Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time" list

[sweetest punch]

http://mashable.com/2015/08/13/100-grea ... ing-stone/

Rolling Stone crowns Bob Dylan greatest songwriter of all time; here's who else made the cut

Bob Dylan made you feel his love — and his unforgettable lyrics.

To recognize the folk legend's brilliant contributions to music history, Rolling Stone has placed Dylan at No. 1 on its "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time" list, a comprehensive ranking spanning many decades.

"A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true," Rolling Stone quotes Dylan saying. "They're like strange countries that you have to enter."

Dylan, whose most recent release is 2015's Shadows in the Night, penned such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Forever Young," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Positively Fourth Street" and "Tangled Up Blue."

Contemporary chart-toppers also earned spots on the list — Taylor Swift (97), Eminem (91), Kanye West (84), Bjork (81), Jay Z (68) — although it's rightfully dominated by artists and writers whose music has stood the test of time over many generations.

Here are the top 25 songwriters on the list; go to Rolling Stone to see the top 100:
25. Randy Newman
24. Elvis Costello
23. Robert Johnson
22. Van Morrison
21. Lou Reed
20. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
19. Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
18. Prince
17. Neil Young
16. Leonard Cohen
15. Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland
14. Bruce Springsteen
13. Hank Williams
12. Brian Wilson
11. Bob Marley
10. Stevie Wonder
9. Joni Mitchell
8. Paul Simon
7. Carole King and Gerry Goffin
6. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
5. Smokey Robinson
4. Chuck Berry
3. John Lennon
2. Paul McCartney
1. Bob Dylan

[Hawksmoor]

Blimey, I know everyone reads these lists and finds something outrageous according to their own tastes, but...Bowie down at number 39?

[migdd]

How about John Prine at #94? That's pretty funny and a bit sad.

[erey]

How about Billy Joel being on there at all? Might as well include Barry Manilow -- at least he wrote some good jingles.

[njbp]

The comments around this accolade have been rather muted. I think it's worth pausing to appreciate quite what this means, and quite how extraordinary this is. To be in the Top 25 is amazing. To be the second youngest in the list is incredible. As a Brit to have only Lennon & McCartney and Jagger and Richards ahead of you is huge. I hope the promotional campaign around the book doesn't overlook these points and I hope it will serve as a reminder (to some) of just quite how significant EC is.

[sweetest punch]

Interesting article about Rolling Stone's choices: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-t ... ngwriters/

Who really are the 100 greatest songwriters?

Picking lists will usually get you in hot water. This week Rolling Stone magazine published their 100 best songwriters of all time (the full list is printed below) and included many of the modern greats such as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Kanye West and Joni Mitchell. There were some interesting less popular choices (thank goodness John Prine made it, although at an absurdly low position 94, and Merle Haggard) and who could argue with Van Morrison, Carole King or Randy Newman? But there were some major omissions. So here is my alternate list of the best 100 songwriters not in the Rolling Stone 100 - and you can vote my top 10 up or down.

100 BEST SONGWRITERS MISSED OUT BY ROLLING STONE

1 Cole Porter
2 Townes Van Zandt
3 Ewan MacColl
4 Kate Bush
5 Ray Charles
6 Freddie Mercury
7 Louis Jordan
8 Damon Albarn
9 John Hiatt
10 Richard Thompson
11 Irving Berlin
12 Stephen Sondheim
13 George Gershwin
14 Joan Baez
15 Cat Stevens
16 Phil Spector
17 Lefty Frizzell
18 Paul Anka
19 Shane McGowan
20 Gordon Lightfoot
21 Gil Scott-Heron
22 Lead Belly
23 John Denver
24 Jelly Roll Morton
25 Otis Redding
26 Peter Gabriel
27 Guy Clarke
28 Jarvis Cocker
29 Loudon Wainwright III
30 Frank Zappa
31 Lyle Lovett
32 Nick Drake
33 Tom Lehrer
34 Tupac Shakur
35 Bob Seger
36 John Lee Hooker
37 Neyo
38 Linda Perry
39 Steve Earle
40 Richard Shindell
41 Patty Griffin
42 Beck
43 Noël Coward
44 Joan Armatrading
45 Harold Arlen
46 Rodney Crowell
47 Chuck D Public Enemy
48 Amy Winehouse
49 Fred Neill
50 Bryan Ferry
51 John Cale
52 Roy Orbison
53 Nick Cave
54 Tracy Chapman
55 Robert Plant
56 Nick Lowe
57 Ryan Adams
58 Jeff Buckley
59 Laura Marling
60 Erykah Badu
61 Tim Hardin
62 Dr John
63 Warren Zevon
64 Ralph McTell
65 Gram Parsons
66 Rickie Lee Jones
67 Squeeze (Chris Difford/Glenn Tilbrook)
68 John Mellencamp
69 Bill Withers
70 Bobby Bland
71 John Martyn
72 Cyndi Lauper
73 Phil Ochs
74 Marc Bolan
75 Nanci Griffith
76 Nina Simone
77 Peter Case
78 Lowell George
79 Donovan
80 WC Handy
81 Ian Drury
82 Ian Curtis
83 A Tribe Called Quest
84 Don McLean
85 Christy Moore
86 Chris Martin
87 Mark Knopfler
88 Colin Meloy
89 Jeff Lynne
90 John Grant
91 Sandy Denny
92 Vic Chesnut
93 Elliott Smith
94 PJ Harvey
95 Jim Croce
96 Paul Weller
97 Ray Noble
98 Sia
99 Annie Lennox/Dave Stewart
100 Bobby Bradock

THE ROLLING STONE 100 BEST SONGWRITERS

100 Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
99 Tom T Hall
98 Otis Blackwell
97 Taylor Swift
96 Timbaland and Missy Elliott
95 The Bee Gees
94 John Prine
93 Billie Joe Armstrong
192 Paul Westerberg
91 Eminem
90 Babyface
89 Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
88 Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill
87 Kris Kristofferson
86 Sam Cooke
85 R.E.M.
84 Kanye West
83 Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson
82 Marvin Gaye
81 Björk
80 R. Kelly
79 Lucinda Williams
78 Curtis Mayfield
77 Allen Toussaint
76 Loretta Lynn
75 Isaac Hayes and David Porter
74 Patti Smith
73 Radiohead
72 Fats Domino and Dave Barthomolew
71 Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
70 Dan Penn
69 James Taylor
68 Jay Z
67 Morrissey and Marr
66 Kenny Gamble and Leon A Huff
65 George Harrison
64 Bert Berns
63 Chrissie Hynde
62 Harry Nilsson
61 Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman
60 Willie Nelson
59 Tom Petty
58 George Clinton
57 Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
56 Madonna
55 Tom Waits
54 Kurt Cobain
53 Stevie Nicks
52 The Notorious B.I.G.
51 Willie Dixon
50 Billy Joel
49 Don Henley and Glenn Frey
48 Elton John and Bernie Taupin
47 Neil Diamond
46 Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
45 Robbie Robertson
44 Jimmy Webb
43 Johnny Cash
42 Sly Stone
41 Max Martin
40 John Fogerty
39 David Bowie
38 Al Green
37 Jackson Browne
36 Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
35 Bono and the Edge
34 Michael Jackson
33 Merle Haggard
32 Burt Bacharach and Hal David
30 Dolly Parton
29 Pete Townshend
29 Buddy Holly
28 Woody Guthrie
27 Ray Davies
26 James Brown
25 Randy Newman
24 Elvis Costello
23 Robert Johnson
22 Van Morrison
21 Lou Reed
20 Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
19 Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry
18 Prince
17 Neil Young
16 Leonard Cohen
15 Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland
14 Bruce Springsteen
13 Hank Williams
12 Brian Wilson
11 Bob Marley
10 Stevie Wonder
9 Joni Mitchell
8 Paul Simon
7 Carole King/Carole King and Gerry Goffin
6 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
5 Smokey Robinson
4 Chuck Berry
3 John Lennon
2 Paul McCartney
1 Bob Dylan

[sweetest punch]

http://flavorwire.com/532955/does-rolli ... iting-dead

Does ‘Rolling Stone’ Know It Declared Songwriting Dead?

Compile enough best-of lists for public consumption, and you’ll start to realize that the more general your subject, the more difficult it will be to defend your selections as authoritative. As Rolling Stone is finding out right now, via a heavily Apple Music-branded list that was received with a collective social media eye-roll, songwriting is one of those impossible subjects.

There are plenty of reasons for readers to argue with the magazine’s ranked list of the 100 best songwriters of all time: Predictably, it’s over 70% white and features only nine solo female songwriters (five other women are included as part of mixed-gender writing teams). Classic rock is overrepresented; every other genre and subgenre of popular music is underrepresented. The fact that Kurt Cobain is ranked #54 to Bob Dylan’s #1 is as concise a summation as any of Rolling Stone‘s institutional attitude toward every generation other than baby boomers — and if you’re not convinced by that juxtaposition, consider that only about 15% of the songwriters came to prominence in the last 25 years.

While the overall list is probably far more inclusive on all of the above counts than a 48-year-old mainstream rock ‘n’ roll magazine would have managed even a few years ago, the percentages are even more dramatically skewed toward AARP-eligible white men in the top half. In fact, the alarming thing about the list — and believe me when I tell you that I do not generally find cause to use the words “alarming” and “list” in the same sentence — is that only one of the top 50 songwriters launched his career in the ’90s or later.

The man in question is the Swedish songwriter/producer Max Martin, who composed or co-wrote some of the biggest pop earworms of the past two decades; RS cites such undeniable hits as Britney Spears’ “… Baby One More Time,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” In the past year, Martin has dominated the charts with a slew of collaborations from Taylor Swift’s 1989, as well as The Weeknd’s currently ubiquitous “Can’t Feel My Face.” All of which is to say that only a diehard rockist would argue against Martin’s inclusion (so I’ll leave that polemic to RS‘s base). Is he the most talented songwriter of the past 25 years, though? And more importantly, is he the only Gen X or millennial songwriter worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Neil Diamond (#47), Jackson Browne (#37), and Bono and the Edge (#35)?

To most people born since 1970, the answer is obviously “no.” Look at the bottom half of the list, and you’ll find plenty of younger songwriters ranked far lower than they should have been: Cobain, Missy Elliott and Timbaland (#96), Kanye West (#84), Radiohead (#73), The Notorious B.I.G. (#52), Björk (#81) — frankly, I would have placed all of them far higher than Don Henley and Glenn Frey (#49). Off the top of my head, a few names that should have shown up somewhere on the list but didn’t are Tupac Shakur, Sleater-Kinney, Jarvis Cocker, Jeff Mangum, Linda Perry, St. Vincent’s Annie Clark, Erykah Badu, Damon Albarn, Polly Jean Harvey, Kendrick Lamar, and Sia. (I should note that I’m purposely avoiding more obscure names; a Rolling Stone list is never going to be a WIRE or even a Pitchfork list, and that’s fine.)

The point isn’t that you should agree with all, or even any, of my choices; it’s that despite how many names there are to choose from, Rolling Stone believes no songwriter in the past 25 years, save for a lone chart-topping Swede, has contributed to pop music on the same level as dozens of musicians and writers of the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and (to a lesser extent) ’80s. That’s a problem! It’s a declaration that the music made by artists under 60 — music RS faithfully covers, though not always with the same enthusiasm it reserves for Mick, Bruce, and Sir Paul — is decidedly inferior to the music of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. If, by Rolling Stone‘s reckoning, we’ve seen so few all-time great songwriters since 1990, it would seem to follow that Rolling Stone believes songwriting to be a dying art.

It’s no use getting upset about a list that was always going to be impossible to get right — unless that list unintentionally makes the point that the thing your magazine exists to celebrate has spent the past few decades in a long, steep decline.

[erey]

The comments around this accolade have been rather muted. [...]

That's probably because nobody takes Rolling Stone very seriously anymore. Sure, I was kind of tickled to see our man ranked fairly high, but I don't see this as much more than yet another internet listicle.

[erey]

http://flavorwire.com/532955/does-rolli ... iting-dead

Does ‘Rolling Stone’ Know It Declared Songwriting Dead?

[...]

If, by Rolling Stone‘s reckoning, we’ve seen so few all-time great songwriters since 1990, it would seem to follow that Rolling Stone believes songwriting to be a dying art.

I would add that, true to RS's boomer-centric ethos, not only did "all time" start to grind to a halt sometime not long after 1980, it seems to have dawned right around 1955.