Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

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Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

We haven't done one of these type of things in a while so I thought it might be fun

1) Bob Dylan
2) Paul Westerberg
3. Patterson Hood
4) Joe Strummer
5) Will Johnson
6) Tom Petty
7) Townes Van Zandt
8) Bruce Springsteen
9) Brent Best
10) Mike Cooley
We call him Scooby Do, but Scooby doesn’t do. Scooby, is not involved

Zip City
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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Zip City »

That's tough. I'd have to look over my catalog
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by tinnitus photography »

Neil Young
Jeff Tweedy
Robyn Hitchcock
Iommi/Butler
Steve Kilbey
Robert Pollard
Steve Malkmus
David Gilmour (though i am not 100% clear on the Gilmour/Waters breakdown)
Neko Case
Graeme Downes



mostly a bunch of old white guys. :lol:

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Iowan »

Mike Cooley
Todd Snider
Jagger/Richards
Craig Finn
Tom Petty
Robbie Robertson
James McMurtry
Neil Young
Paul Westerberg
Bob Dylan

My love/hate relationship with Minnesota on display

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

1) Bob Dylan
2-10) Some other people
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be

Zip City
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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Zip City »

tinnitus photography wrote: David Gilmour (though i am not 100% clear on the Gilmour/Waters breakdown)
Waters wrote most of the lyrics and basic melodies, while Gilmour made them into actual rock songs
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by 4sooner »

Dylan
Young
Prine
McMurtry
Jagger/Richards
Springsteen
Hubbard
Hood
Cooley
Petty
Plus 1-Haggard

hanklow
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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by hanklow »

1. Bob Dylan
2. Mike Cooley
3. Jason Isbell
4. Patterson Hood
5. Leonard Cohen
6. Bruce Springsteen
7. Neil Young
8. Lucinda Williams
9. James McMurtry
10. Townes Van Zandt

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Cole Younger »

Mine isnt in any particular order just a list of my favorite ten.

Cooley
Kristofferson
Tom T. Hall
James McMurtry
Chris Knight
Todd Snider
Steve Earle
Jason Isbell
Townes Van Zant
Levon Helm
A single shot rifle and a one eyed dog.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

#1 is a lock, the other 9 are not in order

1. Robert Hunter
2. Bob Dylan
3. Neil Young
4. Elvis Costello
5. Bruce Springsteen
6. Jagger/Richards
7. Lennon/McCartney
8. Ray Davies
9. Lou Reed
10. Merle Haggard

was extremely tough to leave out: Hank Williams, Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, Hood and Cooley, Jeff Tweedy, Woody Guthrie, Paul Westerberg, John Prine, Prince, Bernie Taupin, Jackson Browne, Frank Zappa, Willie Nelson
Last edited by whatwouldcooleydo? on Sun May 07, 2017 4:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by tinnitus photography »

Zip City wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote: David Gilmour (though i am not 100% clear on the Gilmour/Waters breakdown)
Waters wrote most of the lyrics and basic melodies, while Gilmour made them into actual rock songs
except for The Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason
:lol:

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Zip City »

tinnitus photography wrote:
Zip City wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote: David Gilmour (though i am not 100% clear on the Gilmour/Waters breakdown)
Waters wrote most of the lyrics and basic melodies, while Gilmour made them into actual rock songs
except for The Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason
:lol:
And someone else wrote list of those lyrics for him.
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Flea »

tinnitus photography wrote:
Zip City wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote: David Gilmour (though i am not 100% clear on the Gilmour/Waters breakdown)
Waters wrote most of the lyrics and basic melodies, while Gilmour made them into actual rock songs
except for The Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason
:lol:
And "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn".
Now it's dark.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by jr29 »

No order....

Mike Cooley
John Prine
Jay Farrar
Merle Haggard
Bob Dylan
Chuck Berry
Guy Clark
Kristofferson
Jagger/Richards
James McMurtry

And I feel like a piece of garbage for leaving Gene Clark, Tom petty, Hayes/Porter, Steve Cropper, Harlan Howard, Dan Penn, Patterson, Tom T, etc etc off the list.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by jr29 »

Iowan wrote:Mike Cooley
Todd Snider
Jagger/Richards
Craig Finn
Tom Petty
Robbie Robertson
James McMurtry
Neil Young
Paul Westerberg
Bob Dylan

My love/hate relationship with Minnesota on display
I love the Band, LOVE the Band....however, I think Robbie wrote about one total album of great songs. The highs are very high but there is some bad stuff in his catalogue.
"It Makes No Difference" isn't a good song until Rick Danko sings. "Jemima Surrender" isn't a lyrical gem, but listen to levon bawl that tune. I couldn't sing "Chest fever" if you paid me, but I sure remember Garth's organ intro. There are quite a few like that.
Last edited by jr29 on Mon May 08, 2017 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by tinnitus photography »

Flea wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote:
Zip City wrote:
Waters wrote most of the lyrics and basic melodies, while Gilmour made them into actual rock songs
except for The Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason
:lol:
And "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn".
it's tough to shape a record you're not involved with.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

jr29 wrote:
Iowan wrote:Mike Cooley
Todd Snider
Jagger/Richards
Craig Finn
Tom Petty
Robbie Robertson
James McMurtry
Neil Young
Paul Westerberg
Bob Dylan

My love/hate relationship with Minnesota on display
I love the Band, LOVE the Band....however, I think Robbie wrote about one total album of great songs. The highs are very high but there is some bad stuff in his catalogue.
"It Makes No Difference" isn't a good song until Rick Danko sings. "Jemima Surrender" isn't a lyrical gem, but listen to levon bawl those lyrics. I couldn't sing "Chest fever" if you paid me, but I sure remember Garth's organ intro. There are quite a few like that.
I think of most of those songs as being written by The Band. Neither Robbie nor the rest of them wrote as well alone as they did working together.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Flea »

tinnitus photography wrote:
Flea wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote:
except for The Division Bell and Momentary Lapse of Reason
:lol:
And "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn".
it's tough to shape a record you're not involved with.

That's my point!
Now it's dark.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by dogstar »

Brian Wilson
Bob Dylan
Joni MItchell
Mark Eitzel
Benny Anderson & Bjorn Ulvaeus
Jason Molina
Neil Young
Mike Scott
Mike Cooley
Bruce Springsteen
"Guitars talk. If you really want to write a song, ask a guitar." Neil Young

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

John A Arkansawyer wrote:1) Bob Dylan
2-10) Some other people
These other nine are hard to put in order, so I won't, and I thought about skipping Hood and Cooley because I am not rational on the subject when they come up, but then I realized Dylan was in a class by himself, so I made a little list of ten second-place finishers and left this sentence inconsistent with itself.

Warren Zevon
Joni Mitchell
Randy Newman
Laura Nyro
Elvis Costello
Holland-Dozier-Holland
Whoever really wrote those songs in The Band
Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley
Ray Davies and Dave Davies
Gary Louris and Mark Olsen

Sometimes a songwriter is either a team that works together or a synergy that makes each better, so if you think those last four are cheating, well, doesn't everybody love a good cheating song?
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by tinnitus photography »

Flea wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote:
Flea wrote:
And "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn".
it's tough to shape a record you're not involved with.

That's my point!
my point was that Gilmour's attempt to create rock songs on those two records failed miserably.

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Tequila Cowboy wrote:We haven't done one of these type of things in a while so I thought it might be fun

1) Bob Dylan
2) Paul Westerberg
3. Patterson Hood
4) Joe Strummer
5) Will Johnson
6) Tom Petty
7) Townes Van Zandt
8) Bruce Springsteen
9) Brent Best
10) Mike Cooley
Just to show how hard this exercise was this next bunch could all easily be in the top ten

Neil Young
Jagger/Richards
James McMurtry
Andy Partridge
Steve Earle
Robbie Robertson
Elvis Costello
Nick Lowe
John Prine
Bob Mould
Joni Mitchell
We call him Scooby Do, but Scooby doesn’t do. Scooby, is not involved

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Iowan »

jr29 wrote:
Iowan wrote:Mike Cooley
Todd Snider
Jagger/Richards
Craig Finn
Tom Petty
Robbie Robertson
James McMurtry
Neil Young
Paul Westerberg
Bob Dylan

My love/hate relationship with Minnesota on display
I love the Band, LOVE the Band....however, I think Robbie wrote about one total album of great songs. The highs are very high but there is some bad stuff in his catalogue.
"It Makes No Difference" isn't a good song until Rick Danko sings. "Jemima Surrender" isn't a lyrical gem, but listen to levon bawl that tune. I couldn't sing "Chest fever" if you paid me, but I sure remember Garth's organ intro. There are quite a few like that.
The Weight might be the best song of all time. I'm fine crediting the rest, a la Jagger/Richards, but I was always under the impression that Robbie wrote the words, came up with the basic outline musically, and the rest of the guys took it from there

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Zip City »

tinnitus photography wrote: my point was that Gilmour's attempt to create rock songs on those two records failed miserably.
Because you can't polish turds. Waters had the lyrics and brilliant ideas about songs, but he was very rigid and calculating. Gilmour brought soul and flair.

A perfect example is Waters' demo for "Money", which sounds like a funeral dirge:

And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

Zip City wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote: my point was that Gilmour's attempt to create rock songs on those two records failed miserably.
Because you can't polish turds. Waters had the lyrics and brilliant ideas about songs, but he was very rigid and calculating. Gilmour brought soul and flair.

A perfect example is Waters' demo for "Money", which sounds like a funeral dirge:

That would be an excellent song for The Kinks to cover, just like this demo, only more so.
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by tinnitus photography »

Zip City wrote:
tinnitus photography wrote: my point was that Gilmour's attempt to create rock songs on those two records failed miserably.
Because you can't polish turds. Waters had the lyrics and brilliant ideas about songs, but he was very rigid and calculating. Gilmour brought soul and flair.

A perfect example is Waters' demo for "Money", which sounds like a funeral dirge:

afaik, Waters had nothing to do w/ those turds on Momentary Lapse and Division Bell?

it's not like Gilmour's solo records set the world on fire either. some decent stuff here and there, but #neverforget


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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Zip City »

Correct, Waters had nothing to do with those records. Gilmour was left to co-write those songs with people like Bob Ezrin or his wife, and his weakness as a songwriter really became clear. He played some nice guitar solos and stuff on those records, but the songs just weren't there. Waters, on the other hand, was smart enough to know his weaknesses in fleshing out his song ideas, so he recruited musicians like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to play on his solo records
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

tinnitus photography wrote:
it's not like Gilmour's solo records set the world on fire either. some decent stuff here and there, but #neverforget

Are you mocking Blue Light? I love that song. Plus he had a killer band on that record.
We call him Scooby Do, but Scooby doesn’t do. Scooby, is not involved

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by whatwouldcooleydo? »

from last night's Colbert Show

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Re: Your Ten Favorite Songwriters

Post by Cubfan06 »

1) Robert Hunter/Garcia
2) Bob Marley
3) Bob Dylan
4) Vedder/Gossard/McCready
5) Bernie Taupin /Elton John
6)Hood/Cooley
7) Stevie Wonder
8)Neil Young
9) Tweedy
10) Ryan Adams

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