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Best songwriter in your opinion?


Pink Cadillac

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I bet I can guess each poster in this thread's age by their choices ;)

some of my picks for best songwriters:

beatles

pink floyd

simon & garfunkel

joni mitchell

elton john (though i'm not sure how much of his work he wrote)

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of any of the aforementioned artists, but I do respect their songwriting abilities.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but music producers are just as if not more important to music recorded in the last 40 years thank the songwriters.

Butch Vig - Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Garbage, Foo Fighters

Quincy Jones - Michael Jackson

Todd Rundgren - Cheap Trick, Meat Loaf, Hall & Oates

Berry Gordy - The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder

Dr.Dre - Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent

Ross Robinson - Korn, Deftones, Limp Bizkit, At the Drive In

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Tom Petty is my number one... Followed closely by George Harrison.

Someone mentioned Layne Stayle, Chris Cornell, Jerry Cantrell, and Eddie Vedder... so, these guys all did a lot of musical rip offs amongst each other and other local musicians. But it was bound to happen given they were all friends before they ever got their shots at the big time. (not so much vedder really, but his predecessor Andrew Wood would have been part of that)

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In following what I mostly see in this thread I'm going to have to say 'Milli Vanilli'. :w00t:

Wow, I had to go through quite a few posts before I even found actual songwriters in this thread. I guess the younger generation doesn't realize that most of Pop Music these days is either:

  • a stolen hook from a classic song
  • not actually written by your favorite 'performer'

Even Lady GaGa (who actually writes her own stuff) still steals hooks once in a while and it's obvious in a few of her songs. I am surprised Madonna hasn't sued her yet.

The rock side of music is pretty much just as bad. Take Nickelback for example, they rip off their OWN songs.

I would have to go back a few years to identify my favorite songwriters.

  • Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr
  • Jim Croce
  • Neil Young (not the best performer, but a hell of a songwriter)
  • Phil Collins (how many gold records does he have anyway?)
  • Cat Stevens
  • Willie Nelson (he even wrote Crazy which Patsy Cline made famous)
  • Neil Diamond (like Willie, he composed many popular songs for other people)

I could go on forever with this as there are so many songwriters out there that have inspired me.

Gald to see someone put Harrison in with Lennon and McCartney..:tu: ....be my choice too....

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The Boss -Bruce Springsteen

How about bono?

The Boss -Bruce Springsteen

How about bono?

The Boss -Bruce Springsteen

How about bono?

The Boss -Bruce Springsteen

How about bono?

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  • 1 month later...

Eminem :rofl: I'm a young buck :)

Edited by danbell06
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I appreciate people tend to choose songwriters from their own era, or who write music they personally like, but one of the greatest songwriters of any era has to be Burt Bacharach.

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Gordon Lightfoot

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  • 3 months later...

My all time favorite song and my all time favorite artist are two very different things

All Time favorite song:

My All Time Favorite Artist:

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXwmDGJAB8

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really all depends on your mood any given day but my fav is Townes Van Zandt, bloody magician with words, closely followed by Kris Kristofferson, Don Mc Lean, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and for pure pop, Lennon and Mc Cartney.Stevie Wonder could write a good song too. I find Jeff Buckley too depressing for me (i'm bad enough without listening to other problems!!), oh and I forgot a scottish/australian guy called Eric Bogle, great songwriter. I better stop or I'll be here all night.

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tom waits for me, but i could easily name quite a number of people that are just as talented.

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They are really too numerous to list, but one singer/songwriter that always pleasantly surprises and pleases me every time I hear him is Cat Stevens, whenever I listen to his music, it's like I'm hearing him for the first time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Keeping in mind these are my favorites, not who might really be the best

Bowie

Elton-Taupin

Springsteen

Don Henley

No list of mine would be complete without Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord, Paice

Jagger-Richards

Roger Waters

Tyler Connelly is one of my current favs

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Aesop Rock

Townes Van Zandt

John Prine

Edited by Pauly Dangerously
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I've already mentioned Keith Reid but I'm adding Kate Bush and Bryan Ferry.

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King Henry VIII (Oh yes he did!)

Guillaume de Machaut (14th.Cent.)

Just in case anybody's interested......

Edited by ealdwita
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Cole Porter too.

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