Background

Thursday, April 12, 2012

FIVE BEST LIVING SONGWRITERS

On "Morning Joe", one of the crew had received a Tweet asking him to name the Five Best Living American Songwriters. Their results ranged from Dylan to Lucinda Williams to Burt Bacharach!

As I love this kind of stuff--I branched out to my "Usual Suspects" and these are the results:

MINE:

1. BOB DYLAN (of course!)
2. NEIL YOUNG
3. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
4. PAUL SIMON
5. DIANE WARREN

GERALD'S:

1. STEVIE WONDER
2. ERIC CLAPTON
3. BONNIE RAITT
4. BRIAN WILSON
5. BOB DYLAN

DUKE'S:

1. WILLIE NELSON
2. KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
3. DON MCLEAN
4. JOHN FOGERTY
5. ARLO GUTHRIE


LES':

1. DYLAN
2. SIMON
3. YOUNG
4. SPRINGSTEEN
5. CAROLE KING


NORMAN'S:

He said his are in no particular order:

WILLIE NELSON, JACKSON BROWNE, J.D. SOUTHER, DON HENLEY and BONNIE RAITT

PATTY'S:

She said hers are in no particular order, but she couldn't pick just 5:

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, PAUL MCCARTNEY, STEVIE NICKS, DONALD FAGEN, STEVIE WONDER, BRIAN WILSON, CAROLE KING, DOLLY PARTON, MERLE HAGGARD

ARMINTA'S:

She said hers are in no particular order:

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, PAUL MCCARTNEY, DOLLY PARTON, ELTON JOHN, RANDY NEWMAN

GRETCHEN'S:

She said that hers are in no particular order:

BURT BACHARACH, STING, TODD RUNDGREN, ROGER WATERS/DAVID GILMOUR/DOLLY PARTON

Les asked, "Don't you think that Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber should be mentioned since you and Patty love that Broadway stuff?" OK, here's 5: STEPHEN SONDHEIM, ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER/TIM RICE, KANDER/EBB, JULE STYNE and JERRY HERMAN. I think they are all still alive! Then he asked, "What about LEIBER/STOLLER; isn't one of them still alive?"

The Top 100 Songwriters of the Rock Era (From Dave'sMusicDatabase.com)

1. Bob Dylan
2. John Lennon/ Paul McCartney
3. Paul Simon
4. Bruce Springsteen
5. Pete Townshend
6. Neil Young
7. Mick Jagger/ Keith Richards
8. Elton John/ Bernie Taupin
9. Joni Mitchell
10. David Bowie
11. Leonard Cohen
12. Brian Wilson
13. Carole King
14. Led Zeppelin: John Bonham/ John Paul Jones/ Jimmy Page/ Robert Plant
15. Ray Davies
16. Sting
17. Stevie Wonder
18. Pink Floyd: Syd Barrett/ David Gilmour/ Nick Mason/ Roger Waters/ Richard Wright
19. Chuck Berry
20. Van Morrison

To see #21 to 100, click on the link above.

1 comment:

Roy McCoy said...

I love Bonnie Raitt (was with her in her room at Radcliffe once in the 60s, don't remember how that happened though it probably had to do with her being a girlfriend of a friend of mine), but I think she's probably been credited with songs she didn't write to make three of the lists here. I notice she's not in Dave Whitaker's top 100 list, where more significant writers are mentioned: Smokey Robinson, Holland/Dozier/Holland (maybe the most significant omission), Roy Orbison, James Brown, the Bee Gees, Jimmy Webb (there's another one!), Sam Cooke...