July 05, 2006

• No Jeff Magnum! The list is bunk!
• Billy Bragg is on the people's list, but not the elite's. I think he'd approve. And it's nice to see that Leonard is rightly placed in the top ten. Although I do miss Suzy Vega. But I always miss Suzy Vega...
• 2. Neil Young looks almost human in that picture. 2. James Taylor?
• DUDE WHERES IGGY I DONT SEE NO IGGY!!!
• Inreresting notes: Highest rated readers' lister not on the editors' list: Billy Joel (30) Highest rated editors' lister not on the readers' list: Paul McCartney (5) Songwriters making top 10 in both lists: 6
• Leonard Cohen in the top ten? ack.
• Dylan stopped the car words shook like a fist "Phil, you ain't a writer you're a journalist!" Death of a rebel Twist of fate If he ever thought better he thought too late Poor Phil Ochs He slipped through the cracks Judas went electric and he never looked back
• 3 of 10 (editors list) are Canadian. Not bad.
• I think Paul Simon and James Taylor, rightfully, did better on the readers' poll.
• This list is biased toward the undead. Crap, do I hate Neil Young.
• I think to appreciate either list one must bear firmly in mind that these are writers lists, not performers. If I ever hear Leonard Cohen sing Hallelujah again my head will asplode, however it is a powerful, wonderful little ditty when sung by someone who can (i.e. k.d. lang).
• DUDE WHERES IGGY I DONT SEE NO IGGY!!! Iggy is evidently pursuing a fine career with Carnival Cruises.
• If I ever hear Leonard Cohen sing Hallelujah again my head will asplode, however it is a powerful, wonderful little ditty when sung by someone who can I agree completely. I heard John Cale's version from I'm Your Fan before hearing Cohen's version. It's a completely different song. In any case, the exclusion of McCartney from the reader's list is inexcusable.
• Are you on crack Rocket? Paul is listed third on the reader's poll. At least he is on MY internet. Is your internet pipe broken? Are you using it to smoke crack?
• TedStevensFilter
• Unless I am mistaken, the highest ranking black person on the reader's poll is 28th. Kind of suggests what the racial makeup of the readers might be.
• Not crack, pikestrider, but an equally potent combination of sleep deprivation, mild hangover, and innate stupidity. I honestly didn't see it there the first few times I scanned the list. So make my earlier comment Highest rated editors' lister not on the readers' list: Holland-Dozier-Holland (17)
• /promises self to get at least 5 hours of shut-eye tonight
• Iggy is evidently pursuing a fine career with Carnival Cruises. Which is just sick and wrong. Unless Iggy's racking in the cash, in which case he's sticking it to the Man instead of just selling out please tell me he's not just selling out -- I need my undead heroes to live vicariously through to do duets with Debbie Harry and to a lesser extent Kate Pierson. (Ye gods, has it been that long already? Sweet Mothra, is that depressing...) Come back, Iggy, show these poser kids what's what.
• Hey wingnut: isn't Prince black?
• No way, Capt: Iggy's thrilled that the geriatrics are spending their hard-earned pensions on a brand that has as its jingle a song about serious drug use. It's junky music!
• 1. I would have put Josh Ritter higher than #97. 2. I would have put Linnell and Flansburgh significantly higher than #84. 3. I would have put Bacharach and David somewhat higher than #40. 4. I have a deep appreciation for excellent songwriting, but have never gotten the big whoop about Bob Dylan. 5. Nor would I have put Neil Young at #2. There have to be at least forty better songwriters on that list than he. 6. I would agree that, regardless of how you feel about the man personally, the fact that McCartney doesn't appear on the reader's list is a travesty. I now have a fairly low opinion of Paste's readers, and I've never even read the magazine.
• Part of Prince is black. Of course, in the US, if part of a person is black, then the person is generally considered black. Prince would probably make the list of Top Black Songwriters but not Top White Songwriters even though he is half of each.
• 7. Not only did I not see McCartney on my initial glance at the reader's poll, I missed pikestrider's rebuttal above. I am teh blind.
• the_bone looses the thread.
• It's ok Bone. This is the internet. Everything you read should be true.
• I love Neil Young. I have 8 or 10 Neil Young CDs. But Neil should be banished from the top 10 if only for this single verse: Hate was just a legend, War was never known. People worked together And they lifted many stones. "And they lifted many stones"?????!!! Hands in the air, Neil, and step. Away. From. The. Bong. Also, Julie Miller but no Buddy Miller? That's criminal. As is the fact that Ray Davies isn't in the top 20, at least. Patti Griffin, Jeff Tweedy, REM, Lucinda Williams, Beck, Kris Kristofferson, Robbie Robertson -- they've all written great songs, but more great songs than Ray Davies? No freaking way.
• Didn't even have to open the links to know there would be dissension in the ranks. I would have put Lou Reed and Pink Floyd higher on the list. But that's just me.
• I still think that points 1 through 5 stand. ;)
• ok HW, I too love Neil Young and I really love the song 'Cortez the Killer' but I agree, the lyrics are pretty hokey.
• And a shocking abscence of Sharon, Lois, & Bram!
• And where the Hell is beeswacky? Philistines.
• what song is that nickdanger?
• By the way, which one is Pink?
• I'm sorry, but Bob Dylan should not be on the list. He could be considered a poet, but the music is seriously lacking. Part of being a songwriter is writing good music as well. He's an influence - not too good himself.
• No Billy Corgan? v_v
• Billy Corgan is off the list because he jumped the shark, so completely, so willfully, that it negated all of his previous brilliance. A quick Googling of "Glass and the Machines of God" is all you need to know to learn about the steaming coil wrought from Corgan's failing imagination -- it's the legend of a Band. But not just any Band, it's THE BAND, called the Machines of God, fronted by the mysterious Glass, as they fight for their artistic freedom in a dystopian future run by megacorporations. The irony? Brilliant Billy was working to develop an internet series about a Band fighting for a free future against megacorporations with -- wait for it -- SONY. Technically, an offshoot of Sony Pictures, subsidiary of the wonderful megacorporation who surreptitiously installed rootkits on millions of computers. A band. Fighting a lost cause against evil megacorporations. Corgan. Sony Screenblast. When I listen to Siamese Dream now, a small part of my brain is hearing the songs themselves weep for their creator, who betrayed them.
• what song is that nickdanger? What, you've NEVER hummed along with a beeswacky poem?
• I'm sorry, but Bob Dylan should not be on the list. He could be considered a poet, but the music is seriously lacking. Part of being a songwriter is writing good music as well. He's an influence - not too good himself. Are you serious?
• no shane macgowan?
• My letter to paste: I didnt know where to send this, so I am just sending it to the general mailbox. I don't need a response to this. I was rather puzzled by the fact that both lists you provided for best living songwriters, excluded Jeff Magnum. I am assuming you know who he is and I do not need to give some pretentious breakdown of his amazing abilities. I appreciate your time. The reply: Yep. He just barely missed being on the list. He probably would have made it if he'd continued releasing albums. For what it's worth, he was on my ballot. Editor-in-Chief My side note: Speaking of which the rumor mill is buzzing with stories of him making music again. Personaly I think he should be number one on both lists.
• God, why can't all you people just accept the PROOF that you're all WRONG?
• -realises- Al Stewart is NOT ON THAT LIST BURN PILLAGE KILL!
• Bob Dylan is a songwriting genius. If you don't get that yet, maybe someday you'll be lucky enough to experience this truth. I'm dead serious. You might not enjoy your first-ever sip of fine wine if you've never tasted wine before, but if you're lucky you'll end up enjoying a whole new world opening up before you as your experience of wine drinking expands.
• It's true. If I listen to enough Dylan in one sitting, I start weaving, having trouble sitting upright, and eventually I fall over and find myself slobbering into the phone to some ex-girlfriend or other about what her real problem is. Same as with wine.
• I bet the ho-hum attitude about Dylan reflects a more general dislike of the genres he wrote in. Folk or folk-influenced music isn't "good music," or whatever. Mind you, I think the ghost of Townes Van Zandt deserves the number two spot on the list, if only in an honorary capacity. And while I like Patty Griffin a lot, and I think she deserves to be high up on the list, I'd feel better if she and Lucinda switched spots. Not that these things matter.
• RUFUS WAINWRIGHT IS THE ONLY MAN I WOULD BE GAY FOR. Seriously where's rufus????? Am I alone with Sir Elton in thinking he's tops???? Has anyone heard any of his albums, all of which are incredibly excellent???
• Rufus is the shit, man.
• I'm only discovering the genius that is the Wainwright family now and can't get enough of Rufus's music. And to think I first heard him on the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge.
• Smo - I like folk music, as well as other genres. Many people will discount Dylan because he was part of a folk movement of sorts that led to more rock and blues later on. That's not the case with me. Songwriters, again, must create music to work with their lyrics. Dylan's music is incredibly lacking. Music doesn't need to be complicated, but songs should at least differ in rhythm or chords. If anyone wants to talk about a great folk songwriter, then listen to Nick Drake. It's unfortunate more people never will hear of his work or his life.
• Nick Drake thinks he's a gangster when in reality it is commonly thought that he is a wankster.
• A lot of people I like didn't score higher than 50. I definitely agree that the make-up of the editorial list suggests a certain age and predilection on the part of the editors. (I didn't bother looking at the readers' list - those are so easy to game.) I mean... Bob Dylan? If you're in your 50s, I guess. It's like the list that punk rock forgot, or rather, vice-versa. At least in the upper rankings. Of the top 10, I'm really only down with Prince and Elvis Costello, and probably Tom Waits, being so high in the ratings. The rest of the top 10 seems to be Boomer Nostalgia Paradise, and I would have rated most of their selections lower on the list. (Does John Lennon even appear AT ALL? Does McCartney deserve to be on there for Wings?) Not related to the Boomer Nostalgia factor is stuff like... how the heck did Sufjan Stevens climb so damn high? A sop thrown to the kids? Much higher for me: Bowie, Morrissey (even if you hate his singing, he's still an impressive lyricist), the TMBG boys (so, so clever!). Maybe Conor Oberst, if only for "The Calendar Hung Itself." Nick Cave and Public Enemy, for sure. Rufus Wainwright deserves placement on the list if only for "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk," but there are many other reasons. Billy Corgan has written some amazing songs, and Machina is an unfairly-maligned album... about the first eight tracks on it are good, some about as good as anything else he's ever done. Those are within the first four tracks. However, Zwan was forgettable and I haven't even managed to hear his solo album from last year. Smashing Pumpkins is now reforming in some capacity, so we'll see where that goes. I think most Americans have heard Nick Drake's music from when "Pink Moon" was featured on a Volkswagen commercial a few years back. I think it also sold a lot of Drake cds at the time.
• Dylan's music is incredibly lacking. Music doesn't need to be complicated, but songs should at least differ in rhythm or chords. Says someone who's obviously listened to very little Dylan. To wit: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall All Along the Watchtower All I Really Want to Do Baby, Let Me Follow You Down Ballad of a Thin Man Blowin' in the Wind Buckets of Rain Desolation Row Don't Think Twice, It's All Right Everything is Broken Forever Young Girl of the North Country Going, Going, Gone Gotta Serve Somebody I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) I Shall Be Released I Threw It All Away I Want You Idiot Wind If Not For You If You See Her, Say Hello Isis Is Ain't Me, Babe It's All Over Now, Baby Blue It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding Jokerman Just Like a Woman Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Knockin' on Heaven's Door Lay Lady Lay Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat Like a Rolling Stone Maggie's Farm Masters of War Meet Me in the Morning Most Likely You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine Mr. Bojangles Mr. Tambourine Man My Back Pages Neighborhood Bully New Morning North Country Blues Nothing Was Delivered On a Night Like This Political World Positively 4th Street Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) Shelter from the Storm Shot of Love Simple Twist of Fate Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again Subterranean Homesick Blues Tangled Up in Blue Tears of Rage The Times They Are A-Changin' Time Passes Slowly Visions of Johanna You're a Big Girl Now You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go It's fine to be contrarian, but to say you dislike Dylan because his songs are all simple or sound the same is effective mainly in showing your ignorance of the music the guy actually produced.
• Maggie comes fleet foot Face full of black soot Talkin that the heat put Plants in the bed but The phones tapped anyway Maggie says that many say They must bust in early may Orders from the D.A. Look out kid Dont matter what you did I love that damn song.
• I'm disappointed in their lack of effort - did nobody even TRY to build a time machine, or re-animate John Lennon's bones so he could stand alongside McCartney?!?
• I listen to Dylan every day, and, as a doctor¹, I recommend to all my patients that they do so as well. McCartney was a better writer than Lennon, and Wings could kick Plastic Ono Band's ass blindfolded. They actually did so at a uber-secret handball competition held in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, in 1974. It's a fact². ¹I am not a doctor. ²Uber-secret handball competition may not have actually taken place. ³It's Jeff Mangum, dammit. And where the hell is Otis Redding and Stephin Merritt?
• Snopes says it was kickball. Details, details.
• Otis lost his eligibility for greatest living songwriter in 1967.
• Oh yeah. I should probably stop sending him those angry e-mails demanding to know why he won't return my other, less angry e-mails.
• Wow layne, you're right. Where the hell is Stephin Merritt?
• And Andrew Lloyd Webber?! Where the hell is Andrew Lloyd Webber???!!!