As I always do, in January 2023, I looked to the year ahead, tried to estimate what I would listen to, and came up with a list of artists I most anticipated introducing myself to. When I looked back to this list recently, I was surprised to realize that I listened to a grand total of zero of them. Ha! Although I always planned to focus in on 60s rock for the year, I didn't know all the extra artists I would discover along the way and how long it would take. If I correctly predicted anything about how the year would shape out, however, it's that 2023 would be one of the weakest years I had undertaken in terms in good finds. In the end, I only snuck in one A+ and listened to a mere seven A's.
My swift switch from dedicating 60% of my time to 60s artists and 40% of my time 70s artists in the beginning of the year to 100% of my time to 60s artists by the middle of the year makes my favorite studio albums from the year have a curious diversity. While I spent most of the time listening to obscure 60s music, the mild return in terms of quality albums led my top ten albums to be a strange mix of 60s folk revival and balls-to-the-wall 70s punk rock. I can't say they make much sense as a collective, but they all have strong recommendations from me.
Despite the mild return, I gained a lot of insight into 1960s as a decade, some of which I already covered in my essay on the half year: 2023: My Half-Year in Review. And when it comes to my top artists of the year, many of them are ones I was hardly aware of before this year: Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Sonics, Moby Grape, and, of course, the Holy Modal Rounders. Like several other bands this year, I hit play on the Rounders' first album having long forgotten why I put them down on my laundry list of to-do artists. What I heard quickly blew my mind, like only a few other artists have done before. A folk music duo, they played authentic old-time fiddle and guitar music but slipped in lyrics about psychedelic chickens into tried folk novelty songs. They may not have reinvented the wheel, but it's hard to find two musicians being so weird and having so much fun on a record. A reissue which combined the duo's first two studio albums became my sole A+ of the year and undoubtedly one of my favorite albums of all time.
In the new year, I'll be plowing through the British 60s rock scene with a much greater openness to compilations, which saves me time and makes the tedious work a little easier. I am also still working on American 60s folk music. I hope to finish both by mid-2024. Additionally, I've decided to put more hands into early American music, doing about two artists at a time from the 40s/50s blues and country scenes. I hope doubling up will give me chance to cover rockabilly much sooner. Finally, I'm taking a university class on the "Popular Music in Black America" in the spring semester. I hope it will give me a good guide on where to start in Motown, which I've avoided getting into for too long--I've always had too much on my plate!
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