Top 10 Songwriters of last 50 years

[sauronsfinger]

A recent discussion here about Dylan and Mitchell got me to thinking about who really are the top Songwriters of the last fifty years.

There are lots of such lists available from folks with opinions. Here is one giving us 20

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/1883/

here is a top 100 --- with 200 actually

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/page ... iters.html

here is a discussion on another site

http://www.shuzak.com/Replies.php?ID=53 ... f-All-Time

all food for thought.

If you had to make a list of the Top Ten Songwriters of the last Fifty years, who would be on that list.... and you do not have to rank them in order if you prefer not to.

[axordil]

The problem with putting together a list like this is our current natural prejudice in favor of singer-songwriters, which the first list falls victim to more than the second.

Sometimes I think the real measure of a songwriter is how well other artists can use the material. If one can't separate the singer from the song, it doesn't lessen the performance, but it may be a comment on the song. Some iconic performances are all about the artist, others are about the material, most are somewhere in between...it's a tricky question.

[Holbytla]

In no particular order:

Holland/ Dozier/ Holland
Dylan
Lennon/ McCartney
Smokey Robinson
Jagger/ Richards
Goffin/ King
Brian Wilson
Pete Townshend
John Fogerty
Ray Davies
Burt Bacharach
Stevie Wonder
Randy Newman
Becker/ Fagan
Bob Seger
Don Henley
Prince
Chryssie Hynde
Sting


to name a few.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I almost never do these things, but I feel like playing. I'll even try to put my list in (reverse) order (I will, undoubtably, forget some, and reserve the right to edit this list later):

10. Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
9. Tracy Chapman
8. Pete Townsend
7. Paul McCartney
6. Neil Young
5. Paul Simon
4. Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
2. Bob Marley (tie)
2. John Lennon (tie)
1. Bob Dylan

Too many honorable mentions to name. Note that unlike Garcia/Hunter and Jagger/Richards I separated Lennon and McCarthy because even with the Beatles they mostly wrote separately, and they both get credit (Lennon much more so) for their work post-Beatles.

[sauronsfinger]

My top ten in no particular order would be

Paul Simon
Sam Cooke
Carole King
Harry Chapin
Lennon & McCartney
Leonard Cohen
Bob Dylan
Jim Steinman
Bruce Springsteen
Phil Ochs

[Padme]

No particular order

Lennon
McCarthney
Dylan
Springsteen
Nelson as in Willie
Bono/Edge
Cash
Cobain
Harrison for My guitar gently weeps...love that song
Jagger/Richards
Simon
Segar
Clapton

I am sure there are others, but those are all I can think of right now.

[WampusCat]

Everyone who has been mentioned is great, but I'd have to include some incredible songwriters who are not as well known, probably because they're considered more folk than pop. Such as:

Dougie Maclean

Ready for the Storm
The waves crash in and the tide tide pulls out
It's an angry sea but there is no doubt
That the lighthouse will keep shining out to warn the lonely sailor
And the lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold through the sailor's bones, to the sailor's soul
Till there's nothing left that he can hold except the rolling ocean

CHORUS
But I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready
I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm

Oh give me mercy for my dreams
Cause every confrontation seems
To tell me what it really means to be this lonely sailor
But when the sky begins to clear and the sun it melts away my fear
I'll cry a silent weary tear for those that need to love me
CHORUS

The distance it is no real friend
And time will take its time
And you will find that in the end it brings you me, the lonely sailor
And when you take me by your side you love me warm, you love me and
I should have realized I had no reason to be frightened
CHORUS

Or North Carolina's own Si Kahn

Hunter
I grew up hunting with my father
In a little mountain town not far from here
When I turned six he gave me my first rifle
I was eight years old when I killed my first deer

Dad said I had an itchy trigger finger
We needed meat and I had steady aim
But if I could not kill an animal cleanly
I'd give it up and never hunt again

Somehow I barely made it through high school
I dreamed about escaping every day
I couldn't see me working at the prison
I joined the Army just to get away

The mountains of Iraq felt like my hometown
The valleys and the ridges looked the same
I knew that I was born to be a soldier
I figured it was just like hunting game

I saw him in my scope across the valley
I squeezed the trigger slowly and he fell
But in that moment I felt something breaking
And my immortal soul went straight to hell

The Bible says it is a sin to murder
I figured that in war it was all right
But always in my dreams I see him falling
His blood soaks my pillow every night

The doctors say that I'm just post-traumatic
They tell me that with time the mist will clear
But they don't understand the things that happen
When you can't tell a person from a deer

Some nights I dream I'm hunting with my father
Some nights I dream they've sent me back to war
Dad said I had an itchy trigger finger
So I cut it off and I will hunt no more

Or Stan Rogers:

The Mary Ellen Carter
She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were five of us aboard her when she finally was awash.
We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.

Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to them, they let her rest below.
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
For she's worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Rise again, rise again!
That her name not be lost to the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!

All spring, now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.
But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and birded her around.
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain.
And watch the Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again.

For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They won't be laughing in another day.
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow.
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go.
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

Rise again, rise again!
Though your heart it be broken and life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

And there are plenty of others, especially if we open it up beyond pop music. Sondheim, anyone? Bernstein?

[Angbasdil]

I tend to agree with ax that a great songwriter is one whose work can also be used by other great singers. Which is why I can't let John Hiatt go unmentioned in this thread.

I'm sure a lot of you haven't heard his name, but his songs have been covered by (among others) Bob Dylan, Willy DeVille, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Three Dog Night, Joan Baez, Paula Abdul, Buddy Guy, the Desert Rose Band, Jimmy Buffett, Mandy Moore, Iggy Pop, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Rosanne Cash, Suzy Bogguss, Jewel, Aaron Neville, Jeff Healey, Keith Urban and the Chieftains. Probably his best known song, "Have a Little Faith", has been covered by Michael English, Joe Cocker, Delbert McClinton, Chaka Kahn, Mandy Moore, Patty Larkin, Bill Frisell, Jo-El Sonnier, Ilse DeLange and Jewel. His work resides in that intersection of rock, blues and country that defies mainstream commercial success but lends itself to a wide range of artistic reinterpretation.

Just couldn't let this thread go by without Hiatt's name in it.

And if you're unlucky enough not to have heard his work, check out this YouTube link.

[axordil]

Hiatt would get a top ten vote from me, no question.