1950-2000: The Top 25 Singer/Songwriters


1.Bob Dylan: I don’t expect any arguments here

2.Curtis Mayfield: Perhaps he should be #1

3. Paul Weller: Hideously underrated in the US, this whiteboy knows soul

4. Tom Waits: He makes two kinds of records: good ones & great ones

5. Van Morrison: If he ever put out a bad record, I haven’t heard it yet

6. Hank Williams: Some of his songs can even make Christianity sound cool

7. Marc Bolan: The pop genius of the 70’s

8. Toots Hibbert: The man who should have been Jamaica’s International Superstar

9. George Jones: A jug of wine, a George Jones album, another jug of wine, and then another…

10. Lou Reed: I’d put him on this list just for “Pale Blue Eyes”

11. Carole King: More for her songwriting than her singing

12. Elvis Costello: Not half as good as everybody says he is, but what a half!

13. Townes van Zandt: Have you heard him? Good, then you know what I’m talking about

14. Eldon “El Duce” Hoke: Hey, this is MY list. I can put anybody I want on

15. Beck: He’s the new Dylan. Honest

16. James Osterberg: It is frightening: The man has supernatural powers!

17. Leonard Cohen: Of course I’m going to include him

18. Bruce Springsteen: “Nebraska” is enough to earn him a place

19. Nick Drake: Volkswagen, The Estate of Nick Drake wishes to thank you

20. Neil Diamond: What if Elvis was a Jew who wrote his own songs, and never did half-assed karate kicks onstage?

21. Lucinda Williams: Great singer/songwriters cover HER songs!

22. Kurt Cobain: An ear for a great tune, and an eye for a pretty lady! Oh muse, sing!

23. Richard Thompson: Continues to delight

24. David Bowie: Demoted from #11 to #24 for failing to die immediately after "Scary Monsters"

25. Gram Parsons: Dude, love that Nudie suit!
tweakgeek

Showing 4 responses by jposs

Only thing I can think to add (brilliant damn list!) is Willie Nelson. and maybe Jeff Tweedy.
How in the world can you consider Ian Curtis a singer songwriter and not Paul McCartney? To assume that Bernard Sumner(albrecht, whatever he was going by at the time), Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris did not have as much to do with Joy Divisions music is just plain wrong.

Peter Hook's bass and Stephen Morris' drums were just as much a signature of the Joy Division sound as Ian's haunting voice and words. Bernard's guitars and keyboards set just as bleak a picture as any other part of the songwriting. These four men, and later 3 men and a woman were the epitome of a songwriting collective. All songs written by Joy Division. Not Curtis/Albrecht or Curtis/Hook.

All of their later side projects just went to prove that the whole was greater than the sum of their parts.

Justin P
I find it difficult to ever call New Order unimaginative. I can understand why some people would not necessarily like New Order, however I have never heard anybody say they weren't good.
Besides, your thread is entitled The Top 25 Singer/Songwriters. Not top 25 pop lyricists.