Paste Magazine's 100 Best Living Songwriters
 

from stereogum: http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002670.html

http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002670.html
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


Thoughts, quibbles, rants??

U2 18 ?!?

As much as I love Leonard Cohen....over Brian Wilson? In My Room? Come on B. Jeff Tweedy over REM....ha ha ha.

what?? wheres kurt???? hes an amazing songwriter one of the best

At least above Kris Kristofferson, but then again he's better than Led Zeppelin. Ok, shouldn't we just let these lame lists end, eh? Party at my place by the way.

Lou Reed should have been in the top 5

Jesus christ, he's dead.

Not to mention Sly Stone at 58.......pigfuckers.

I personally think Sonic Youth should be at least somewhere around 28 or 27. :(

What the fuck is Outkast doing in there?

So is John Lennon.

Paste Magazine's 100 Best Living Songwriters; Christ, I don't know what kind of necromancy exists here, but it can't be holy... :P

P.S And, no, John Lennon is not on the list.

i always feel sorry for number 100 on these lists.

where are the Pixies?

what kind of a magazine is paste anyway? i've never even heard of it.

Sucky list, David Bowie should be higher than 16, and Tom Waits is missing from the list, as well as Richard Hell, Tom Verlaine, Andy Gill, Sonic Youth, I can go on and on.

tom waits is on the list. waits/brennan, number 4. Brennan is his wife and songwriting partner

I just discovered something. It's just an opinion. It doesn't really matter who's on the list or who's not. What matters is you have your own list. Who really cares what a bunch of journalists think anyway? :)

ALYASA = someone with sense!

Thanks, but then again about 1 million subscribers to Rolling Stone in the US seem to care. :)

Oh, I didn't see that. :rolleyes:

I ctrl+f'ed the page for tom waits.

Any list of songwriters without Mark E Smith in is wrong. Opinions be damned, it's just wrong.

Damn right, Glice. Good that they thought of Andy PArtridge though - XTC are very neglected, in my opinion.

Number one:

The walking genius comes disguised as a retard...

This one's good:

I think Elvis Costello should be in the top five, maybe knock Paul McCartney down a notch, does he really write songs that are that much diffrent then when he was in The Beatles? Its called growth, where as Elvis Costello, does a little bit of everything, and he ain't afraid of look like fool doing it, which he almost never is. On a side note of mentioning these two guys, Paul and Elvis C. used to write songs together, he co-wrote a few songs off of Costello's album "Spike", which he gives the story of in the liner notes.

Wow I posted a lot of these things here at like 6 AM and I don't even remember it. Booze and pills are bad mmm'kay:p

what's a computah?! EAT Y'SELF FITTER!

Sucky list, but I wouldn't mind Bob Dylan being number 1 if he didn't put out more bad records then good.

We really need to hang out. :D

I cant believe they put Randy Newman in at 11. He sucks.

Or that Flaming Lips were at 81. they should have been much closer to the top of the list along with many others, too. Come on, yr telling me Dolly Parton writes better songs than Wayne Coyne? Bullshit.

And dont even tell me that Bruce Springsteen can write better songs than Lou Reed. This list is crap. Even though it does acknowledge some really talented songwriters, the list seems uneven and pandering to a mass audience.

Chill out everybody. When magazines publish these things, it's not like the intent is 100<99<98<97<96... Sure, there's more deliberation about the order once it gets closer to the bottom, but mostly I just think there are a couple tiers they set.

I totally agree. Elvis Costello should have been higher than Paul McCartney. Paul hasnt changed at all. He still writes catchy, but samey sugary pop. The guy hasn't evolved in 36 years! Elvis Costello is a much more daring songwriter. But Paul is more poular. And you know they made this list primarily out for the popular songwriters. That's why Prince is ahead of David Bowie, U2 is ahead of Lou Reed, Dolly Parton is ahead of Jack White, Micheal Jackson is ahead of Nick Cave, Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd and Patti Smith.

I'm glad a lot of these musicians were recognized, but come on, the order is way off.

The fact that McCartney made it into the top 25 is shocking to me (and that's being generous).

I'm sorry, but for the most part, I find McCartney bland and predictable.

Survey says:

hahahahahahaha, some people haven't got the memo yet.

39. Led Zeppelin

fuck that. they stole alot of their stuff from old blues records