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I've seen some rubbish lists in my time but this takes the biscuit


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4 minutes ago, bearhart74 said:

songwriting list without Randy Neuman, John Hiatt, Stevie Wonder, George and Ira Gershwin or Duke Ellington is fundamentally flawed.. as i expected.

If you gonna diss the list, at least make your diss accurate.

Stevie Wonder 10

Randy Newman 25

 

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Whilst I'm not an encyclopaedia of music/songwriting talent, I have been around a goodly while and I think I have had exposure to a very wide range of music throughout my life. A quick scan through and I hadn't heard of about 10% of them, whilst there are clearly some people missing. Lists eh, whatcha gonna do?

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15 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Of course it would have to be the US-centric, waste of paper / atoms in cyberspace that is Rolling Stone but their list of 100 greatest songwriters has Abba's Benny and Bjorn at 100, below many of whom are unfit to kiss their stacked shoes.  Bacharach & David are at a lowly #32 when anyone knows they should be a shoo-in for top 5. And putting Lennon & MacCartney  - as separate writers - below Dylan at #1!  What?!! Here's the link ..

https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/lists-100-greatest-songwriters/

 

Guess who they've been listening to?  Another way of "Making America Great Again !!"  

Edited by Balcro
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4 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Whilst I'm not an encyclopaedia of music/songwriting talent, I have been around a goodly while and I think I have had exposure to a very wide range of music throughout my life. A quick scan through and I hadn't heard of about 10% of them, whilst there are clearly some people missing. Lists eh, whatcha gonna do?

If there are only 10% you haven't heard of that surely makes the list quite good doesn't it?

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18 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

If there are only 10% you haven't heard of that surely makes the list quite good doesn't it?

Kinda. To my mind to be considered a great songwriter you'd ...

a. have to be quite prolific - let's face it anyone can write a handful of good songs in a lifetime but to be pretty consistent over hundreds?

b. write songs that aren't here today gone tomorrow, don't really date and which are timeless . Let's face it the vast majority of songs we're subjected to go in one ear and out the other or they quickly outstay their welcome after a few listens

c. have melodies that are memorable and which anyone can whistle or sing along to. 

d. have written a good number of classic songs performed or covered by many other respected artists

e. penned several songs that have become standards 

So, that would whittle that list right down 

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1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

a. have to be quite prolific - let's face it anyone can write a handful of good songs in a lifetime but to be pretty consistent over hundreds?

b. write songs that aren't here today gone tomorrow, don't really date and which are timeless .

That would mean that you couldn't be a good songwriter for quite some time, even if you were writing fantastic songs, because there is no way of deciding if they dated. And what sort of timeline?

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

c. have melodies that are memorable and which anyone can whistle or sing along to. 

Like 'Get knocked down' by chumbawumba? Or 'Boom boom boom' by the outhere brothers?

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

d. have written a good number of classic songs performed or covered by many other respected artists

So someone like kate bush would be a terrible songwriter as not many of her songs have been covered. Or Peter Gabriel / Phil Collins  etc.

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

e. penned several songs that have become standards

OK, so Mustang sally would be good songwriting, but Sledgehammer would be bad?

I don't know, it all seems subjective to me.

 

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1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

That would mean that you couldn't be a good songwriter for quite some time, even if you were writing fantastic songs, because there is no way of deciding if they dated. And what sort of timeline?

Like 'Get knocked down' by chumbawumba? Or 'Boom boom boom' by the outhere brothers?

So someone like kate bush would be a terrible songwriter as not many of her songs have been covered. Or Peter Gabriel / Phil Collins  etc.

OK, so Mustang sally would be good songwriting, but Sledgehammer would be bad?

I don't know, it all seems subjective to me.

 

Nope, to be considered one of the greats you'd probably need to meet all 5 requirements. And yes, time probably is the big test. How long? well certainly a good few years after a writer has passed on or retired. 

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15 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

So why do you buy it, you stupid old so-and-so..? ¬¬

...

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I ceased buying Rolling Stone in 1982 after an egregiously breathless editorial which opined that the band A Flock Of Seagulls were the future of rock 'n' roll. Not long after I commenced a guerrilla campaign against the magazine and its ownership which continues to this day.

The high point of my initiative was the covert introduction of catering-strength chilli powder into Mr Jann Wenner's underpants immediately prior to the 2010 Emmy Awards whereat he was a nominee for an award. The camera dallied only briefly at Mr Wenner's table but even this short glimpse was enough to reveal the excruciating agony on his face as the fiery capsaicinoids interacted with his nobbies. 

image.jpeg.621d13a44e68b21feeec35200c4405ab.jpeg

Rolling Stone Founder Jann Wenner

Ah, you say, but Jann Wenner no longer owns Rolling Stone, having sold it to media tycoon Mr Jay Penske.

Me, bothered? Is it not enough that Wenner birthed the Frankenstein monster that tore the limbs from rock music, added wheels and turned the form into a hostess trolley designed to ferry around his progressive notions as if they were cucumber sandwiches and butterfly cakes at an old biddies' tea party?

But, you cry, why has not the Stone's new owner Mr Jay Penske become the focus of your white-hot though entirely justified animus?

Well, hasn't he, I counter, a sly smile playing about my lips.

What of the recent incident when a wheel mysteriously came off little Jay's electric golf cart and caused a high-speed accident on the links which nearly wiped out not only Mr Penske but his tee partners Pres. B. Obama, Sec. M. Albright and Mr Jay Leno?

The fight goes on.
 

Edited by skankdelvar
  • Haha 4
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