Monday, March 7, 2011

Songwriters

   I love music. It's my favorite form of entertainment, and artistic expression. I have a pretty varied taste in music ranging from rock, blues and jazz, to classical, flamenco, even a little (very little) hip-hop and just about anything in-between. Today I want to cover some of my favorite songwriters. This list, like all my other lists, is in no particular order.


   Bob Dylan. You can't have a credible songwriter list without putting Dylan on it. He is the best songwriter of our time period, and quite possibly any time period. You would be hard pressed to find any musician or band who wasn't influenced by Bob Dylan, either directly or indirectly.


   Bradley Nowell. Nowell is one of the most underrated songwriters ever. He is a rarity in which nearly every song he wrote was fantastic, with very few, if any, bad songs. I understand that not everyone is into Sublime and their type of music, but if you can look at it from an unbiased, open-minded perspective, I'm sure you would agree with me.


    Jeff Buckley. Not many people even know that this guy ever existed, which is kind of astonishing to me. It may be due to the fact that he only recorded one studio album, Grace. Almost everyone has heard his remake of Hallelujah, in various films and television shows, although they may not even know it. Even though he only produced one album it was ranked by NME as the 23rd greatest album ever.


   Jimi Hendrix. Of course I put Hendrix on this list, he's my favorite guy ever. To refrain from rambling on about Hendrix for too long, I will just say that he is probably the most innovative force in rock music. If you don't believe me then go listen to Machine Gun.


   Neil Young. Another folk/rock musician. From Buffalo Springfield, to Crazy Horse, To CSNY, and his solo work. Neil Young consistently puts out excellent music, not only lyrically, but musically as well. He was even dubbed the "Godfather of Grunge".


   Roger Waters. Waters is the Mad Scientist of rock music. He was the driving force behind the post-Barrett Pink Floyd, with albums like Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall, and so forth. He draws from his darkness within to create these thematic masterpieces. It's even become a "cool thing" to wear Pink Floyd shirts, even if you know next to nothing about the band. By the way, it's not cool. If you do this, then you are a douche bag.


  Johann Sebastian Bach. Not to be confused with that asshole from that shitty 80's buttrock band. While Bach probably wouldn't be considered innovative. He built upon the pre existing musical structure, and paved the way for a lot of artist to come after him.


   Bob Marley. Marley is usually know (often ignorantly) for his marijuana use. Which is a shame, because he was an amazing songwriter. Marley liked to write songs about peace and love. But he also wrote political songs, and songs about internal conflict and struggle. I find it disturbing that so many people think Eric Clapton wrote "I Shot the Sheriff". He didn't, it was Marley damnit!
 

   Ok, that's most of the ones that I could think of off the top of my head. I left a lot of great ones out, mainly because some were more "group efforts" rather than individual efforts, Led Zeppelin for example. Please refrain from leaving "hey you forgot _____" posts. Instead please let me know some of your own favorite songwriters, group, individual, or otherwise.

31 comments:

  1. I think that with musical tastes like this, you must be a good connoisseur of music. Where have all the good songwriters gone anyway?

    I think my all-time favorite songwriters though it would have to be Lennon and McCartney.

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  2. wow man, I clicked on the blog when i saw bob dylan on my feed.. than I see you chose brad nowel and jimi hendrix also.

    You have same exact taste as me.. Jimi Hendrix and Nowell are my gods... ALong with cobain, frusciante, and a few others.

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  3. Awesome pics. Lulz at Bach with the shades, but I do enjoy some classical music from time to time.

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  4. I dig that list. Nice tastes man, I approve.

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  5. great post, great songwriters.

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  6. Dylan and Marley, definitely one of the greatest of all time. I'll need to check that Buckley guy, never heard of him.

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  7. Dylan, Hendrix, Young, Waters... You, sir, are correct.
    I know you told us to refrain from remembering artists you forgot, but I can't hold it. LENNON!

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  8. Yeeeup, definitely never heard of Jeff Buckley. I can appreciate the work of the other guys, even if I don't like their music so much.

    Nice Bach picture though haha

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  9. Ok, as I understand, by songwriting you mean both music composing and text creation, or if text is not present - mere composing. If that is the case then I'd like to use the opportunity to speak about Joe Satriani, who seems to always be related to just as a master guitar player. Well, he's also the creator of his songs, and many of them offer some deep, intriguing and illustrative sound. Their main disadvantage is that only the main guitar parts are well-thought, so I always thought that satriani just needs to find his band and then they'll be the coolest, but when the band finally happened, it sounded really shallow and disappointed me. For a brief moment satriani also played with deep purple, who also created some timeless songs.

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  10. All great songwriters, couldn't agree more!

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  11. Thanks for the great post! I'm glad to see that you have such a great taste in music.

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  12. Very strong list, you forgot Mozart haha

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  13. thx for everything, good musical taste, nice pics, cya

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  14. my favourites among your choices: bach and dylan. true masters of their genre

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  15. I could use a little more Neil Young in my life. A little before my time, but I've really liked what I've heard.

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  16. Dude, come back! If you need help with posting ideas, just let me know and we can brainstorm.

    "Frylock"

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  17. I would take issue with the statement that Dylan is the absolute best of our time. I personally Vic Chesnutt and Daniel Johnston even better than Dylan, though he is certainly one of the greats. Kudos to you for including Bradley Nowell and Jeff Buckley on this. Agree and agree. Following.

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  18. i wish sublime could have made more albums. its one of the greatest cds ever.

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  19. All about bob marley (RIP) hes byfar the most chilled out artist i listen too.

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  20. this is such an awesome list. thanks

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  21. Neil Young, Jimmy Hendrix are where its at. Nothing beats Hendrix's Valleys of Neptune, and Castles Made of Sand

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  22. nice post thx for sharing, Bach is awesome

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  23. I really like your blog, lists alot of cool stuff, keep up the good work! :)

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  24. A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly

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  25. The Legend: Lou Reed. The Man from the Velvet Underground the band that changed the world.

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  26. This guy knows his stuff, I gotta agree with all of these picks.

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