Greatest Songwriter of all time


I was reading the Dylan post and it got me thinking. There are many great songwriters that come to mind, my expertise/knowledge is primarily with rock music. If you could only pick three, what would they be? My vote for best lyrics goes to:

Jim Morrison
Bruce Springsteen
Elvis Costello

Best music goes to:

Mark Knopfler
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Frank Zappa
jeffloistarca
Oh yeah! I forgot to mention 2 other best rock-poets:
David Byrne, Pete Sienfield.
I can't resist these parlor games. For the sake of simplicity, I've ruled out the twin tower tandems of Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards.

Hard to narrow it down to three, so how about these groupings?


Songwriters:

All-time, men's division

Bob Dylan
Neil Young
John Fogerty

All time, women's division

Joni Mitchell
Lucinda Williams
Iris Dement

"Alternative"

Elvis Costello
Marshall Crenshaw
PJ Harvey

"Obscure"

Walter Salas-Humara
Freedy Johnston
Liz Phair

"Cult Heroes"

Townes Van Zandt
Gram Parsons
Alex Chilton

Best Singers

Billie Holiday
Al Green
George Jones

Best Guitar

Richard Thompson

Best Growl

Iggy Pop

Best Hair

Flock of Seagulls

OK, somebody want to start a "most depressing bands" thread?




Well it ain't a band, but my vote for most depressing singer ever has to go to Rufus Wainright son of Louden Wainright and of one of them McGarrigle girls. Whenever my 18 year old daughter plays one of his, I swear I want to listen to some Blind Lemon Jefferson.
most depressing band? easy. fred and patti smith. try "it takes time" from the sountrack of "until the end of the world." an excellent disc and better lp, BTW (gotta get the german lp). -cfb