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Serious Songwriters Revisited


Sara

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Let's try this again....best songwriters, here's some of the posts from the original thread:

From Scott:

Kurt Cobain

Eddie Vedder

Michael Stipe

Tammy:

Bernie Taupin :coolio:

Ken:

Hands down, Gordon Lightfoot. :bow:

CyberDemon:

Serj Tankian - SOAD

Anthony Keidis(I dunno how it's spelled) - RHCP

Wayne Static - Static-X

Agent M - Tsunami Bomb

Dave Grohl - Probot/Foo Fighters

Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin

Robert Plant - Led Zeppelin

James LaBrie - Dream Theater

Rob Zombie - White Zombie/ Rob Zombie

Costellogirl:

Ryan Adams

Joni Mitchell

Lennon/McCartney

Sarah McLachlan

Elvis Costello

PinkFloyd:

Best songwriter is so, so subjective, but in my opinion Neil Peart, Roger waters and John Lennon are among the best lyricist's in my book!

Cindy:

I read a study once about age and musical taste. It said that people on average like the music that they liked at age 23 the best. This might explain why I like STP so much, but there is so much more to like about music than just the music from your early adult life. When I was four or five I had an older neighbor across the street that let me listen to my first Beatles song, "I feel fine", and for a couple of years afterwards I wouldn't listen to anything else. I bought every album they ever made including the Hollywood Bowl and Hamburg live recordings. Tough to do when begging from my mom and grandparents was my only source of income. At that age I thought that no one but the Beatles had anything to offer musically. I was wrong.

Explaining why a person doesn't like a certain music or type of music is totally different than explaining why that person is wrong or an idiot for liking something. That goes to taste, which is a personal not a social issue. These boards are a bit classic rock fan heavy, but even if someone doesn't like the Cure, you can't deny Robert Smith could write a good song filled with personal emotion and usually a large amount of suffering. Water's songs had the same type of emotion and suffering but with a different type of sound. Not right or wrong, just different. Neil Peart, the greatest ever in my opinion, rarely wrote of personal emotion. His songs were more about society and the human condition and he even refused to ever write a love song. Music isn't bad just simply because it is popular. Taupin wrote some great songs with Elton John. Several of John and Paul's songs were popular as well. Jim Morrison wrote some really great songs, I just don't like the Doors type of sound. I think the easiest way to ruin a great Symphony is to write words for it, let someone sing, and call it Opera. I just don't enjoy the sound. That doesn't make me wrong, uncultured, or an idiot; it simply means that I'm not a fan of Opera.

Here are some of my favorites that weren't listed by anyone else.

Peter Gabriel -- looking for some info on one of his songs is what first brought me to Songfacts.

Matt Johnson of The The -- music was mainly concerned with the lives of quiet desperation that many people lead

Aimee Mann -- with and w/o Til Tuesday could really put the emotion of loneliness into words.

A couple of years ago my faith in new music was restored by several bands. My current favorite band is Linkin Park. The best concert I have ever seen was Puddle of Mudd, there's a 'why' story to this but I won't share it now. POD definitely wrote some 'serious' songs.

Daniel:

1.Bob Dylan:The best lyrics anyone will ever write

2. Slash,Axl and Duff of G n' R for the song:Civil War

BeatleAnt:

lots of great picks. I'll add ...

Bruce Cockburn

Jim Steinman

Jon Anderson

Ian Anderson

and did anyone mention Roger Waters?

Sorry everyone, couldn't get them all but hopefully this is enough to continue a civilized discussion. :angel:

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I'm assuming that I'm a good bit older than most of you, which probably accounts for my list:

Kris Kristofferson

Shel Silverstein

Neil Sedaka

Dolly Parton

Harry Nilsson

Jim Croce

But you'd have to go a long way to improve on the lyrics of Cole Porter!

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Simon & Garfunkle for one. The song "The sound of silence" and a few others. On the other hand, they have some really up beat songs too...but they've shown they had the ability to write serious as well.

TOOL, most of their songs are deep and meaningful IMO.

Jim Croche

and...at the memoent I am drawing a blank...... ::

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