Paste Magazine's Top 100 Living Songwriters

What is it about making lists, anyway? They're pointless and meaningless and no way they can be all-inclusive and accurate, but they sure are fun.

Anyhow, here's the list of the 100 Greatest Living Songwriters from the current issue of Paste Magazine. Interesting list, a little bit weird. They cheat a bit by throwing in entire bands as one entry which sometimes makes sense but other times it's just a blatant way to save spots on the list - i.e. listing "Fleetwood Mac" as one entity when it was alway pretty apparent that Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie were distinct writers working under the same umbrella. Heck, why not just lump everyone whose work is published by the same publisher together as one group?

The list:

100. T Bone Burnett
99. Outkast
98. Jay Farrar
97. Josh Ritter
96. Jimmy Cliff
95. Patti Smith
94. Sam Phillips
93. Joseph Arthur
92. Alejandro Escovedo
91. The Drive-By Truckers
90. Nick Cave
89. Victoria Williams
88. Parliament
87. Lyle Lovett
86. Sam Beam (Iron & Wine)
85. David Bazan (Pedro the Lion)
84. They Might Be Giants
83. Fleetwood Mac
82. John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)
81. The Flamming Lips
80. Pink Floyd (including Barrett)
79. Stephen Malkmus
78. Robert Pollard
77. Bruce Cockburn
76. Will Oldham
75. Ron Sexsmith
74. Over the Rhine
73. Julie Miller
72. Michael Jackson
71. Vic Chesnutt
70. Alex Chilton
69. Merle Haggard
68. Allen Touissant
67. Conor Oberst
66. Frank Black
65. Bill Mallonee
64. Andy Partridge (but no Colin Moulding?)
63. Richard Thompson
62, Sting
61. John Hiatt
60. Jimmy Webb
59. Jack White
58. Sly Stone
57. Morrissey
56. James Brown
55. Dolly Parton
54. Aimee Mann
53. James Taylor
52. Paul Westerberg
51. Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham
50. Public Enemy
49. Cat Stevens
48. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
47. Sufjan Stevens
46. David Byrne
45. Jackson Browne
44. Al Green
43. Ryan Adams
42. Loretta Lynn
41. Ray Davies
40. Burt Bacharach & Hal David
39. Led Zeppelin (Bonham included, an interesting twist on the word "living")
38. Kris Kristoffersn
37. Smokey Robinson
36. Beck
35. Steve Earle
34. John Fogerty
33. Pete Townshend
32. Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller
31. Carole King
30. John Prine
29. Tom Petty
28. Robbie Robertson
27. Radiohead
26. REM
25. Chuck Berry
24. Jeff Tweedy
23. Elton John & Bernie Taupin
22. Lucinda Williams
21. Lou Reed
20. Van Morrison
19. Patty Griffin
18. U2
17. Holland-Dozier-Holland
16. David Bowie
15. Willie Nelson
14. Stevie Wonder
13. Paul Simon
12. Jagger-Richards
11. Randy Newman
10. Prince
9. Joni Mitchell
8. Elvis Costello
7. Brian Wilson
6. Leonard Cohen
5. Paul McCartney
4. Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
3. Bruce Springsteen
2. Neil Young
1. Bob Dylan

As always with these lists there's some bizarre placements - as much as I love Radiohead and REM, they're better songwriters than Ray Davies and Pete Townshend??? Stephen Malkmus is better than Nick Cave, Patti Smith or any of the three from Fleetwood Mac (well, maybe Nicks)??? Beck is better than Smokey Robinson and Burt Bacharach? Jeff Tweedy is better than 76 other people on this list? Hell, if they swapped his and Farrar's spots, I could maybe understand it.

Then as always there are the omissions - which an editorial does address and to be fair there's no way these lists could ever be all inclusive - but really...No Stephin Merritt? Damien Jurado? Robyn Hitchcock? Bob Mould? Robert Forster (and dammit, Grant McLennan was still alive when this list was compiled!) Neko Case? Rufus Wainwright? Martha Wainwright? Loudon Wainwright? Cat Power? Joe Henry? Karl Wallinger? Sinead O'Connor? Neil Finn? Tim Finn? Kate Bush? Tori Amos? Mick Jones? Bryan Ferry? Rosanne Cash? Tracy Chapman? Peter Himmelman? Neil Diamond? Guy Clark? Tom Russell? Gordon Lightfoot? Tom Verlaine? Richard Hell? Jimmie Dale Gilmour? Donovan? Peter Case? Peter Gabriel? Mark Kozelek? Joe Ely? Michael Nesmith? The Kinman Brothers? Shelby Lynne? Allison Moorer? Neil Halsted & Rachel Goswell? Hell, Billy Joel has written enough decent songs to be more deserving of inclusion than a few of the people on this list. And as long as we're tossing the odd entire band in as a songwriter, why not Wire? The Sex Pistols? Blondie? Yo La Tengo?

There's also a little bit of obvious ballot box stuffing - just like Rolling Stone always fudges their lists to make sure the 60s reign supreme in all things, Paste's roots as an Alt.Christian music distributor are showing in the inclusions of Over the Rhine, Julie Miller, Victoria Williams and Bill Mallonee (as well as a shout-out to the late Mark Heard) - all actually deserving of being on the list, but would most likely never turn up if it were any other magazine compiling it.



Post Edited (09-25-06 23:23)

Oops - my prior rant omitted some of the most obvious omissions:

Shane Macgowan
Nick Lowe
Graham Parker
Jonathon Richman
Joe Jackson
Chris Stamey
Peter Holsapple
Marshall Crenshaw
Amy Rigby
Lisa Germano
Ron & Russell Mael
Stew
Chrissie Hynde
Joe Pernice
Ian Hunter
Bjorn & Bennie



Post Edited (06-11-06 13:39)

Ryan Adams ahead of Westerberg? That's just so wrong on so many levels.....Paul Weller missing is pretty glaring too I'd say .....

wasn't this a reader's poll? or is this their response? either way, i don't care. hehe

even after mr google told me who "Bill Mallonee" is, i'm still scratching my head...

huh. Well, that was an odd list. Mixing individuals and collaborators (David-Bacharach) and bands altogether makes the list structurally incoherent. And the alt-Christian bias is transparent. I mean, I love Sam Phillips and David Bazan (and even OTR and whatnot) as much as the next Jew, but no one can tell me that the estimable Patty Griffin (#19) is 44 SPOTS better than Richard Thompson (#63)?

Songwriters, meaning: the song in its unperformed state. Somebody who can write a great tune as it looks on paper and can be performed by anybody is a great songwriter.
That would include, say, Jerry Bock, Lee Adams, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, certainly.
And, by those standards, there goes half the list.

Dylan stays near the top, Bowie slides way down, Zeppelin are pffft, Ray Davies goes top 10, Springsteen is continents away (check the moon, maybe), inflate Carole King and Pollard, etc.

Correct me, if wrong, but doesn't Dolly Parton make a living as a singer of covers?

Is there an inherent threat: "Don't die or you're off our list!" (heh heh)



Post Edited (06-14-06 15:10)

Great point by Paganizer - totally agree.

Also top 100? Come on... wouldn't number anything above number 50 or so be interchangable with another 500 names?

I guess that is the game though...

"wasn't this a reader's poll? or is this their response?"

This was the expert's panel version - can't actually remember who contributed besides Cameron Crowe. There was a reader's poll version also, but I don't feel like typing it all out.

Bill Mallonee of Vigilantes of Love actually is a great songwriter who deserves more attention than he's ever gotten, but like I said, only the Paste editorial staff would maneuver him into #65 out of 100. But heck, it's their magazine and their list, so I guess they can slap him in there wherever they want. He didn't make the readers' list, but Adam Duritz did. And Ryan Adams made the top 20. Jeff Tweedy is #11, two spots ahead of Brian Wilson. Ray Davies still couldn't break into the top 40. He's at #47. Sufjan Stevens is at #46. I love the hell out of Sufjan Stevens and someday he may actually write something as amazing as "Waterloo Sunset." But he sure hasn't yet.

So looking at the readers' list, the experts' list looks a lot better by comparison.

Smokey Robinson at #37? You have to be fucking kidding me. So Elton John is a better songwriter than Smokey? Feh! I say. Feh! to that. Patty Griffin and Joni Mitchell are better than Smokey?

Also, so many soul songwriters got short shrift. Holland/Dozier/Holland are there, and so is Smokey, but no Marvin Gaye. The guy from Pedro the Lion is a better songwriter than Marvin F. Gaye? Steve Cropper, Hayes/Porter, Otis Redding. No Ray Charles? This is Ray F. Charles we're talking about.

Doc Pomus
Strummer/Jones

OK, dinner's ready, but there are so many more ...

Don't forget the list is "living" songwriters , so no Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, etc........but yeah the list is awful anyway

Pete Seeger

dolly writes tunes...... shitty, maudlin ,pap like "I Will Always Love You", "Jolene" and their ilk, but she does write them songs!