Some great candidates for this title. Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein, Bob Dylan, John Lennon & Paul McCartney and Stephen Sondheim.

However, my vote goes to George and Ira Gershwin. I say that because I think they were the first to transcended the limits of the popular song: I Got Rhythm (1924), The Man I Love (1924), Someone to Watch Over Me (1926), Embraceable You (1927), Funny Face (1927), Wonderful (1930), Summertime (1935), Bess, You Is My Woman Now (1935), It Ain’t Necessarily So (1935), I Loves You Porgy (1935), Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off (1937), They All Laughed (1937), and They Can’t Take That Away From Me (1937).

I think we need three categories. One for greatest lyrics, one for greatest score and one for the people who write both. It is interesting that most of the people you list were in fact partnerships.

My nominations would include:Simon & Garfunkel, The Bee Gees, Phil Collins, Mark Knoffler and Pink Floyd. Just to be different!

I've got to throw in a vote for David Bowie, and Eric Clapton. :]

Bob Dylan for me on both musical and lyrical grounds

What about John Lennon? He sure made his mark in the world of music and politics.

We definitely need a category for greatest writers of most hilarious bits of lyrics. My votes go to the following:

Warren Zevon for Werewolves of London and sheer audaciousness!
"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook's
Going to get himself a big dish of beef chow mein
Ah-oo, Werewolves of London"

John Prine for Speed of the Sound of Loneliness and coming home curly!

"You come home late and you come home early
You come on big when you're feeling small
You come home straight and you come home curly
Sometimes you don't come home at all"

Kirsty MacColl for managing to get chip shops and Elvis into the same line
"There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
Just like you swore to me that you'd be true
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
But he's a liar and I'm not sure about you"

Now that is true greatness!

E-Julie

Dylan, certainly, and Lennon and McCartney. But for lyrics, I think Leonard Cohen is especially excellent - The Sisters of Mercy is as good as anything gets. Mick Jagger is pretty damn good, too. Joni Mitchell?

Ah, the splendid Leonard Cohen, though I'd nominate Bird On A Wire myself. Hmm, now I'm thinking of a category, into which LC clearly belongs, of songwriters you can only listen to while lying on the floor with a bottle of Jack Daniels...

greatest song MACARTHUR PARK by JIMMY WEBB
songwriter of all time BOB DYLAN
interpreter of own material JIM MORRISON
blues JIMMY REED

20th Century JOHNNY MERCER
Piano songs NAT KING COLE

I would like to add Hoyt Axton to the list of the great ones as well as nominating Beetoven's 9th symphony as the greatest single piece of music ever written.

He seems to have cheered up a bit in his old age
Leonard Cohen has been ruining my life since adolescence. Though I did find his advice in the lyrics below invaluable

"I was born in a beauty salon
My father was a dresser of hair
My mother was a girl you could call on
When you called she was always there
When you called she was always there
When you called she was always there
When you called she was always there
When you called she was always there
Ah but don't go home with your hard-on
It will only drive you insane
You can't shake it (or break it) with your Motown
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
I've looked behind all of the faces
That smile you down to you knees
And the lips that say, Come on, taste us
And when you try to they make you say Please
When you try to they make you say Please
When you try to they make you say Please
When you try to they make you say Please
When you try to they make you say Please
Ah but don't go home with your hard-on ...
Here come's your bride with her veil on
Approach her, you wretch, if you dare
Approach her, you ape with your tail on
Once you have her she'll always be there
Once you have her she'll always be there
Once you have her she'll always be there
Once you have her she'll always be there
Once you have her she'll always be there
Ah but don't go home with your hard-on ...
So I work in that same beauty salon
I'm chained to the old masquerade
The lipstick, the shadow, the silicone
I follow my father's trade
I follow my father's trade
Yes I follow my father's trade
Yes I follow my father's trade
Yes I follow my father's trade
Ah but don't go home with your hard-on
It will only drive you insane
You can't shake it (or break it) with your Motown
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain
You can't melt it down in the rain"

Well, at least you're getting down to the nitty gritty, John. I'd think that with all the country-lovin' Brits on this wire, somebody would have come up with my nominee -- at least in the Dylan class -- and that would be Rhodes Scholar Kris Kristofferson. I could start a list of his great stuff, but that would use up the bandwidth.

I'd also nominate Gary P. Nunn, who wrote, in "London Homesick Blues" that he could "substantiate the rumor/ that the English sense of humor/ is drier than the Texas sand", but I'd probably be run off this forum in a flash.

Happy holidays to all,

Bob Cox (next door to Texis in the New Mexico sand...)

I have so many - Definitely John Lennon and Paul McCartney, I think one of the best creative partnerships in History!

Bobby Darin - amazing artist and songwriter (go see Beyond the Sea its the best!)

All the Tin Pan Alley writers such as Neil Sedaka and Carole King - they created music so distinctive to that period of music history.

David Bowie - songs like heroes and Life on Mars - Amazing!


There are just a few because there are so many!

Caroline Hall

John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan
Van Morrison
Bruce Springsteen

My choice in English:

Leonard Cohen
Bob Dylan
Johnny Cash

in French:
Jacques Brel
Leo Ferré
Georges Brassens

in Portuguese:
Chico Buarque de Hollanda
Gilberto Gil
Caetano Veloso

_____________

James: You picked my favorites too. I would just add Natalie Merchant (10,000 maniacs) Carole King, Neil Sadaka (sp), so many more. Too many to list, but my favs are Beatles and Bruce. The Boss is my "main man" (lucky I don't have a jeslous husband:)

Oh and Freddy Mercury- (Queen)-, who also had the greatest voice in r and r. (And Roy Orbison)

love it all

Dawn

My favourite Italian one:

Fabrizio De Andrè.

He also translated some songs by Brassens and Cohen.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Beatles before they became famous (the summer of 1962). It was just before they released their first record Love Me Do? Their performance was amateurish and the reaction from the audience was not very good (no screaming girls at this stage of their career). However, the next day I told all my friends they were going to be big. Why? Well, they mostly sung Tamla Motown covers. I was a great fan of the originals (Money, Please Mr. Postman, etc.) and was not impressed with their versions. However, they did sing a couple of songs that I did not know. These were songs that they had written. I thought they were very good and quite unlike any other UK band was doing at the time. You could see that they had been influenced by Rhythm and Blues music but it had its own distinctive sound. Strange as it might seem, it seemed to be a mixture of R & B, British folk music and skiffle. I have never heard Lennon and McCarthy admit to this but I think they had probably been influenced by the records of Lonnie Donegan.

The Beatles were one of the acts supporting Roy Orbison. I am sorry to say that Orbison completely overshadowed the Beatles. Orbison lacked charisma and was one of the few rock stars that you never wanted to be. He stood in the middle of the stage with his guitar and sang such songs such as Only the Lonely, Running Scared, Love Hurts and Crying. It was magical. The quality of his voice was truly amazing. So was his ability to convey raw emotion. At that time I had never experienced a broken love affair. Orbison obviously had and was able to communicate that to his audience. It was like reading a great book. I was taken into a world I knew nothing about.

I never bought any of Orbison’s records. At the time I was a terrible snob who was only willing to buy music performed by black Americans. However, that night, I knew I was in the company of a great artist. He died a long time ago (1988). However, when they play his music on the radio, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in recognition of that night I spent with him in Romford in the summer of 1962.

John:

A bit off topic, but that's what happens at parties, no?

Orbison: If you haven't got it, I heartily recommend Orbison's "Black and White Night" CD -- better yet, get the video of the concert from which the CD is made. It's a marvelous session, reprising most of his hits, with a back-up crowd of such up-and-comers as Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang and others...An absolute necessity for an Orbison fan.

Beatles: When the boys made their first American concert tour (1964 was it?), I was a reporter for United Press International, and assigned to follow them for a while when they invaded mid-America. At Red Rocks, a natural amphitheater in the foothills west of Denver, we in the press were told to stand at stage right, not 30 feet from Ringo's drums, under a gigantic speaker. The set was embarrassingly short (I'm not sure they performed more than seven or eight songs), but, by that time, the lads definitely had their act together, and the girls did nothing BUT scream. My primary memory of the moment was not the music; it was the fear that would surge through my system each time the Beatles would hit one of those famous licks, or take a step forward, or two steps back: We on the stage could literally feel the crowd on the verge of moving toward us, ready to break free and engulf the stage. At those moments, a line of cops, kneeling shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the stage, would rise to their feet and quell the impending surge.

Nothing, not even the cops, could have stopped the audience from visiting us on stage had it chosen to do so, and there were fleeting moments of definite concern for our physical well-being.

I would guess that this was a common occurence at many of those Beatles concerts in those days, and I've often wondered if the boys in the band didn't occasionally experience the same moments of fear...

Bob

And with all this talk about Bobby Darin, let's not forget the team of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

Bob Dylan
Eric Clapton
Metallica
Pink Floyd
Rolling Stones
Van Morrison

Hi all

I endorse the choice of all the artists so far mentioned. Several more outstanding songwriters to add to the mix--

David Bowie, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Lou Reed

And might I recommend the autobiography Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood by Eric Burdon (Thunder Mouth Press, 2001) for some wild stories from the Sixties music scene and onward... one teaser from which being that Burdon claims he was the "Egg Man" referenced in Lennon and McCartney's "I Am the Walrus."

All my best

Chris

How about one of my favorite British gropus, "The Moody Blues"?

'Mack The Knife' by Bobby Darin
'Tous les garçons et les filles' by Francoise Hardy
The Velvet Underground & Nico

I have recently discovered a great songwriter 'Ben Harper'.

i vote for Mark E. Smith of the Fall to join Dylan and Lennon for more-recent singers.
Smiths lyrics are the funniest going.

Elvis Costello "Shipbiulding"

Ray Davis "Waterloo Sunset"

John Lennon "Working Class Hero"

Bob Dylan "Lay Lady Lay"

Jimi Hendrix "Purple Haze"

Joni Mitchell "Big Yellow Taxi"

Marvin Gaye "Whats Going On" Picket lines, and picket signs......Oh the humanity...

One of the greatest anti-war songs ever written.

Another Costello song I love is "Tramp down the dirt" one of the greatest anti Thatcher songs ever written, along with Ghost town, by the Specials

Some of my mates have their own bands:

Ashley Morse
Destonia

Great music, however the Destonia site is not yet completed, samples can be downloaded from Ashleymorse.com

[quote name='Stephen Turner' date='Dec 5 2005, 11:13 PM' post='47461']
[quote name='John Simkin' post='47440' date='Dec 5 2005, 07:55 PM']
[quote name='Stephen Turner' post='47437' date='Dec 5 2005, 05:47 PM']
Elvis Costello "Shipbiulding"
[/quote]

One of the greatest anti-war songs ever written.
[/quote]

Another Costello song I love is "Tramp down the dirt" one of the greatest anti Thatcher songs ever written, along with Ghost town, by the Specials
[/quote]


Also "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello is an all time favorite of mine.

Dawn

Just want to add a few....

Jimmy Buffet
John Prine
Steve Goodman
and of course Lennon & McCartney

Leonard Cohen
Tom Waits
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Nick Cave
Phil Ochs
Sanders-Kupferburg
John Lennon
George Harrison
Vanda-Young
Billy Bragg
Kevin Coyne
Joni Mitchell
Loudon Wainwright III
Kris Kristofferson
Richard Thompson
Jagger-Richards
Ray Davies
Bacharach-David

Favourite cover: Neil Youngs' "Helpless" sung by Buffy St Marie.

Paul Simon
Bob Dylan
John Lennon and Paul McCartney (together, not apart)

Jacques Brel is another one who deserves to be considered one of the best modern songwriters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Brel

I see the woman who inspired some of his best love songs, Madeleine Zeffa Biver committed suicide this week. It is causing some controversy as it was an "assisted suicide".

http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1994142,00.html

In the early 1960s I became a fan of the soul/jazz singer Gene McDaniels. Like me, he became very political during the mid sixties. “Love Letter To America,” “Supermarket Blues,” “Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse” and “Freedom Death Dance” made him a charter member of Richard Nixon's Enemies List. It destroyed his career and very people remember him now. In many ways, it was a great loss to music as he had a fantastic voice. In 1968 he wrote "Compared to What". I think it stands the test of time.

1. Love the lie and lie the love
Hangin' on, with a push and shove
Possession is the motivation
that is hangin' up the God-damn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut (everybody now!) Tryin' to make it real — compared to what?

2. Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs
Twisted children killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old ladies kissin' dogs
Hate the human, love that stinking mutt (I can't stand it!)
Try to make it real — compared to what?

3. The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We're chicken-feathers, all without one gut (God damn it!)
Tryin' to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me, now)

4. Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Tryin' to duck the wrath of God
Preacher's fillin' us with fright
Tryin' to tell us what he thinks is right
He really got to be some kind of nut (I can't use it!) Tryin' to make it real — compared to what?

5. Where's that bee and where's that honey?
Where's my God and where's my money
Unreal values, crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kind of brings to mind ol' young King Tut (He did it now)
Tried to make it real — compared to what?!

http://www.genepoolentertainment.com/home.html

There are a lot more names I cannot remember now, but some that I'll never forget are,

Matt Bellamy
Morrissey
Brett Anderson & Bernard Butler
Paul Banks (from the band Interpol, not from Shed Seven)
Tom Chaplin
Jonsi Birgisson
Jarvis Cocker
James Mudriczki
Teemu Brunila
Fran Healy

From jazz and the American Popular Songbook (in no particular order of genre or preference):

Cole Porter
Harold Arlen
George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
Richard Rodgers
Lorenz Hart
Oscar Hammerstein
Duke Ellington
Wayne Shorter
Horace Silver
Thad Jones
Pepper Adams
Jimmy van Heusen
Sammy Cahn (full disclosure: this lyricist, who put more words in Frank Sinatra's mouth than any other writer, was a dear and close friend)
Jule Styne
Tommy Wolfe
Fran Landesman
Henry Nemo (for one tune: "'Tis Autumn")
"Yip" Harburg ("Over the Rainbow")

For those interested in the subject, Alec Wilder's American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950is the most comprehensive and satisfying reference volume extant.