favourite songwriters

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Mick Doobie said:
Sheesh, what an ignorant statement which I will safely assume is being made by someone who has never heard everything else. No need to argue the point, Dylan's catalogue speaks for itself. I will however add, take a listen to It's Alright Ma(i'm only bleeding), A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall, Visions of Johanna(live '66), Mr Tambourine Man.

Darkness at the break of noon
shadows even the silver spoon
the hand made blade the child's balloon
eclipses both the sun and moon
to understand you know too soon
there is no sense in trying

some heavy shit...and basically rapped 2 decades or so before rap went mainstream


Anyway...off the top of my head...

Bob Dylan(surprise!)
Lennon and McCartney
Page and Plant(for versatility and harnessing a relic from a different age)
John Prine( a clever lad, he)
The Toxic Twins(Tyler and Perry...the early days)
Jagger and Richard(if for no other reason than writing a few thousand songs with the same chords & structure, and still making it fun/interesting)

.....
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WOW. I was about to suggest the exact same verse with Dylan. Hehe, it is a typical saying that Dylan has not made anything exept knocking on etc. and the version is much better with GnR. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, however, I have made many a man change opinion after giving a thorough listen to "Blonde on Blonde", "Blood on the Tracks" etc.
 
lennon/mccartney/harrison

kurt cobain

bowie

thom yorke & johnny greenwood

elliott smith

jeff buckley

freddie mercury

brian wilson

chris cornell (euporia morning)

john fogerty
 
My absolute favorite songwriters:

Butch Walker
Rob Thomas
Jeff Buckley
John Rzeznik
Ryan Tedder
 
My top guy would be Jim Croce,followed by the obvious choice of the Beatles and I'd like to third the choice of Buddy Holly.
 
Very big in Australia & South Africa in the 70's, only recently discovered in his homeland of the USA, was Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (aka Jesus Rodriguez). Sugar Man & Establishment Blues would be 2 of my favourite lyrics. But there are other song writers who write hard-hitting social commentary from the seedier side of the street.
 
Ok first off


CONOR F-IN OBERST! <3


and how has no one mentioned elliott smith, seriously!
if you don't kno him check him out

so yeah those are my top two
 
A lot of the above but also . . .

Neil Finn

Bowie

Nick Cave

Paul Weller
 
The first song that really tripped my trigger for lyrics was " I Can See For Miles" by The Who

I tried and failed to write a song after hearing it.

I guess the writers that most inspired me were:
John Fogerty
Robbie Robertson
and, Paul Simon
 
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Michael Åkefeldt (His softer stuff is just the greatest ever)
David Gilmour (Non Human, a man over us all!)
Jeff Buckley (Awsome)
 
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. The amount of music he's written over the years is incredible. B-sides and "previously unreleased" tunes(most of which were released on their '88 boxed set), make up a good portion of their catalogue. He's experimented with many different styles and has the ability to go from elaborate lengthy progressive stuff to simple acoustic guitar/vocals, while never sounding like he's trying too hard - he sounds just as natural playing blues as he does playing celtic folk. He's known for playing the flute, but is also one of my favourite guitar players. I'd have to say that his only major flaw as a songwriter is his lyrics. While I think they're brilliant, his subject matter and word choices don't have mainstream appeal. The majority of his music really isn't as over-the-top as his image makes people think. But it would seem that an inability to write lyrics that everybody can relate to or would want to hear in a pop song has held him back.
 
WavePro said:
Michael Åkefeldt (His softer stuff is just the greatest ever)
David Gilmour (Non Human, a man over us all!)
Jeff Buckley (Awsome)
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I chose my 1 favourite taking the term "songwriter" to heart. I'm not trying to slag either of these geniuses - they're a couple of my all-time favourite musicians, but songwriting to me is another game alltogether.

Mikael Akerfeldt is a great musician, but as far as songwriting goes... He's one of those guys that's just too brilliant for his own good. Very few of his songs are under 6 minutes and his lyrics are very difficult to understand.

And I think a lot of Floyd fans don't realize how much Roger Waters wrote for the band - including tunes that featured Gilmour on lead vocals. I had thought that Gilmour had proven himself with "A Momentary Lapse of Reason", but learned that he had hired songwriters to help him with that one. Any material that he did write on his own speaks for itself, but again - too brilliant for his own good.
 
Well, since I am a rapper, mine are going to be a bit different. This is in no specific order

Eminem
Slug of Atmosphere
Rakim
D-Sisive
Immortal Technique
Kanye West
Classified
Mad Child of Swollen Members
Lupe Fiasco
 
The songwriters I most respect - which don't necessarily make them my favourite artists, just people whose art and craft I totally recognise:
* Martin Gore;
* Kate Bush;
* Mark Hollis of Talk Talk;
* Nick Cave;
* Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout.

Hmmm, the list feels kinda weird, having limited myself to people who either worked alone or were the chief contributors to the band both musically and lyrically, and it seems most bands I listen to are not "configured" like that.
 
Gary Burr
Diane Warren

About 20 years ago, I climbed out of the sleeper of a cabover, nine o’clock on a Sunday morning, 900 miles from home. I turned the key of the truck and heard Conway singing Gary Burrs ‘That’s my Job’-a song of a son giving devotion to his father, that had spent his life devoted to his son. The two morning DJ’s were stricken silent by this song-one said “Shew”, the other said “Only Conway”(that is pretty silent for a DJ).

I went home and bought my first country album(yes, I know who Ian Anderson is).

When I started singing at open mikes, I bought a couple of albums(okay CD’s)to sing some other songs than my own. I bought Lee Ann Rimes ‘How do I Live’ and Sara Evans ‘I Could Not Ask For More’. To my surprise, they were both written by Diane Warren. To my extreme surprise, when I bought ‘Tu Amor’, sung by RBD, I found ‘Tu Amor’ was written by Diane Warren.

I am fascinated with people who become famous at their craft, kind of interesting on a write your own record it yourself website we still respect the greats-yes?
 
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