devastating winter for music fans. To list but some of the fallen: Martin Duffy, Terry Hall, Maxi Jazz (who all passed away in late 2022 after last year’s article was published), Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, Robbie Bachman, David Crosby, Tom Verlaine, Burt Bacharach, David Jude Jolicoeur and Steve Mackey were all cruelly taken from the world before the first taste of spring.

Harry Belafonte, Pete Brown, Andy Rourke, Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Sinead O’Connor, John Gosling, Robbie Robertson, Gary Young, Rudolph Isley, Mars Williams, Shane MacGowan and Denny Laine all followed in what was an especially brutal year. Heroes and memory-makers all, we remember them fondly.

Losses to a music industry that is making more money than ever yet – much like society – the disparity in distribution grows ever wider. Spotify continues to pay musicians a pittance (and treat their staff equally as badly) yet generates record revenues, while Bandcamp – once the refuge of artists – was bought out and immediately laid off 50% of their staff, which bodes ill for the treatment of creatives.

https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/12/hak-baker-our-2023-in-music/