Best songwriters

no limit here, but I'm going to keep it to 3.
(in no particular order)

1. Robert Smith
3. David Bowie
2. Les Claypool

Also songwriting partnerships (doesn't necessarily mean just 2)
1. Lennon/McCartney
2. Tool (more than the some of it's parts)
3. (I'll have to come back to this one)

Originally posted by karoly aczel
no limit here, but I'm going to keep it to 3.
(in no particular order)

1. Robert Smith
3. David Bowie
2. Les Claypool

Also songwriting partnerships (doesn't necessarily mean just 2)
1. Lennon/McCartney
2. Tool (more than the some of it's parts)
3. (I'll have to come back to this one)

1 Woody Guthrie
2 Bob Dylan
3 Joni Mitchell
4 Ralph McTell

Originally posted by karoly aczel
no limit here, but I'm going to keep it to 3.
(in no particular order)

1. Robert Smith
3. David Bowie
2. Les Claypool

Paul Simon
Leonard Cohen
Lennart Nijgh (non-Dutchmen are not required to know this one).

As for partnerships, Madness' songs are much more meaningful and often even more subtle than most people give them credit for.

Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Paul Simon
Leonard Cohen
Lennart Nijgh (non-Dutchmen are not required to know this one).

As for partnerships, Madness' songs are much more meaningful and often even more subtle than most people give them credit for.

Richard

Lennart seems a prolific sort, read his Wiki article, RIP.

Ok, some more:

Good choices with Cohen and Simon. Although we folkies have a bone to pick with Mr Simon, he went to England, met Bert Jansch and learned Scarborough fair from Bert and Martin Carthy, and Angie from Bert. So he brought both tunes back to the US and in 1967 made huge hits out of both with not so much as a thank you from either Bert or Martin, not to mention royalties. That makes him a jerk in my mind.

So next on my list

Carol King,

Bruce Springstein

Jim Croce, his life cut short.

James Taylor.

Tom Waits
Bob Dylan
Lennon McCartney
Mark Cohn
Jeff Black

Originally posted by buckky
Tom Waits
Bob Dylan
Lennon McCartney
Mark Cohn
Jeff Black

Tom waits definatley.

I think it would be fair to say that it becomes harder to write original tunes when all the great chord progressions have been taken by the songwriters in the 60's and 70's.

Can anyone think of any song that actually sticks with them from say 2000 onwards?

Originally posted by sonhouse
Good choices with Cohen and Simon. Although we folkies have a bone to pick with Mr Simon, he went to England, met Bert Jansch and learned Scarborough fair from Bert and Martin Carthy, and Angie from Bert. So he brought both tunes back to the US and in 1967 made huge hits out of both with not so much as a thank you from either Bert or Martin, not to mention royalties. That makes him a jerk in my mind.

I'll allow that he isn't always the nicest of people (but then, neither was the greatest composer ever - J.S. Bach had some temper!), but not for that reason.
Scarborough fair is not owned by either Jansch or Carthy. It's much, much older than them. If anyone should be credited, it's the English people as a whole - no, make that the British people as a whole, because who knows how many Celtic influences are in it?
As for Anji (which I presume you mean - I don't think S&G ever recorded a Stones song), you simply have the facts wrong. Not only is it not Bert Jansch's, but on the album the real writer is explicitly named as Davey Graham.

Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
I'll allow that he isn't always the nicest of people (but then, neither was the greatest composer ever - J.S. Bach had some temper!), but not for that reason.
Scarborough fair is not owned by either Jansch or Carthy. It's much, much older than them. If anyone should be credited, it's the English people as a whole - no, make that the British people as a Jansch's, but on the album the real writer is explicitly named as Davey Graham.

Richard

There are two angies, Davy/Bert Angie and the Stone's Anji. The thing about Davy Graham, I have a buddy in Tel Aviv, Shay Tochner, a great guitarist in his own right, told me Graham stole Angie from a buddy of his or his brother, forget which now. But he claims Davy Graham did not write Angie. If you ever heard Davy's version, it is much truncated, only a shadow of Bert Jansch's version. So it was Jansch's version that Simon stole. He attempted to play it but was not up to that tune, which is way beyond most guitar players of any level. Bert's version was THE version. All the rest are sorry imitations and on a whole other level than Davy's version.

I tend to believe Shay's story because listening close to Davy's version, it just does not sound like his style, especially the truncated version he plays. Shay's story has the ring of truth to it.

In any event, Bert Jansch's version of Angie is THE definitive version, no doubt about that.

About Scarborough Fair, it was their arrangement Simon stole, he added some more instruments like harpsichord and such but it is essentially just as Martin Carthy and the Waterson's played it.

Of course Scarborough fair is an ancient tune but don't forget, Martin and Bert are both British so it is their county's tune.

Have you ever listened to Martin Carthy or his daughter, Eliza Carthy? She has taken the folk community by storm with her raspy breathy sexy as hell voice!

And she is a hell of a fiddler. She had a playing partner, a girl fiddler and singer and they sang this song, the Bonnie Light horsman, and then did this fiddle duet at the end of the song, great stuff!

Some other songwriters worth mentioning:

Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
Elvis Costello
Neil Finn
Andy Partridge
Elton John/Bernie Taupin

Cole Porter
George and Ira Gershwin
Hoagy Carmichael
Sammy Cahn
Duke Ellington
Johnny Mercer
WC Handy

You folks really have to get out of your own generation. Pretty shallow picks being listed on this thread.

Originally posted by sonhouse
There are two angies, Davy/Bert Angie and the Stone's Anji.

Erm, the Stones' one is Angie, the one on S&G's album is Anji.

As for your mate in Jaffa, well, it's his word against that of all professional accounts I've read. I know who I prefer to believe.

Richard

Originally posted by badmoon
Cole Porter
George and Ira Gershwin
Hoagy Carmichael
Sammy Cahn
Duke Ellington
Johnny Mercer
WC Handy

You folks really have to get out of your own generation. Pretty shallow picks being listed on this thread.

You referring to me?

Cause if you are , I'd like to know which of my choices you think are below par?

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Erm, the Stones' one is Angie, the one on S&G's album is Anji.

As for your mate in Jaffa, well, it's his word against that of all professional accounts I've read. I know who I prefer to believe.

Richard

I stand corrected, both Bert and the Stones are Angie, of course the stones version is a song with nothing in common. And you are right about S&G, I guess calling it Anji was his way of mollifying his conscience.

In the way of evidence about the authorship of Angie the instrumental, try to find Davy Graham's version, you will see it is first of all, nothing like anything in his style, and further, very truncated and simplified compared to Bert Janschs' version.

Which is not to say I am not impressed with Davy Graham's playing, he is a genius. But in this one tune, it does not sound anything like his other tunes.

Here is his original version:

YouTube

Interestingly enough, he calls it Anji.

Supposedly written when he was 19.

Just for reference, here is Bert Jansch doing Angie.

YouTube

At this years oscars, they gave tribute to those who died last year, 2011, and Bert Jansch was shown and the tune the played for a few seconds was Angie.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
You referring to me?

Cause if you are , I'd like to know which of my choices you think are below par?

I won't argue with Lennon/Mcartney. But Robert Smith of The Cure? I haven't heard enough of Craypools writings but I know him as a top rate musician.

My point is that a fan of music should listen before and beyond what they've heard since they were a kid in high school. Some of these lists are so, so limited that I can hardly believe that they truly love music.

Originally posted by badmoon
You folks really have to get out of your own generation. Pretty shallow picks being listed on this thread.

Take it to Sports Fan Forum, spanky!