Who do you think are the greatest and most influential songwriters??

who do you think are the most influential and greatest songwriters and why:

personally i'll go with Bob Dylan. i love his music and songs. the guy was a true poet. he has an amazing way with words.
ALOT of people don't like him and will never experience his music because of his raspy voice. i'll admit, it took me along time to get used to it.

i'm also gonna go with kurt cobain, i'm a huge nirvana fan. i chose him not so much for the lyrics as the music. alot of people hate him, and i really haven't figured out why, maybe because he is so praised. he really did revolutionize the rock scene, thats the major reason i chose him, he started a huge shift in rock music. he saved rock from showbands like Guns and Roses.

anyways those are my choices. I don't think anyone can argue with Bobby Dylan, but what are your guys' opinions.

Hmmm that's a toughie, cause there are so many that I like.

I'll have to think that the Rolling Stones were very influential. But so were people like Neil Young and Bob Marley.

I think they're all up there with Bob Dylan. And you're right about his raspy voice. His son in the "The Wallflowers" has a much better voice than his father ever had.

I was'nt aware that alot of people hated Nirvana. I liked Nirvana and still do. Maybe he just made alot of people angry with his suicide because it seemed so senseless at the time.

Nirvana really was not that popular until Kurt's suicide. Sometimes people forget or don't remember that "Nirvana" was'nt the only Indie band out back then.

And Nirvana was'nt the first or only band that caused "the huge shift" you speak of.

Well, Dylan, of course. Not just the greatest songwriter but the greatest artist of the second half of the twentieth century in any medium you care to name.

My sympathies to those who have trouble with his voice. Some people had trouble with Picasso's sense of perspective, I hear. Some people have trouble the first time they drink fine Burgundy and discover that it isn't sweet.

Make the effort, get over the initial surprise and a whole new world opens up like a flower.

No-one else comes near the Sainted Bob, but the next highest floor of the Tower of Song is full up. Inmates include Stephen Foster, Cole Porter, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Lennon & McCartney, Elvis Costello and, of course, the man who gave the Tower its name, Leonard Cohen.

Kurt Cobain might have made it up there if he'd lived another fifteen years.

My bid for the "greatest and most influential song writer" is:

Tom Waits



Tom Waits Lyrics

Originally posted by Hellmutt
My bid for the "greatest and most influential song writer" is:

Tom Waits

Nice one.

Do you like Randy Newman and Captain Beefheart? Very different I know, but I think they tend to appeal -- Newman, at any rate -- to people who like Waits. Nick Cave's another one -- if you haven't checked him out, you're in for a treat when you do.

If you can, get hold of Ute Lemper's version of Cave's You Take My Breath Away. An interesting variation on the theme of Where the Wild Roses Grow, but with far more emotional range than Kylie Minogue could ever have mustered.

Robert Allen Zimmermann!!

Known as the legendary Columbia recording artist
Bob Dylan

"I'm a worried man, got a worried mind / No one in front of me and nothing behind" 1)

None like him have shaped the perceptions of not just a generation, but of America as well.
If not for him no such thing as The United States of America would exist today.
It would be nothing but a fascist corporation named US only.

"My captain's decorated, he's well-schooled and he's skilled
He's not sentimental, it don't bother him at all how many of his pals been killed" 2)

"Papa gone mad,
Mama, she's feeling sad.
Well, I'm gonna baptize you in fire
So you can sin no more
I'm gonna establish my rule
Through civil war
Gonna make you see
Just how loyal and true a man can be!" 3)

1. www.dylanchords.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Things Have Changed
2. www.dylanchords.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Lonesome Day Blues
3. www.dylanchords.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Honest With Me

[edit on 26-11-2006 by khunmoon]

Bernie Taupin and Neil Peart.

Taupin wrote the lyrics for most of Elton John's good songs.

Peart's Rush lyrics are hard to match.

Peace

[edit on 27-11-2006 by Dr Love]

John Lennon... heck, all the Beatles were excellent song writers.

Prince is my favorite.

Stevie Wonder is another that comes to mind.

How about John Lee Hooker. BB King. I know i said rock and roll, but just as much influence has come from the roots of rock, ya know, blues and what not.

I like blues, not so much the lyrics, as the musical side of it.