Who are your favorite songwriters?

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sean garrett
christopher bridges
2 pac
timbaland
just to name a few off the top of my head
 
It would be if he did them all in a year. :D

Hey bro, you tryna' fight? Huh bro???

come+at+me+bro_604a1b_3084387.gif
 
Ok, that is weird. Your attached image came up on my phone, but not online Crow. Hmm....
 
Ok, that is weird. Your attached image came up on my phone, but not online Crow. Hmm....

Whaaa? But the image.... everyone must see the image! Yeah, you would think it would practically be the other way around right?
 
Yeah, I would think so right?. Maybe copy-rite something or other.
 
Lennon-McCartney, Harrison, Jagger-Richards because they were the first writers I actively took notice of as actual writers.
When I got into heavier rock in my later teens, I liked Syd Barrett's writing, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Plant, Page, Bonham & Jones, Stevie Wonder, The Mark 1&2 Deep Purple writing teams and the Corporation {they wrote some stuff for the Jackson 5}.
It's kind of hard to separate liking of a song or band from the writing of those songs of the band when thinking about how I first started. It all sort of rolls into one big day that lasted years.
 
There are too many good songwriters to list !

David Bowie has written some fantastic songs at various junctures of his career. He's done crap too, but right from '66~'67, he had a dazzling sense of melody and a personal if at times bizarre lyrical gift, mixed with very catchy, often simple and subtly clever music.

Bruce Cockburn, who was once referred to as "the last rock obscurity", has been an immensely good songwriter of a variety of styles since 1970. Aside from the Beatles, I can't think of anyone as diverse as him. There are others, I'm sure. I just can't think of any off the top of my head.

Joan Armatrading in her earlier days was one of those great 'introspective' writers who wrote inscrutable lyrics with the coolest music. My favourite uncle was mad about Joan and I just didn't get it. One of my closest friends was even madder about Joan and I thought "Ho, hum.." Even when she started having big hits, I thought "what's all the fuss about ?". Then I heard, I mean really listened, to her first two LPs and some of the stuff around that time and I understood.....

I always thought Suzanne Vega was a fantastic writer. Her first three albums guarantee her songwritng immortality ! And not just her superb lyrics. The way the words, instruments, music and mood fit just does my head in.

Sting brought a superb pop sensibility allied to intellect and maturity to songwriting and came up with some great stuff that still remains great for adults and kids alike. And also I loved Stewart Copeland's writing with the Police. He penned some absolute classics that were easilly the equal of Sting.

Bob Marley was another fantastic writer. Usually regarded as the main person of the Godhead in reggae writing, I actually view him as a brilliant writer of pop and protest. He employed reggae as his vehicle. It's interesting listening to all those awful albums of demos that have come out in the last 20 years or the ones that showcase just him and a guitar. Many of the songs that turned up on the Wailers' albums were written years before. In their primitive form, it's hard telling one song from another. So many sound nearly the same. With the full band however.....

One of my favourite writers is Seal, at least on his first two albums. He had this way of combining the most wonderful music with unusual elements with lyrics that probably didn't mean a thing, yet were so seemingly deep and poetic. If they were romantic, they weren't slushy, if they were hippiesque, they weren't druggy and drippy. Even his angry ones are very gentlemanly ! They kind of come across like lectures that you never want to end coz everything combines so seemlessly.
 
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Though I didn't realize it at the time, Freddie Phillps was a writer whose stuff I loved. He used to do the music for these kids programmes I watched in the 60s. Forty years on, that stuff still sounds incredible.(The Trumptonshire Web - Freddie Phillips)
Another fave rave of mine from childhood is Mike Batt who is now some kind of conductor. He wrote the music for the Wombles TV series but I couldn't be bothered with that. It's the singles he wrote for the Wombles that marks him for me. There were only about 8 of them, but they were fantastic, clever, melodically orgasmic with varying shades of classico, whimsy and "balls that haven't quite dropped yet" rock and even some reggae thrown in, years before it was popular. For the musical ideas, lyrics, melody and sheer bravado, I wish I'd written "Minuetto allegreto".
Wombles - Minuetto Allegretto (HQ) |TOTP 4-10-1974| - YouTube
 
Some of my favourite writers of songs were actually "songwriters by committee", where the bands just published a group credit, sometimes to avoid fights over royalties, sometimes because the band actually did all compose together. But they seem kind of indeterminate to me, it not being clear who actually contributed what. But anyway;

Butler/Iommi/Osbourne/Ward of Black Sabbath - I think they are hugely underrated and their first six albums are chock full of incredible songs. Butler's range of lyrical subject matter is a thread in itself ! As is Tony Iommi's encyclopedia of riffs.

Turner/Powell/Turner/Upton of early Wishbone Ash. Along with the Pretty things, perhaps the most underrated English band of British rock's first 20 or so years. These were guys that really took the twin lead guitar thing to another level and across their first three albums are some of my favourite writing and playing.

Carr/Devlin/Fean/Lockhart/O'Connor of Horslips. It's been only rather recently that Horslips revolutionary role in the development of Celtic folk rock has been recognized. I loved their writing and sheer originality across their first five LPs.

Young/Scott/Young of ACDC....From "Dirty deeds" through to "Highway to hell" this was one heck of a songwriting team, among my favourites. Malcolm and Angus provided the incendiary riffs and music, Bon Scott the lyrics. He was so funny as a lyricist that it's easy to overlook his deeper moments. If anyone ever exhibited a reaction to what happened in childhood, it was him.

Lifeson/Peart/Lee of Rush. Lofty high ideals in alot of the lyrics, matched with complex moves in the music, I love their writing and one of Rush's most undersold qualities was their ability to get loud and rock !


Bono/Edge/Clayton/Mullen of U2. They've managed to keep it up and running for close on 30 years and in that time they've written many wonderful songs, taken big chances and risked much. I respect them coz they really are a great example of a band that makes the most of the little that is there.

I really like the various combinations of songwriters that came up with Status Quo's stuff in the 70s. Alan Lancaster, Rick Parfitt, Francis Rossi and their road manager Bob Young wrote together and apart in almost every permutation. When they were on top of their game in their heyday, they were pretty untouchable in my opinion.
 
Maybe turn me on to some good stuff that I haven't heard before.
[h=2]Who the hell are this crowd ?[/h]
For me, the thousands of songs that I dig far outweigh the writers I like. I like loads of writers and in one way or another have been influenced by just about all of them. But as for favourites....well here are a few obscure ones and some 'forgotten' ones.

Gene Clark - while I like the stuff Jim McGuinn went on to write for the Byrds, Gene Clark was writing superb songs long before him and David Crosby. They rather resented Clark coz of this. In my opinion, he was the first truly great American songwriter of the 'British invasion' period, even more so than Dylan.

Melanie Safka - For me, more so than Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, Michelle Phillips, Mama Cass Elliot or Joni Mitchell, Melanie was the epitome of the hippie chick flower child. She did some beautiful interpretations but her compositions were out of this world. Lovely melodies, gorgeous, well thought out music, only she could get away with lines like "I don't eat animals - and they don't eat me !".

Mark Farner - Grand Funk Railroad were possibly the most critically reviled band at one point but their brand of heavy rock was loved 'by those that loved it !'. They were prolific and Mark Farner as their main writer shouldered much of the burden. I've always found him so unpoetic and matter of fact in his lyrics and a slugger musically. But it worked.

Frank Marino - I've always dug Canadians, so artistically edgy and unconcerned about being next door to the USA ! Mahogany Rush started off as a Hendrix flavoured 3 piece heavy rock outfit and Marino wrote most of their songs. Not often recognized as a songwriter, what has long impressed me about his writing back in the early to mid 70s is how mature it was for someone in their teens and early 20s.
 
I've been thinking about some of my favorite song writers and what it is that I really love about their work.
I hate the term "Christian rock" but for want of a better term, I'm saddled with it. It has a history that goes back to at least 1964 and while much of it as far as I'm concerned can be filed under "forgettable", by the same token some of it has been fantastic stuff. Some of my favourite writers per se have been those that perilously negotiated those waters like;

Andrae Crouch - soulful, funky, rocking and influential at a time when "Oh happy day" by the Hawkins singers was considered near blasphemy in certain circles. For some reason, to white rock audiences, it was acceptable for Black artists to sing about God and not get pilloried. When even a heavyweight like George Harrison sang more openly about religion, he stopped selling records !

Larry Norman - Out on the edge Larry, he combined a love of Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones and Christ with a keen perception of the human condition and a willingness to not run away from dark themes and knocked out some of the best songs I've ever heard from anyone, ever. It was him that said of christian rock and pop "music should be art, not propaganda".

Phil Keaggy - Coz he's been so lauded as a wizard on guitar, it's easy to overlook just what a strong writer he was when he was on a roll. And he was on a roll many many years. Funnilly enough, the three piece band he used to play in, Glass Harp, are IMO completely overrated. I don't think much of his writing then, either.
The first home recorded album I ever heard was his, "Underground" from 1983. He played and sang everything himself but he used this TEAC drum machine that even in the 80s sounded lame. But fortunately, it didn't diminish from the great songs he wrote.

Anne Herring - When you look at early LP covers by the 2nd Chapter of Acts, the band just look like a group of hippies. But lurking amongst the grooves was Anne Herring, a criminally underrated songwriter with a melodic sense so strong, it could give a bald man an afro !

Keith Green - Possibly more than any of the above mentioned took being uncompromising (not that any of the others were) to serious lengths and was musically very accessible. Lyrically, his stuff made even those that agreed with his views pretty uncomfortable !

Alwyn Wall - A good old English style rock and roller, he wrote these absolutely wonderful songs that were honest, packed with melody and chunky guitar playing, really well put together.

Michael and Stormie Omartian - looking at pictures of them in the mid 70s would have dissuaded me from going near any product of theirs, they looked so glossy and slick. So smooth and saccharin. So it's a good thing I heard Michael Omartian's music before I saw him and his lyricist wife and my prejudices got a chance to kick in ! Even if he went on to release dross forever more, the writing on his first two albums took the standard of music by christians pretty much through the stratosphere from where it threatened to languish.

Adrian Snell - he tended to write with different collaborators but his stuff was, in the early days, musically gentle, yet intense and really emotive. The song he wrote after the infamous Birmingham pub bombings in 1974, "Can you get me out of here ?", remains one of the most tortuous and disturbing.

T-Bone Burnett - not really in this genre as such, he was a huge influence on my writing in the sense that I learned from him (and Bruce Cockburn) that while faith informs and colours one's world view and life itself, that does not mean that a christian writer is a propagandist or a purveyor of mindless, single focus pap. Quite the opposite, in fact. And besides, his songs are so damn funny when they're funny. And perceptive.
 
A bunch of others that I can't think of at the moment...
I love 60s and 70s pop and there were some writers that shone for me, even though they were generally regarded as a bit of a joke. Three partnerships that that applies to were Alan, Wayne and Merrill Osmond, Noddy Holder and Jim Lea of Slade and Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood of the Bay City Rollers. These three outfits were so underrated yet they had in common superb pop sensibility and melodicism, married to hard rocking aspirations and they all achieved a great balance between imaginative writing and pop slop.

From the 80s the partnership between Mike Peters and Eddie McDonald of the Alarm {with some contributions from Dave Sharp} produced a great debut album and some wonderful songs. And there's a thing; sometimes, I may love someone's writing purely on the basis of one album or stuff they did over 2 years.

I always thought Ray Davies of the Kinks was a writer equal to Lennon, McCartney, Jagger and Richards in the 60s, as was Pete Townshend. Underrated silent revolutionaries of rock's development. Neither underrated nor silent was Bob Dylan. He's the easiest songwriter to write off as a load of shit but historically, facts must be faced. Not so much musically, but lyrically, his influence and reach was simply huge. He really did free up lyricists and helped wordplay and stuff that was obscure gain a new standing that rock has never recovered from !

I never thought progressive rock threw up particularly outstanding writers, though Ian Anderson was one in fits and starts. Two of my other faves were from the same band, Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh of Kansas. That band certainly benefitted from having those two. Their styles and approach were so different yet complimentary - you had Livgren searching for God and/or the meaning of life through complex compositions and Walsh searching for love and lust via a more radio friendly, yet subtly clever writing style. Priceless.

The whole Monkees writing set up is just fantastic to me, particularly some of the songs that came from the Monkees themselves. And yes, they not only could write, they came up with some classics that would've been lauded with platitudes had the Beatles, Byrds or Stones come with them.

Gil Scott Heron is definitely one of the best writers I've come across. He took protest and sarcasm to new heights and was just so damn cool and funky. Not for nothing was he absorbed by the hip hop elite before there ever was such a thing. His collaborations with Brian Jackson in the 70s were so powerful, musically, lyrically and vocally.

Few people have heard of Leo O'Kelly and Sonny Condell. They released 3 Lps as Tir Na Nog, a 'progressive' Irish folk duo. To me they did not sound Celtic at all, but each was a superb writer and their three albums are treasure troves of grand songs. Impressive is how much they put into each others songs.

Milton Nascimento was a Brazilian writer of immense flair who managed to put together this absolutely unique album in 1976 (called "Milton") that somehow fused jazz, pop, Latin, jamming, improvisation and Beatleism. Very impressive, accessible and beautiful, the writing in particular is really skilful and impossible not to be influenced by, if only in concept.

Surprizingly, or perhaps not so, though I love jazz of many flavours, I don't rate the actual writers highly. Because jazz just ain't that kind of music. The improvising principle kind of renders composition pretty much secondary. For what it's worth though, John McLaughlin, Trevor Watts, John Mayer (the Indian one that collaborated with Joe Harriott on those great Indo-jazz experiments in the 60s), John Stevens, Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke have at various times written some killer stuff. Interesting that they were all fusioneers in one way or another at some point.

But when all is said and done, songwriting is very much secondary to the matter of actually arranging the song into something that can be played live or recorded. Almost anyone could 'write' a song (a ten second one !) but it's another matter getting that song to become something beautiful and memorable. That's another process altogether.
I find demos and alternate takes that have been showing up as bonus tracks on CDs over the last few years interesting because to me, they show 'the song' in it's embryonic form is rarely satisfying, though the ingredients are there. It's kind of like the difference between the one who thinks up a recipe and the one that actually cooks the meal.
 
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