Another list to argue about! But this one should result in a heck of a lot less eye-rolling. Paste Magazine invited fifty journalists and musicians to compile…
100 Best Living Songwriters
1. Bob Dylan
2. Neil Young
3. Bruce Springsteen
4. Waits/Brennan
5. Paul McCartney
6. Leonard Cohen
7. Brian Wilson
8. Elvis Costello
9. Joni Mitchell
10. Prince
11. Randy Newman
12. Jagger/Richards
13. Paul Simon
14. Stevie Wonder
15. Willie Nelson
16. David Bowie
17. Holland/Dozier/Holland
18. U2
19. Patty Griffin
20. Van Morrison
21. Lou Reed
22. Lucinda Williams
23. John/Taupin
24. Jeff Tweedy
25. Chuck Berry
26. R.E.M.
27. Radiohead
28. Robbie Robertson
29. Tom Petty
30. John Prine
31. Carole King
32. Leiber/Stoller
33. Pete Townshend
34. John Fogerty
35. Steve Earle
36. Beck
37. Smokey Robinson
38. Kris Kristofferson
39. Led Zeppelin
40. Bacharach/David
41. Ray Davies
42. Loretta Lynn
43. Ryan Adams
44. Al Green
45. Jackson Browne
46. David Byrne
47. Sufjan Stevens
48. Welch/Rawlings
49. Cat Stevens
50. Public Enemy
51. Penn/Oldham
52. Paul Westerberg
53. James Taylor
54. Aimee Mann
55. Dolly Parton
56. James Brown
57. Morrissey
58. Sly Stone
59. Jack White
60. Jimmy Webb
61. John Hiatt
62. Sting
63. Richard Thompson
64. Andy Partridge
65. Bill Mallonee
66. Charles Thompson
67. Conor Oberst
68. Allen Toussaint
69. Merle Haggard
70. Alex Chilton
71. Vic Chesnutt
72. Michael Jackson
73. Julie Miller
74. Over the Rhine
75. Ron Sexsmith
76. Will Oldham
77. Bruce Cockburn
78. Robert Pollard
79. Stephen Malkmus
80. Pink Floyd
81. The Flaming Lips
82. John Darnielle
83. Fleetwood Mac
84. They Might Be Giants
85. David Bazan
86. Sam Beam
87. Lyle Lovett
88. Parliament
89. Victoria Williams
90. Nick Cave
91. Drive-By Truckers
92. Alejandro Escovedo
93. Joseph Arthur
94. Sam Phillips
95. Patti Smith
96. Jimmy Cliff
97. Josh Ritter
98. Jay Farrar
99. Outkast
100. T. Bone Burnett
Nice to see a “best of” list that salutes P.E. and John Darnielle (and not Noel Gallagher!). Perhaps the first time Tom Waits has ever been ranked at #4? I’m sure you’ll let us know who they missed. The annual Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame takes place 6/15.
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What about Neko Case? Better than Lucinda Williams in my opinion…
Glad to see Patty Griffin and Joni Mitchell high up, so why not Ricky Lee Jones? As others have noted, Rufus Wainwright and Becker and Fagen are unfairly MIA. Additionally, how about Mark Eitzel, Joe Henry, John Martyn, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gimore (hell, Thea Gilmore), John Cale, Joe Pernice, Peter Gabriel, Marshall Crenshaw, Sinead O’Connor, Neil Finn, Matthew Sweet, Grant McClennan and Robert Forster, and Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe? Slot any of those in place of Oberst, Pollard, Michael Jackson or Jack White. And go Wilco and all, but, uh, Jeff Tweedy above Berry, Fogerty, Townshend and Prine? He’d be the first to say no to that.
Oh, and Chrissie fuckin’ Hynde. Jesus.
And I meant Rickie Lee Jones, not Rickie. And not in the top 50. You get the idea.
And I meant Rickie Lee Jones, not Ricky. And not in the top 50. You get the idea.
One more and then I’m throwing away my computer and moving to the desert, I promise: I know poor Grant McLennan is dead, but he was alive when the poll was taken, and he and Forster should have been on there.
1) Billy Corgan… HUGE omission.
PS: David Bazan over Billy Corgan? THINK ABOUT IT.
2) I can see Isaac Brock and Vedder as snubs, as well.
3) I don’t understand Vic Chestnutt being higher than Jay Farrar.
4) Stephen Malkmus I GUESS should be on the list but only because he has been overinflated by hipster culture to be the iconic figure he “is.” He had great timing.
5) I’ll say it on the dare of David: Where IS Frank Black Francis? Pixies, Catholics, & solo? Influential!!!
6) Despite the fact that I can hear your laughter in St. Louis, where is Gibbard/Walla?
7) Finally, where is Rob Crow? His diversity and prolific output combined with the strength of Pinback alone should have cemented him a spot.
the fact that conor fuckin’ oberst is on there and not michael stipe — who oberst LOVES — just goes to show what kind of list this is. history what?
and second on the go-betweens. i dare anyone to find a better song that encapsulates the loss of youth than ‘cattle and cane.’
ok, so REM is on there (my bad). but hello:
PJ FUCKIN’ HARVEY?
where?
and for better or for worse, kathleen hanna. and sleater-kinney. where? they’re the most influential group on countless indie rockers today.
tori amos.
leaving the house. really.
I don’t have many problems with the list, except fot the fact that M Ward is not on it. He is totally one of the best living song-writers
you know what i hate? hip-hop! hip-hop is the kind of thing that just makes me roll my eyes!
so i was really glad to see that this list was keen enough to come out and acknowledge that out of every single living songwriter, only two of the top 100 work in hip hop.
might have over-represented the genre if you ask me!
Look, I liked Pink Floyd too. Then I stopped taking hella drugs. Their songs are just so badly written. The imagery is incredibly simplistic, there’s no poetry to it at all. The Wall (the movie, the album) is just embarassing. Malkmus was able to write songs that were great on their own, he didn’t have to add a bunch of pointless sound effects and noises to distract the listener from his lack of songwriting ability.
Isaac Brock > Billy Corgan
Ben Folds!
Stephen Merrit should be there.
Pete Seeger anyone?
Steve Perry?
Tom Marshall/Trey Anastasio?
John “Cougar” Mellencamp?
Not only no Jason Molina, but no one even mentioned him in the comments yet! That, my friends, is a crime.
wow look at all the white men! Where are all rappers, B&B, or hip-hop artists? What about female singer song writers? stooooopid list…
And whats up with names of bands or groups being songwriters? Certain people write songs within bands and differences are quite noticable.
And whats up with names of bands or groups being songwriters? Certain people write songs within bands and differences are quite noticable.
I love B&B ha
this is stupid. pretty sure that morrisey doesnt write his own songs.
and, oh yeah…
i think OUTKAST deserve the props….
some of the best lyrics ever put down…..
i even catch some dylan references about not needing a weatherman to know which way the wind blows….and the times they are a changing…..blah blah blah…
check it:
The weatherman tellin’ us
it ain’t gon’ rain.
So now we sittin in a droptop,
soaking wet.
In a silk suit trying
not to sweat.
Hittin’ somersaults with-
out the net.
But this’ll be the year that we
wont forget.
1-9-9-9!
Anno Domini,
anything goes!
Be what you want to be,
long as you know
consequences
are given for liv-
ing the fence is,
too high to jump in jail.
Too low to dig,
I might just touch hell.
HOT!
Get a life,
now they on sale.
Then I might cast you a spell.
Look at what came in the mail,
a scale and some Arm & Hammer.
Soul gold grill, and a baby mamma.
Black Cadillac and a pack of pampers.
Stack of questions,
with no answers.
Cure for cancer,
cure for AIDS.
Make a nigga want to stay on tour for days.
Get back home,
thangs are wrong.
Well not
really it was bad all along.
Before your left adds up to a
ball of power.
Thoughts at a thousand miles per hour.
Hello, ghetto,
let your brain breathe.
Believe there’s always mo’
(Owwww!)
Hook:
Don’t pull the thang out,
unless you plan to bang.
(Bombs over Baghdad, yeah!)
Don’t even bang,
unless you plan to hit something.
(Bombs over Baghdad, yeah!)
i’m just sayin’……
love,
maya lucia
they should do a list that’s “5,000 living songwriters who are AT LEAST average (in our opinion).”
maybe that would cut back the complaints to just 50 or so.
Issac Brock!!! Jeff Magnum!! Rivers Cuomo !!
All amazing songwriters.
And stop being idiots and saying dead people like lennon should be on the list. This list is for the BEST LIVING SONGWRITERS !!!
Corgan and Vedder should be on here. Unfortunately, they’ll both be dead before anyone starts to recognize their songwriting.
Corgan and Vedder should be on here. Unfortunately, they’ll both be dead before anyone starts to recognize their songwriting.
Corgan and Vedder should be on here. Unfortunately, they’ll both be dead before anyone starts to recognize their songwriting.
And seriously, no Billy Joel here means this list is flawed. I cannot see how anyone would disagree that someone simply FORGOT Bill Joel.
Regina Spektor, anyone? I digs her. Nellie McKay, too. Too bad they’re not more noticed; they might’ve made it.
WHERE IS COURTNEY LOVE? nutrageous.
and where is kurt cobain for that matter? he’s still alive… just watching and waiting to make his return as the savor of ROCK.
Dunno about Prince being no. 10, and I’d probably separate Outkast, and just leave Andre Benjamin in there – the other guy isn’t great. Good to see Sufjan in there, though I’d probably put him slightly higher.
http://www.musictimes.com.au
NEIL FINN!
let’s see where the list went wrong. um um.
absentees like BILLY JOEL? INTERPOL? JAMES MERCER?
ANTHONY KIEDIS? JOHN FRUSCIANTE? THE DECEMBERISTS?
ah the world.
you totally forgot robert smith.
No Fat Bob!!!! And how the FUCK is Sufjan motherfukcin Stevens above Paul Westerberg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Paul Westerberg is a fuckin genius and Sufjan is a twat.
That’s a pretty good list – but Cat Stevens shouldn’t be on it, Brian Eno and Stephen Malkmus should be in the top 20, and Patti Smith needs to be way higher.
My god the Unicorns! Where are the Unicorns?! Robbbbbbbbbed!
“We’re more than horses…”
Eddie Vedder must be dead because if he was alive he’d be there surely;)
Seriously, who actually sits down and intelligently comes up with these lists???
The Long Winters’ John Roderick
Gibbard/Walla/Harmer/McGerr
- Too bad Morrissey is to be found only at 57, but he definately deserves to be in here. (Understatement. My firstborn will probably be called Morris. I am one of those scary Morrissey people.)
- I agree with the comment about Outkast. Andre Benjamin is the best half of the duo by far. The Love Below was fresh and charming, whereas Big Boi’s Speakerboxx failed to deliver. We heard it all before.
- Prince on 10. Nice.
wow, this list is terrible.
some of you have mentioned names that are due to be included.
a list entitled “best living songwriters” should also include people who are important/influential now, not just withering old fogeys who haven’t done any good work in 20 or 30(!) years.
folds and wainwright are glaring absences that betray this list for what it is…
the exclusion of jeff mangum is absolutely unpardonable, however.
Well, have you ever heard about John Lennon ? Bob Marley ? Shane Mc Gowan ? Obscure songwriters, you may say ? What’s a good songwriter ? that’s the question.
Hmmm…John Lennon…Bob Marley…hmmm…lemme see here…uh…oh, yeah, just like I thought. THEY’RE DEAD, YOU FUCKING ASS!!!! I’m sorry, but I got really tired of people having to point out that the list is titled 100 BEST LIVING SONGWRITERS.
I’ll be brave and agree with QBus. I’m not into his solo stuff, but because of The Pixies first three albums alone (since this list is clearly based on back catalogue), Black Francis should be included. And hell, why not Kim Deal while we’re at it?
And I’ll also agree with QBus in saying that I’m laughing at him for his nod to Death Cab. I’m sorry, but have you noticed how innoffensive and blandly universal Death Cab has progressively become since Something About Airplanes?
Jeff Mangum has written an entire album that can move me to fucking tears. Hell yes he should be on there.
As for other Jeff’s, Tweedy? Again, I could apply my comment about Death Cab only substituting band names and Something About Airplanes with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Had that been the last album that Wilco put out then I would say Top 10, easily. But the lyrics on A Ghost Is Born are way more watered down and quite frankly, I don’t want to listen to Jeff’s headache for fifteen minutes, especially when the payoff is “Late Greats.” And have you heard that new song, “Is that the Thanks I Get?” I pray that Wilco stop becoming progressively M.O.R. He deserves to be on the list though.
Also, since I’m the first to pick a bone about it, I think Will Oldham should be way higher. If we’re talking LP’s, you’d be hard-pressed to find as consistent an artist in the indie fold (despite Master and Everyone).
And yeah, some times whole groups write songs. Radiohead, for example. They all collaborate on EVERYTHING, words and music. It’s actually quite rare that a band that isn’t named after the frontman just writes all of the words and all of the music and just says “Play this, exactly as I wrote it and nothing different.”
Pearl Jam? Last I checked, Ten and VS were released over ten years ago. But then again, I guess this is based on back catalogue.
Colin Meloy is one of the Top 100 greatest and best living songwriters, but I think his ommision from *this* list is understandable.
That’s another thing. The title of the list should be 100 GREATEST Living Songwriters. Best means quality, greatest means legend and influence. Big difference.
I’d also vouch for Mirah, but that’s because I have a crush on her.
And what, no Captain Beefheart? (kidding).
No Adam Schlesinger? Then this list blows…
I’m a PASTE subscriber (thanks to STEREOGUM advertising it last year, no less), and even I’m a tad pissed at who’s NOT on this list, surprised at who made it, and mystified by where some ranked.
First of all, there’s only one female songwriter in the top ten, but i’m sorry, joni mitchell doesn’t belong that high. Carole King does – did more for music and other musicians than Joni, as good as she is/was.
Second, what is Willie Nelson, Randy Newman, Patty Griffin, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Holland/Dozier, (Joni) and Tom Waits all doing in the TOP 20?
Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend, and Jimmy Page/Robert Plant belong in the Top 10, let alone top 20.
And who the heck is Julie Miller? What is Over the Rhine doing on this list? What about Pearl Jam (Vedder/McCready/Gossard/Ament/Cameron), since Radiohead is on there as a band?
And the always underappreciated singer/songwriter/producer BILLY CORGAN is missing as well (he should’ve made it right behind Radiohead).
And if you’re gonna have a good ole southern rock band on here, Drive-By Truckers is the best voters could do? I like them, but My Morning Jacket should’ve been on the list too, then. And what about the Allman Brothers band (the remaining members are still touring and rocking).
Overall, good list, but it could’ve been much better, and better listed.
Hee hee – I’m glad somebody took my bait. Frank Black is on the list, albeit it took me a couple minutes to realize it.
Almost 150 comments gone by, and since nobody else has, I guess I’ll make my case for Moore/Gordon/Ranaldo/Shelley. While you might argue they haven’t produced a career’s worth of catchy and hummable songs (I’d disagree), they are indeed songs – carefully crafted, immensely influential songs – and 25 years into it, they’re still creating vital and interesting ones – unlike, um, more than half the people on this list.
The old college rocker in me also bemoans the omission of Mould/Hart.
For the record, Neko Case, up until recently, has heavily relied on musical collaborators. So it’s hard to determine what she really wrote.
And Morrissey? Yeah, doesn’t he usually relie heavily on collaborators for the music?
What I meant to say was, “This list is bunk as there is no mention of Stephin Merritt whatsoever.”
Also, there’s no Phil Spector.
And, Holy Moly, there’s no Jeff Mangum.
no robert smith?
no stephen merritt?
no MARK F’IN EITZEL??
and i love morrissey to death but he’s a wordsmith, not a songwriter
This list is crap for the simple reason Ray LaMontagne did not make the list. Brilliant songwriter in my opinion
With lists like this one, there’s usually a failure to distinguish between “great” (as in historically important and influential, even if for work done many decades ago, cf. Chuck Berry, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Webb and Holland/Dozier/Holland) and “best” (currently producing work of high quality, like Stephin Merritt, Stuart Murdoch, Mark Eitzel, Joe Pernice, Colin Meloy, Dan Bejar and Stuart Staples, all of whom failed to make the cut).
Other random notes:
1. If you skimmed the list, and wondered where Frank Black was, look again at no. 66.
2. Any list of songwriters that can make room for Carole King and the Burt Bacharach/Hal David duo (deservedly so, based on past contributions) can certainly include Neil Diamond. The success of Diane Warren and her ilk — not to mention the cult of the singer/songwriter that Dylan helped spawn — shouldn’t obscure the honorable role that professional songwriters of the Brill Building era played in pop music history. Speaking of which, where are the teams of Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich (“Be My Baby,” “River Deep, Mountain High”) and Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”)?
3. Nice to see Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham make the cut (51).
4. Grant McLennan passed away recently, but must have been alive when the poll was taken. Both he and Robert Forster deserved recognition, both for their 1980′s output and their more recent work in the reunited Go-Be’s.
5. Both Pete Townshend and Ray Davies merited higher placement, particularly when compared with other elder statesmen, still living off compositional capital of the 1960′s and ’70′s (Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Robbie Robertson).
6. Morrissey is a tough call: an important and often brilliant lyricist, who’s influenced whole generations (for better and worse), but one who needs collaborators to generate melodies. The Morrissey/Marr team would certainly have ranked higher than 57, but the Moz by himself? Pass.
7. Other inexplicable omissions: Scott Walker; Lee Hazlewood; Robyn Hitchcock; Donald Fagen/ Walter Becker. The list itself seems weighted towards Rock Legends and Recent Indie-Rock Group Faves. And I’m sure that any poll of musicians and other songwriters would have placed Richard Thompson far closer to the top than 63.
Again, I don’t know what the standards were supposed to be here (and should bands like Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and Radiohead — which have individual songwriters in them — be listed as groups?), but I think two separate lists (one for influence and historical accomplishment, the other for current output) would have been the better way to go. Not that two lists wouldn’t have provoked twice as much disagreement…
I love that Patty Griffin is in the top 20…. Patti Smith, on the other hand, should be higher! And no PJ just breaks my heart. Bjork – doesn’t she write most of her own songs?? Tori Amos??
ok. Good thing for the Canadians on the list. Otherwise you’d be reading about my one woman riot in tomorrow’s paper.
btw there was a reader’s list in the magazine as well. It probably reflects stereogum reader’s tastes a little better. And I know I’ll get flamed but I’m gonna say it-no Chris Martin? At least he was #98 on the reader’s list though.
Brendan Benson
How many Canadians on the list: 5? I’d trade ‘em all for Carl Newman. Thank goodness Sarah Maclaughlin, Alanis, and that guy from the Tea Party didn’t make the list.
Whoops. Yeah Frank Black is there.
And I was going to mention SY, but look at that rant up there. Big enough as it is.
Chris Martin? Don’t make me laugh.
YO WHAT ABOUT MIKE JONES THOUGH???
PASTE costs like $10/issue so you’d have to be on the fooking list to afford the thing anyway. I mean, Conor fcking Oberst and Ryan cunting Adams? And yet…
No PADDY McALOON (PREFAB SPROUT)?
MARTIN PHILLIPS (THE CHILLS)?
LLOYD COLE?
LIZ PHAIR?
SHAUN RYDER?
DAMON ALBARN?
KATE BUSH?
GRANT LEE PHILLIPS?
BJORK?
NEIL FINN?
PAUL HEATON?
IAN McCULLOCH?
RODDY FRAME?
JARVIS COCKER?
C*nts.
bowie should be in the top 5
one more thing… Aimee Mann and Jack White? If you made a mixtape based on this list it would be the most boring fooking mix. ever.
If any rap artists, or groups, should be listed on there, Wu-Tang Clan is a must.
Has Paste jumped the shark–resorting to the old “list” fallback already? Those silly hicks.
wheres John Ashcroft? it says best song writer…thats singular…
has everyone already forgotten the eagle soaring song…thats better then Weens “Fancypants”
This is the weirdest-ass, white-man-driven, lame list. I can hardly even engage in an argument about it, it’s so stupid. S-T-O-O-P-I-D. Rather than generate healthy debate (although it’s true, most of the above comments ARE exactly that), the glaring omissions and ranking misplacements render the list a total waste of time. That Paste “legitimizes” this list with it’s name, but without outing, explicitly, its own effing racist, sexist, classist point of view is just a sorry-ass drag.
Yes, this was done in an effort to generate discussion/debate, and it’s been fun to see that happen on a lot of different blogs. So far, I’ve just quieltly read. But since Stereogum is one of the few places I go to regularly, I had to chime in and give a little more context. We at Paste came up with this list by polling 50 folks–staff members, rock writers (should have thought to include you, Scott), and a handful of musicians themselves. They’re all people we trust, so I’m pretty pleased with the list that we came up with, though quite a few of my favorites didn’t make the list either. Here’s the editorial that lead off this issue:
100 Best Living Songwriters
Dear Paste,
Looking through the issue for which I?m currently writing this editorial, I noticed several omissions from the 100 Best Living Songwriters list. I realize I organized this feature, gathered the voters and cast a ballot myself, but apparently that wasn?t enough. I mean, how could you ignore Rodney Crowell? With songs like ?She?s Crazy for Leaving,? Crowell was the master cartographer of those dark places of loss where once lived ?love that runs through your heart with a pleasure so close to pain.? Decades after his biggest hits, he?s given us some of the best ruminations on aging ever penned.
And Mike Scott? Number 30 on my list, but apparently not good enough for you. The Waterboys? Fisherman?s Blues alone should have secured him a spot in the Top 100, but he also put out two solo albums filled with gems. And then there?s Mark Knopfler, proving himself yet again with his new duets album with Emmylou Harris (p. 22). Our readers were smart enough to put them on their list (p. 96), but he?s conspicuously absent from ours. Robert Smith, Jim James, Billy Joe Shaver, Todd Snider, David Hidalgo, Fiona Apple, Matthew Ryan, De La Soul, Taj Mahal, Ben Gibbard, Neil Finn, Jeff Mangum, The Cowboy Junkies, Rufus Wainwright, Peter Gabriel, Guy Clark, Greg Brown, Isaac Hayes?they all got the shaft.
I?d consider canceling my subscription if I wasn?t the editor of this damn thing, so instead, just let me say that this was an amazing experience. The hours spent arguing the merits of Leonard Cohen versus Neil Young (an arbitrary and academic exercise, no doubt, but an always entertaining one). Dueling our managing editor, Reid Davis, in computer volume as we searched out the best R.E.M. songs (and impossibly tried to narrow it down to three). The late, late nights matching 100 different writers to 100 songwriter essays and hunting for just the right lyrics. It?s all been worth it to more fully appreciate the merits of Carole King, Chuck Berry and Jimmy Webb; to read Clyde Edgerton on John Prine, Paul Hemphill on Merle Haggard and Jack Pendarvis on Berry; and to see the parade of greats and remember the songs that have had the biggest impact on my life.
I had 3,088 songs from these 100 songwriters on my iPod, and I put them all into a playlist and set it to random. One of the most striking things was how seldom I had an urge to press the skip button and how often I wanted to stop what I was doing and just listen. Much like Hollywood thrusting star-power and jaw-dropping special effects upon shallow, unbelievable scripts, the record industry has been pouring money into beautiful people with beautiful voices (or at least beautiful people with Auto-Tune) without giving them songs with any kind of lasting impact. But I?ll take a Leonard Cohen album (despite not loving either his voice or the production on most his songs) over just about anything getting Top 40 airplay today.
So I know that everyone reading Paste will have his or her own opinion of who should?ve made the list and that this is just the first letter I?ll receive. I certainly hope this feature sparks much debate, but I hope even more that it leads people to check out the songs from these 100 gifted songwriters, reconnecting with old standbys and discovering many new favorites along the way.
Yours Truly,
Josh Jackson (Decatur, Ga.)
Editor-in-Chief, Paste
Considering some of the folks included (and just because all the good jamaican songwriters are dead doesn’t mean you had to include Jimmy Cliff as a token), the following certainly deserve consideration before Oberst and White et al:
Freedy Johnston (a top 20 in my book)
Joe Jackson
Graham Parker
Robert Wyatt
No David Berman?
While I appreciate your editorial, Josh, I still think these so-called debates participate in the continued erasure of the roots of rock and roll, which are undeniably black American. There is an implicit politics of exclusion that this list engages in, rendering bickering about the virtues of Leonard Cohen vs. Neil Young hardly meaningful, or worthy of being called “debate.” And you’re editors! You should know these things and at least “out” your context, make clear your perspective, as I wrote in my earlier comment, above. I really don’t often get up on this kind of high horse (a fact that’s apparent on my blog), but the absolute omission of historical prevelance, even for a list of living songwriters, is disturbing. Or at least, a major turn-off. And once respect is lost, it’s hard to get it back again. So I guess I just don’t “respect” the list, or Paste’s choice of editors, or its editors’ level of thoughtful engagement with the making of the list.
best,
Charlotte
what about cassie berman? gosh.
I heard that anyone not on this list was going to be immediately euthanized and their entire back catalog pulled from shelves, so it’s a good thing you’re all taking it so seriously.
List is OK. Some good additions would have been:
Tool. Wu Tang Clan. Cornell and/or any of the Seattle Grunge (PJ, AIC, MLB). Ani Difranco if she stopped making albums after Little Pink Castles (n?). Primus?
Good showing PE, Waits, and Willie.
Yea sure Patty Griffin above Van Morrisson, I can’t read anymore. Oh yeah brown eyed girl, Tupelo Honey, etc. influenced a generation. Patty Griffin influence is seen where?
Why is Scott Walker not on this list?!
dylan yes tom waits ahead of bowie .townsend ,jagger richards???wtf,, oh yeah i didnt get the news that fagen and becker had died!! what a shocking omission,,,why no morrisey or ani di-franco???quite simple ..they’re both whining, wanking fag/muffmuncher non talents oh and burt should have been way higher especially given the lofty place afforded to mr pretentious melancholy himself elvis (boring) costello. michael stipes sucks.
what about charles manson …and the shaggs
I second Ray Lamontagne
why were dead people discriminated against in this poll???dont their songs count anymore??? so in honour of the dead “the ten greatsest dead songwriters”
1 schubert 4 bob marley 7 buddy holly
2 john lennon 5 gram parsons 8 george harrison
3 frank zappa 6 warren zevon 9 hank williams
10 g g allin
No Paul Simon ?
Whoops…found him at #13
Glen Phillips. (!)
Though I stopped reading after about 30 comments complaining about who should or shouldn’t have been on the list, it seems like most everyone isn’t thinking about songwriting in particular and more about the music. Really liking a song doesn’t necessarily mean it’s well written. And song writing isn’t entirely about lyrics either. There are plenty of musicians that I love, and songs who’s lyrics I relate to so well, but that doesn’t mean they belong on this list.
That said, Nick Lowe absolutely belongs on this list. Poor guy – most people don’t even know that he was behind some of his best songs because he wrote them for other artists, or other people’s versions became most popular. “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?” anyone?
…and what about Jeff Lynne? He wrote some of the chewiest pop songs I’ve ever heard with ELO, worked with the Traveling Wilburry’s, and co-wrote many of the songs on Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever. I’d put him higher that Jack White atleast.
Michael Stipe/REM is/are one the greatest songwriters of all time, and should be much higher. If it wasn’t for the past 10 years, he/they probably would be. And if “songwriter” actually composing and arranging instrumental music and the quality of said music, Brian Wilson is number one. Bar none. Is Bernie Taupin still alive?
And yes, Billly Joel should be among the best.
DONT KNOW WHY I BOTHER WITH THESE FORUMS.. BUT I HAVE TO HAVE ONE LAST CRACK ILL PRESENT 3 LISTS
1.OMMISIONS PUNISHIBLE BY DEATH..,BECKER AND FAGAN,,
WHO WERE THE BOZOS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS LIST?
I WOULD GLADLY TAKE ONE STEELY ALBUM OVER THE ENTIRE CATALOGUE OF LEIBER AND STOLLER!!
2PETER GABRIEL .. THE GUYS A JERK IMHO..BUT HELL HE WROTE SOME GREAT STUFF WITH GENESIS AND SOLO
3 STEVIE WINWOOD ,,SHOULD’VE QUALIFIED ON THE STRENGTH OF GIMME SOME LOVIN AND ‘LOW SPARK’ ALONE
4 TONY HATCH “THE BRITISH BACHARACH” UNFORTUNATELY ONE OF HIS SONGS WON EUROVISION..MEANING IT WAS TOTALL FLUFF BUT HE WROTE A LOT OF BRILLIANT POP
SONGS AS WELL,,,MAYBE HE’S DEAD
THE OVER RATED PATTY GRIFFIN,, GIVE US A BREAK
PRINCE…LEONARD COHEN ()LOVE LEONARD BUT HE WASNT THAT GOOD)TOM PETTY..REM!!OH DID I FORGET TO MENTION MICHAEL STIPES SUCKS SHIT!!
UNDERRATED BURT.PETE TOWNSHEND LOU REED ,VAN CAROL KING JACKSON BROWNE ANYWAY FUCK THESE STUPID POLLS,, I SUGGEST A POLL OF THE WORST POLLS EVER CONJURED UP BY THESE MAGS AND THE JERKS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THEM .OH JUST ONE LAST THING CAN I REJOYCE IN BELIEVING THAT “STOCKSTANDARD AND WATEREDDOWN” ARE ALL DEAD
Ok, now granted that everyone is going to dislike alot of this list, that’s a given. But before you say Lennon or Marley, remember that they have to be leaving. How awesome is it that Andy Partridge is on there? XTC is one of the most underrated bands of all time. Anyone who thinks that Rivers Cuomoshould not be on there is daft. The Blue Album and Pinkerton are the soundtrack to every teenaged music nerd. You cannot take a list seriously that puts Pete Townsend at 33, or Ray Davies at 46 or whatever. Why are these British invasion bands getting snubbed? Are people forgetting what the Who and the Kinks did in their prime? I mean jesus. Stevie Wonder is ahead of Prince. Sorry. His 70′s albums are some of the greatesst albums of all time. While his recent output is awful, Prince will never write “Innervisions.” That is all.
Oh and Bright Eyes blows.
*living
A couple more quick things…anyone who thinks that Elvis Costello should not be on there does not know anything about music and is living a lie, pretending to be all knowledgeable about music and shit.
Also, while I don’t know if he deserves to be on the Top 100, Ryan Adams work with Whiskeytown and his first solo album really are amazing. Adams in his prime melded hook-filled, honest country-pop better than he had any right to for someone so young and inexperienced.
Steely Dan rules. People who mistake them for elevator music instead of immaculate polished-to-perfection jazz pop are also living a lie. Fagen writes some of the most cryptic, cynical lyrics around.
And lastly…please don’t mistake me for thet Evan who agrees with Billy Joel’s placement on the list. While we’re at it…why isn’t Phil Collins on this list?
I realize that most people on this list have put out several albums that are great or at least decent, so I wouldn’t expect most people here to agree that Chris Martin should be on there. But he certainly ranks above some of the other artists on here such as: Outkast, Jack White, Oberst(all of whom I like). It’s clear that the dislike of Coldplay has really less to to with the actual music than it does with hipsters trying to be too-cool-for-school. Whoever made the comment about Martin above has likely not even bothered to listen to his albums, or if he did, he had already decided his opinion before even listening. That seems to be an attitude towards Coldplay that exists throughout the indie music world.
How in the hell is Sufjan Stevens and Conor Oberst above Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, and Will Oldham? Pa-lease. Is this how old writers try to stay hip with the kids?
How in the hell is Sufjan Stevens and Conor Oberst above Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, and Will Oldham? Pa-lease.
Here’s a few more glaring omissions that haven’t been mentioned yet:
BUTCH HANCOCK
PETER CASE
RICHARD BUCKNER
TERRY ALLEN
NANCI GRIFFITH
ARTHUR LEE
LLOYD COLE
DAVE ALVIN
BILL WITHERS
TOM RUSSELL
JOHN SEBASTIAN
KURT WAGNER
CURT KIRKWOOD
GANG OF FOUR
ROXY MUSIC (WHICH WOULD AT LEAST TAKEN CARE OF
PART OF THE ENO-BEING-OMITTED PROBLEM)
ROBIN AND BARRY GIBB
MOSE ALLISON
JOHN DOE/EXENE
MICK JONES (OF THE CLASH)
And yet they included ELTON FUCKING JOHN!!!
Glaring omissions that made me tear up my already-filled-out subscription order besides the above:
NEIL DIAMOND
SHANE MCGOWAN
GUY CLARK
ISAAC HAYES
I could go on forever and therein would lie their (the rag’s) excuse, “too many talented people out there”, etc but then you winnow away the weak, the unproven, we’re talking the 100 greatest living songwriters and I’m not even going to get into (well, yeah I am…) how whathisname Hymes talks about Springsteen “speaking” to the working class (fucking dumbass, don’t you get it?? He never appealed to the working class, Reagan thought he did though! Were you writing speeches for him back then??). At the risk of sounding like a snobbish asshole, Springsteen was way too arty for the common man. When he was force fed to them with Born in the USA, they misunderstood him and quickly forgot about him after that. He’s a great artist and definitely makes my top 5 but talk about what makes him great, not what fleeting public perception he enjoyed at a particular time in his career where Columbia needed the “big” album and was willing to market him with that in mind. And this joker actually used “The River” to make his point which is even more wrong…the characters in that album may have, some of them, been “working class” but that album did not appeal to that sector of society. That’s like saying Capote’s “In Cold Blood” appealed to murderers.
Same issue of said rag leads off with one of these advert. geeks who admits being responsible for placing music in commercials and tries to champion the ’cause likening it to 70′s era DJs who worked (seemingly) independent of program directors…what a bunch of horseshit. There used to be a whole bunch of people that actually wrote songs for product ads who are now out of work and their fun, innocuous “songs” were a helluva lot more palatable than hearing Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life censored/edited so they can use it to hawk cruises. I can’t listen to Spoon anymore either because of these same scumbags. Anyone who thinks this kinda stuff “helps” an artist other than in immediate royalties needs to examine their heads. It turns a bunch of people off and in the long run makes the artist/band a lot less attractive to their audience.
I’ve bought two issues of this rag off the newstand and was about to subscribe until I read the second one…
It has brought out a good point, David Byrne said it best: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. Long live the artist but fuck the barnacles in the media.
I can’t honestly believe that 95% of the people making comments here have any clue about the music of half the writers on this list. And with each comment I read, I’m just that much more convinced of it. I actually tracked down music from a couple of the artists I wasn’t already familiar with. Guess what? I wasn’t all that disappointed.
I also can’t believe someone actually took the bait of asking why Frank Black wasn’t on the list.
The people who helped compile the list were a very diverse group, not limited to Paste editorial staff or the magazine’s regular contributors. But you’d only know that if you actually read the magazine, including the opening pages where they mention the people who helped pick the list.
Oh, and in case I haven’t said anything truly stupid yet:
I know this was a list of “living” songwriters, but Jeez, where are the ghosts of Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley?
The list isn’t nearly as off-the-mark as half of these comments are.
No offense to last poster, but “if you had read the magazine” you would see “eulogies/tributes” to messrs. Smith and Buckley among others.
To quote the Jerky Boys: “Open your ears [actually eyes] jackass!!”
Why no Willie Nile. Even Bono and Lucinda Williams, who both made the list, say he is one of the best song writers around today.
Bruce is a little high up there, Lucinda a little low, but all and all, a fine list. Only real changes I would make is putting Westerberg in the top 40. I’d also probably put Lucinda above Bruuuuucce. But given the task at hand and the subjectivity involved, very well done. Bob should, of course by number one, it’s not even close.
I’m glad to see Aimee Mann made it on there as well. I’m even more pleased that Eliot received some attention in the print mag – very classy.
addendum:
JONATHAN RICHMAN
Where’s Jarvis Cocker????
Hold on!!!!!
WHERE’S WILL OLDHAM??????????
Bob Marley
Marley’s unfortunately no longer with us…