Top 100 Living Songwriters
 

This was presented by Paste Magazine, in my opinion the only music magazine that is worth its salt. Hopefully this sits better with the populace than the RS list, or The indie rock album list. Enjoy!

Read More here: Paste Magazine :: Feature :: Paste's 100 Best Living Songwriters: The List (Page 1)

I think Morrissey behind U2 is bullshit, but it's actually a fairly solid list.

No Indigo Girls? They have always been really good in the songwriting department...

~ josh

thats because given the chance you'd eat Morrisseys ****, and Urban rubbed off on you.

Willie Nelson beats David Bowie?

I'd say it's a fairly predictable list, though I'm glad that they did include more modern/contemporary ones such as Sufjan and Connor. To be honest, there are quite a few that I haven't heard of, pretty much once it gets to 60 is where they start to become unrecognizable with me.

The Smiths are one of the most important bands of the 80s and the Queen is Dead kicks the shit out of Joshua Tree even on its weakest track. Morrissey is in his 40s and still kicking ass. What are U2 doing? Oh right, swinging to the music with jesus 'round their necks and still sucking at counting in Spanish.

ack.

Can we go over this. Its predictable but you don't recognize a lot of them? And if its predictable doesn't that mean it might be on target. And I wish it was predictable because they gave credit to people who deserve it but never get it.

Ok Listen MisfitsPunk, I don't wanna hear it. When this movement is dead someone else "in no way should be behind U2."

I don't think they write brilliant lyrics either but I'm not going ape **** Waits came in 4th, but be thankful paste actually thought this list was right and weren't making an issue to sell copies or appease their corporate paymasters.

Yes, they broke up over 20 years ago obviously it's just a movement.

I more so meant the higher ranked ones when I said the predictable comment, I know I didn't put that in my post, but I meant to. But yes, I'd say the entire top 10 is predictable and I'd almost expect Rolling Stone to make the same list, though they may have put U2 in place of Joni Mitchell.

But it is fairly dead on, though I think Patti Smith deserves to be a bit higher, Sufjan needs to be lower, and I would have put Elton John in the top 15.

Alright fair enough but as someone whos had his gag reflex tested over the years by RS lists of [whatever] I'd like to refute...

heres the top ten as it is:
10. Prince
9. Joni Mitchell
8. Elvis Costello
7. Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys)
6. Leonard Cohen
5. Paul McCartney (The Beatles, Wings)
4. Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
3. Bruce Springsteen
2. Neil Young (Buffalo Sprinfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
1. Bob Dylan

And heres what RS would probably say:

10. Paul McCartney because he's a Beatle but by placing him at 10, they blow John more.
9. Costello because he's the nerdy mans punk
8. Brain Wilson because they have to blow pet sounds
7. [some other female I can't think of but still undeserving]
6. Neil Young
5. Marvin ***e
4. Mitchell
3. Plant
2. Jagger
1. Dylan

hey look, don't get pissy at me. I'm calling it as I see it, and you're going to have to let time prove me wrong.

^You don't think they would have put Springsteen in theirs? I think they would have Springsteen at 10, Paul in your random female slot and Bono in place of Mitchell. But for the most part, RS would have made at least a fairly similar list, I think we'll both agree on that.

Times already proven you wrong. http://afterthepostrock.com/forum/im.../spinkitty.gif

Eh, I'd say that less than half of their top ten would be the same, and much less if it included all song writers. There would be three beatles.

But what i'm refuting mostly is the list's motive for creation, that would be massively different and the reason people got where they were. Much different.

Oh and some foolishness would be up there too like....I don't know BB King or Clapton and possibly Bo Diddly.

And how's that?

They broke up over twenty years ago, if they were just a movement it would've died a long time ago.

I meant your godless and undying passion for them, which is why I used your...real name

That really doesn't change the fact The Queen is Dead>Joshua Tree.

Leonard Cohen top 10? Public Enemy way higher than Pink Floyd. Hmmmm.

Lol, I wouldn't know I've never heard either.

Pete Seeger isn't on this list, I call shenanigans.

where the hell did you come from?

Neither is Ochs. =/

The list is all wrong.
It has the right songwriters, but all in the wrong order.
Typical best ever list.

^ If you think that's a predictable comment, it's because Magazine lists always are. This is the first thing that always enters my head when I see one like this.

1904 Westbrook DR
Wilson, NC 27896


...Ochs is dead. Seeger however is just a very old man.

but his ghost lives on whenever evan covers Love Me, I'm a Liberal?

/fail

and sometimes when Billy Bragg falls asleep, who also happens to deserve to be on this list.


Edit: Lou Barlow is like my favorite songwriter period. Now I completely understand why he isn't on some magazine list but it deserve mention that this guy is better than Sufjan and Sam Bean.


And Lyle Lovett? are they serious or was that just for a laugh.

That's better than some lists I've seen, even if it is a bit one dimensional. And I love how U2 is a songwriter. :D

Bowie should be higher IMO, and Steven Wilson should be in the top ten.

Were they trying to be funny with Michael Jackson ad Public Enemy? Public Enemy is amazing, but the Bomb Squad just about wrote their songs(Musically, not lyrically), and Michael Jackson? Try Quincy Jones.

The real joke is Nick Cave being all the way up at 90.

Well, as I disagree with the order for the most part, there are 5 particular things I want to say.
1. # 80, Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett is no longer living, and that makes him ineligible. He also hasn't written music for Pink Floyd since '68. I love Syd Barrett, but still.
2. James Brown also not living, therefore not eligible.
3. If you're going to include Michael Jackson, you should have him share his top spot with Quincy Jones. He's the genius producer who did most of the work on his music.
4. David Bowie should be top 10. I would put him top 3, but that's just me.
5. John McCrea of Cake should be somewhere on this list. The dude writes really good lyrics with solidly likeable music. He needs a little bit mre credit in the music biz than he gets, I think.

Aside from those discrepencies, and general disagreement with the order, I think this is a pretty solid list.

I'm going to take a guess and say this was published before Brown and Barrett died.

He did more for music in the couple of years he was around than U2 did in the 30 odd years they've been polluting my ears and someone put them at 18 for a laugh.

No Kevin Doherty or Paul Brady in the list?.....they would be in my top 100

Really surprised to see Aimee Mann so high in the list but I'm glad she is there! But i think Bono and Morrissey should swap places.

You I like already.

Good list.
Bob Dylan definitely deserves #1.
U2 that high up is full of **** though.

Wayhey I'm cool now.
I think Tom Waits should have been number one. Bob Dylan goes on a bit, and I think an important part of being a song writer is knowing how to write what you need to. He has too much to say at times, and I think thats a bad thing.

You'll get more cool points with a few other members here for stating Waits at number one.

And I agree with you about Dylan, he's a brilliant lyricist all the same.
One of the most economic songwriters has got to be Smokey Robinson, not a single word wasted.
A lyrical magician who manages to put across so much, with just a single phrase. Genius.
He should be at least in the top 10. He's largely forgotten and underrated in modern times.