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Guthrie (you pick one)
Kristofferson
etc....
The list goes on for me.
I never really cared for the Beatles, personally. Nothing against them, just not my style
Lennon and McCartney had the advantage of being able to arrange and perform their own songs, and thus craft them into whatever they wanted. They might not be so well recognized if they had to write their songs and then turn them over to other artists and arrangers to butcher.
Burt Bacharach and Hal David certainly turned out a lot of great songs, but enjoyed no such advantage. Their songs had to stand on their own merits. Their hits reached #1 on the charts from 1957 ("Magic Moments", Perry Como) to 1986 ("On My Own", Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald). Burt Bacharach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . When I just looked at that list of hits, I was blown away. I had no idea there were so many.
Very good post and points. You can make a good list of prolific writers from the 1950s through the 1970s, and if you narrowed it to a top 10, both Lennon/McCartney and Bacharach/David would certainly make that.
Elton John & bernie Taupin wrote great songs (hits) as well. My favorite songwriters though are lennon/mccartney. Lets not forget lennon & mccartney wrote their own music after the beatles broke up in 1970. George harrison wrote alot of his music & ringo starr wrote some but not many.
Yes, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer and the great Duke Ellington are some of the greatest songwriters of all time. But, I do have to state that the level of impact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had on the world and Western culture are unequalled by any body. Lennon and McCartney's influence is still being felt today, ask a random person on the street today if they ever heard of any of those great old songwriters and more times than not they would say they never heard of them. Not to forget the popularity of the Beatles (John,Paul, George and Ringo) songs are for the most part the soundtrack of the twentieth century, they wrote songs for every decade of the century whether it be the 20's "Honey Pie", the 30's "When I'm Sixty Four", the 50's rock & roll, the 60's where they revolutionized the world and music itself. John and Paul were the most innovative, creative, original songwriters that ever walked this planet Earth. Besides the record books don't lie.
Peace and Love,
Joe Blinn
I think "best" in a category such as this one, is entirely subjective. My current fav's: Dave Carter; Dave Olney; Pat Maloney; Tom Paxton;
then there's Iris DeMent; Linda Bilque; Buffy St.Marie; . . . well a couple of these definatly deserve to be on the "best of the best" list.
True enough, but I think that the Jazz and Swing composers of the 1920s and 1930s had as great or a greater impact on popular music. People like Henry Red Allen carried us from Flow Gently Sweet Afton to Wild Man Blues. You can't beat that for a leap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rubberfool909
Yes, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer and the great Duke Ellington are some of the greatest songwriters of all time. But, I do have to state that the level of impact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had on the world and Western culture are unequalled by any body. Lennon and McCartney's influence is still being felt today, ask a random person on the street today if they ever heard of any of those great old songwriters and more times than not they would say they never heard of them. Not to forget the popularity of the Beatles (John,Paul, George and Ringo) songs are for the most part the soundtrack of the twentieth century, they wrote songs for every decade of the century whether it be the 20's "Honey Pie", the 30's "When I'm Sixty Four", the 50's rock & roll, the 60's where they revolutionized the world and music itself. John and Paul were the most innovative, creative, original songwriters that ever walked this planet Earth. Besides the record books don't lie.
Peace and Love,
Joe Blinn
Lennon and McCartney never did much for me. The Beatles in general seem sort of lyrically bland, very obvious meaning that is repeated an awful lot. I wasn't alive when they were active, so I don't associate their music with any time, place, people, or events.
Bob Dylan's lyrics resonate very strongly with me. I suppose I enjoy the complexity, and find meaning in the imagery they convey. I can relate to Beat literature, which I think was one of Dylan's big catalysts for writing.
Van Morrison might be the most underrated songwriter of that generation, though.
Last edited by le roi; 01-26-2010 at 12:58 PM..
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I will post this as one of my favorites
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