Who is your favourite songwriter and why?

flanger20002003

Rigsby wrote:

One of my favourites is Al Stewart. He tends to keep clear of the usual baby-I- miss-your-love kind of lyrics and tells a story through his songs. Plus the music itself is always top notch and memorable.

Good call! Year of the Cat is one of the most underrated and absolutely mind blowing albums of the 70s, some great songwriting and guitar work on that record.

Bubs101

Jeff Tweedy.
Hands down

MattKid

Jackson Browne

Ben Nichols (from Lucero)

Adam Duritz

SligoBrewer

Personally, I can't look past Bruce or Alex Turner..

Steve_o

SligoBrewer wrote:

Personally, I can't look past Bruce or Alex Turner..

I'm still on 2 minds about Alex Turner....he's an excellent lyricist but i'm still not sure how long he can last....i hope for a long time, i really like the Arctic Monkeys!

fionated7

the gibbs for sure..

dylan, young, lennon..

the woman who writes all those ballads that go straight to number 1 is probably worth a mention too, Diane Warren is her name..

Creamy Goodness

Pat D. Almighty wrote:

Rivers Cuomo

definitely during the blue album/songs from the black hole/pinkerton eras.

my favourite at the moment would be Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro. The imagery and metaphors he uses are mind boggling.

eg: " Kill your bizarre mindset, ****head, soldered to a three-layered concrete brainwave castration "

fionated7

oh end i forgot don henley!!!!

TelePaul

fionated7 wrote:

oh end i forgot don henley!!!!

Get out. :mad:

fionated7

awh come on, i cant help but love the heart of the matter and the end of the innocence, never mind the stuff he co-wrote with the rest of the guys from the eagles... they are a top selling band for a reason..

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Robert Plant and Matt Bellamy

bluesman07

jon bon jovi and richie sambora are by far my fav song writers. they both write good songs. if they didnt they wouldnt have sold 100,000,000 albums, so that proves that their lyrics must mean something. heres an example...
"in the dark i have seen that the sun still shines for the ones who believe"

Extreme-LoopZ

Trent Reznor.

That is all.

*Rez for Prez!*

woop

I like a lot of different artists, josh ritter is up there though, fantastic with just an acoustic

Thelikefaneire

Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals, he also wrote a lot of pop hits like Life is a rollercoster for ronin keating or Music gets the best of me for Sophie Ellis Baxtor. Also Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and Tony Lovato of Mest/A Permenant Holiday.

Sir Graball

fionated7 wrote:

awh come on, i cant help but love the heart of the matter and the end of the innocence, never mind the stuff he co-wrote with the rest of the guys from the eagles... they are a top selling band for a reason..

Tom Waits once said of the Eagles that the only good thing about their LP's was they kept the dust out of your record player!!

Look no further than Waits , Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed, Paul Weller, Warren Zevon , Donal Fagan /Walter Becker ( Steely Dan)

Remmy

Dave matthews!A pure genius in my opinion.

dont drink the water :

Come out, come out, no use in hiding.
Come out, come out, can you not see
Theres no place here, what were you expecting?
No room for both, just room for me.
So you will lay your arms down,
Yes, I will call this home.
Away, away, you have been banished.
Your land is gone, and given to me.
And here I will spread my wings.
Yes, I will call this home.
Whats this you say, you feel a right to remain?
Then stay and I will bury you.
Whats that you say, your fathers spirit still lives in this place?
Well, I will silence you.
Heres the hitch, your horse is leaving.
Dont miss your boat, its leaving now.
And as you go I will spread my wings.
Yes, I will call this home.
I have no time to justify to you,
Fool, youre blind, move aside for me.
All I can say to you my new neighbor,
You must move on or I will bury you.
Now as I rest my feet by this fire
Those hands once warmed here, but I have retired them.
I can breathe my own air and I can sleep more soundly
Upon these poor souls,
Ill build heaven and call it home.
Cause youre all dead now.
I live with my justice
And I live with my greed in me
I live with no mercy
And I live with my frenzy feet
I live with my hatred
And I live with my jealousy
I live with the notion that I dont need anyone but me
Dont drink the water
Dont drink the water
Blood in the water
Dont drink the water.

Its about the american Indians losing their lands to the white man.pure class!

hypnosisdublin

My all-time favourite is Stevie Wonder. Between 1972-1976 there was no-one that could touch him.

Other faves of mine would include:

Paul Simon
Neil Finn
Billy Corgan (circa Siamese Dream)
Morrissey and Marr
John Squire and Ian Brown (The Stone Roses)
Donald Fagan and Walter Becker (Steely Dan)
Andy Sturmer (Jellyfish)
Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood (Foutains Of Wayne)
Nik Kershaw (A blast from the past but very, very underated)

_hybrid_

the late,great Townes van Zandt. Absolute genuis, the van gogh of the music world. please check him out, he is on a par with dylan et al. a lot of gis stuff's bout depression so if you're one of those . . 'will he ever stop moaning' people skip it. if not, you'll love it. check out the documentary 'be here to love me'if you're into him.

AT MY WINDOW
"At my window, watchin' the sun go;
Hopin' the stars know it's time to shine.
Daydreams aloft on dark wings; soft as the sun streams at day's decline.
Livin' is laughin'; dyin' says nothin' at all.
My babe and I lyin' here watchin' the evenin' fall.

Well time flows through brave beginnings
And she leaves her endings beneath or feet.
Walk lightly upon their faces; leave gentle traces upon their sleep.
Ah, livin' is dancin' and dyin' does nothin' at all.
Babe and I lyin' here, watchin' the evenin' fall.

Three dimes, hard luck, and good times, fast lines and low rhymes;
Ain't much to say.
Feel fine, feel low and lazy, feel grey and hazy, feel far away.
Ah, livin' is sighin' and dyin' ain't for lyin' so hard.
Babe and I lyin' here watchin' a day go by."
let me know what ye think

zoos

George Harrison

MoominPapa

Wow, really surprised there has been only one mention of Ray Davis, for my money the only true English genius of pop song writing from the 60's. Also, since plenty of others posters has cited partnerships what about Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze? Cool for cats, Up the junction,Pulling mussels, Tempted, Coffee in bed, and on and on.
While he probably hasn't got the body of work to back it up yet, Rufus Wainwright is on course to be one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, Want One is still my favorite album of the decade
And then of course theres Ron Mael, that stony faced, Hitler mustachioed, one half of Sparks, after almost 40 years still producing music that blows most of the competition out of the water

Steve_o

zoos wrote:

George Harrison

Meh, Ringo Starr was the best songwriter after John and Paul in my view...

dream brother

hypnosisdublin wrote:

My all-time favourite is Stevie Wonder. Between 1972-1976 there was no-one that could touch him.

So true! just got into his music recently and his songs are full of life! Sir duke is one catchy song.
have to say dave Gilmour and roger waters are great writers!

threebeards

I saw Art Garfunkel mentioned earlier as well as Clifford T Ward. Another from the same era worthy of a strong mention is James Taylor. For those into the folk or acoustic kind of thing, check out a guy called [URL="http://www.kalai.cc]Kalai[/URL]
I've only ever found his stuff on line but what a song writer. I've downloaded a couple of albums from itunes and being into that kind of music, I have to say it's great stuff.

Steve_o

dream brother wrote:

So true! just got into his music recently and his songs are full of life! Sir duke is one catchy song.
have to say dave Gilmour and roger waters are great writers!

Gotta love pink floyd, with a name like Dream Brother, i'm gonna hazard a guess, you like Jeff Buckley!

dream brother

Yeah Jeff is the man, use to listen to him alot 5 years ago but then I found Neil young, Dylan and a great little band called Love with Arthur Lee! Its great how one bands branches out into 5 others bands!

bassplayer41

Dave matthews!A pure genius in my opinion.

dont drink the water :

Come out, come out, no use in hiding.
Come out, come out, can you not see
Theres no place here, what were you expecting?
No room for both, just room for me.
So you will lay your arms down,
Yes, I will call this home.
Away, away, you have been banished.
Your land is gone, and given to me.
And here I will spread my wings.
Yes, I will call this home.
Whats this you say, you feel a right to remain?
Then stay and I will bury you.
Whats that you say, your fathers spirit still lives in this place?
Well, I will silence you.
Heres the hitch, your horse is leaving.
Dont miss your boat, its leaving now.
And as you go I will spread my wings.
Yes, I will call this home.
I have no time to justify to you,
Fool, youre blind, move aside for me.
All I can say to you my new neighbor,
You must move on or I will bury you.
Now as I rest my feet by this fire
Those hands once warmed here, but I have retired them.
I can breathe my own air and I can sleep more soundly
Upon these poor souls,
Ill build heaven and call it home.
Cause youre all dead now.
I live with my justice
And I live with my greed in me
I live with no mercy
And I live with my frenzy feet
I live with my hatred
And I live with my jealousy
I live with the notion that I dont need anyone but me
Dont drink the water
Dont drink the water
Blood in the water
Dont drink the water.

Its about the american Indians losing their lands to the white man.pure class


Totally agree with Dave Matthews, he is massively under-rated for his song writing. A true and honest lyricist what more can you ask?

I also feel Matt Johnson of TheThe is one of, if not the greatest songwriter who has ever come out of England. If you know it, re-visit it, if you don't then check out Mind Bomb. This is such an amazingly accomplished album and just wait till you hear how prophetic and poignant the lyrics (written over 17 years ago!!!) are in todays world.

Other ones for me would be.....

Jill Scot
Roger Waters/Syd Barrett
Kristen Hirsch
....can't think of anymore! but I know there's a lot.

nice1franko

Dave Matthews
Thom Yorke
and, ahem, Prince, erh, eh he does has some genius stuff

busted flush

ted vedder is pretty cool

Flynn

Gotta agree with Dave Matthews and Adam Duritz.. probably one of my favourites.. and he changes all his songs with every performance.. Any Crows fans should get the Across a Wire album.. Amazing..

Don't think anybody mentioned John Mayer??
Amazing lyrics.. can't stop listening to him at he mo'

Latchy

Its funny , you can go through the geners of music for the 50s to present day and find great singer /songwriters ,some who only had a few hits, some who wrote hits for many and some in partnership like Goffin and king , Lennon Mc Cartney ,Backarach and David ,the list is endless and i love so many .

Gilbert O Sulivan is one who springs to mind ,commercialised as he was, he wrote some great lyrics like ,Alone again naturaly ,Nothing rhymed and What's in a kiss .

cazzy

John Lennon, Damien Rice, Kurt Cobain, Michael Stipe, Freddie Mercury not just for the lyrics but the music too. I can only think of them off hand. Prob forgot some really good ones.

Sysiphus

I'm astounded no mention so far of Harry Chapin, Luke Kelly, Janis Ian, Woodie Gutherie, Gordon Lightfoot, Jac Brel, Billy Bragg

Everybody knows a song or two (or more) by all of the above but does not realise this by dint of the fact that we are so used to cover versions, we look at the preformr not the writer!

As for someone mentionig Art Garfunkel! If he was a woman he'd have been a backing singer in those days, he was afreeloader who congtributed a bit of (dis)harmoney, simon was the artist through out the relationship. If I was simon I'd have walked of the stage as well!!

My consistent listening partners are:
Tom Waits
Harry Chapin
Janis Ian
John Denver
Don McClean
Bruce
Alan Andrews
Gordon Lightfoot
paul simon
kate rusby
the residents
jeff buckley
woodie gutherie
jackson browne

there' more but too tired to type!

Sysiphus

people keep mentiong preformers......

this thread is about songwriters........

the actual creators......

for the religious out there do you praise peter, mathew, mark, luke, john more than god??? The creator is more than the preformer, hence the popularity of covers. the present (whichever present) generation perfers tneir cover version. but the reality is it's still the song not the singer.


moderators???? your quick on other threads to legislate.....

are you in bertie's pocket now????......

Latchy

Sysiphus wrote: »

I'm astounded no mention so far of Harry Chapin, Luke Kelly, Janis Ian, Woodie Gutherie, Gordon Lightfoot, Jac Brel, Billy Bragg

Everybody knows a song or two (or more) by all of the above but does not realise this by dint of the fact that we are so used to cover versions, we look at the preformr not the writer!

As for someone mentionig Art Garfunkel! If he was a woman he'd have been a backing singer in those days, he was afreeloader who congtributed a bit of (dis)harmoney, simon was the artist through out the relationship. If I was simon I'd have walked of the stage as well!!

My consistent listening partners are:
Tom Waits
Harry Chapin
Janis Ian
John Denver
Don McClean
Bruce
Alan Andrews
Gordon Lightfoot
paul simon
kate rusby
the residents
jeff buckley
woodie gutherie
jackson browne

there' more but too tired to type!

I love most ,if not all the above mentioned and some songs spring to mind Like Garfunkels ' i only have eyes for you ' Chapins' WOLD' Lightfoots ' sundown ' and what about Harry Nielsons ' all i think about is you ' all wonderful songs from the heart .

frobisher

Sysiphus wrote: »

this thread is about songwriters........
moderators???? your quick on other threads to legislate.....

are you in bertie's pocket now????......

In facta...yes!

Mental Mickey

My fave songwriters are Neil Young, Axl Rose(he has written some class stuff), Phil Lynott, and James Hetfield in no particular order.

DeadSkin

Nick Cave has written some great stuff over the years, Let Love In would probably be my favourite album from the man himself and the Bad Seeds.

starflake

Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Don Mclean
Definately agree with you there!

musichead

Sarah McLachlan. Joni Mitchell. Jane Siberry. Neil Young. Canadian songwriters are tops like. And Tracy Chapman

That_Guy

One of my favourite songwriters is Jesse Lacey from a band called Brand New.

He's written some of my favourite lyrics in songs.

"If looks could really kill, then my profession would be staring"

"If I could I would shrink myself and sink through your skin to your blood cells and remove whatever makes you hurt but I am too weak to be your cure"

"Please make the technology
So I can turn up your love like some cold machine
Don't feed me scraps from your bed
I won't be the stray coming back just to be fed"

Tech3

deswalsh wrote: »

but 9 times out of 10 if I feel like singing a song it'll be a Neil Young song.

deffo

KStaford

Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout)

KStaford

Paul Buchannan (The Blue Nile)

AngryHippie

I have to say Springsteen has had some legend songs, He's in the running for Thunder Road and The River, But then there are the likes of Paul Brady and Neil Hannon there to surprise. Try and avoid the cheesy stuff

Allison91

Bob Dylan is my favourite songwriter I just love his music and feel that his songs are so expressive and meaningful even if I dont know what it means.:)

Stereomaniac

Bob Mould.
Next question?

Chinafoot

Bruce Springsteen all the way. They don't call him The Boss for nothing

donomo

There are sooo many great songwriters out there, and alot of particularly good ones are skirting around the spotlight of the public eye, Tom Roger is a great old school style songwriter, kind of leonard coheny. There also some traditional irish folk songwriters who are very reputable within certain circles but are virtually unknown outside of them. So keep your ears open for the likes of Johnny mulhern and john hoban

markesmith

Mark Hollis.

Maybe some of his lyrics are a bit bedsit-y, but some of his lyrics really speak to me. The music on Talk Talk's last two albums and on Hollis' solo album is sublime. But one lyric will always stick in my mind:
"April song...lilac glistening foal"

Probably the most beautiful line I've ever heard...up there with Dylan and Young's finest.