Willie Nelson. PHASES AND STAGES. THE REDHEADED STRANGER.
Actually, he was the one in Vogue magazine that December. Two guys skinny dipping… my dad is in the water and my god father is not. They walked about ten miles to get there and were two of the thousands of gate crashers. He’s told me stories about sleeping in garbage bags and people sharing food around camp fires. Far cry from the recent ‘Woodstock’, where water was $5 and a slice of pizza was more.
Geez Avoids, I get my hair buzzed so’s I can be a cop and then I find out you were a streaking, stage crashing hippie at Woodstock? In 1969 MY father was pulling boards in a lumber mill and wondering what the hell al this “Earth Day bullshit” was about. To everything, turn, turn, turn… 
I forgot about him! I like Nigger Fucker the best.
This one is easy. ICE CUBE. He wrote Boyz n da Hood, and my favorite Fuck the Police. Not to mention Ghetto Bird, Let it Reign and Bow Down.
Raises his flame shield
Maynard!!!
It’s Methuselah.
Avoids - Were you one of the lucky few who stuck it out all the way to the VERY end and actually saw Hendrix play the anthem? I know by that time 90% of the crowd had left and I just always thought it would be cool to hear from someone who was actually there what that experience was like, especially in light of recent events (9/11).
Demo, you got your hair buzzed so you could join the human race again! And don’t fret, I had my military cut at Woodstock.
There really is no BEST songwriter in the world it’s all a matter of opinion. I think Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Neil Peart of Rush, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Robert Plant of Zeppelin, Aaron Lewis of Staind, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Jim Morrison of The Doors are and in some cases were good songwriters.
GM, you mentioned Bruce Cockburn as one of the best songwriters. Do you happen to be a fellow Parrotthead?
Glad to see your helping of the human race. Maybe now some of our police hating T-men and T-vixens will come to understand that it takes all types. (We won’t tell them about the MSU sheep story either.)
To Avoid, during my three days stay, I ended up helping at the aid station. Having just left New York Military Academy’s Sports Camp (which was a joke) I to had very short hair.
Thanks. And the MSU sheep story? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I am kinda partial to my lyrics.
- Rob S. Kelly
I wasn’t alive back when a lot of Dylan’s, Young’s, Lennon’s, etc music was popular so I hesitate to include them in my list. Not to take anything away from them, it just wouldn’t be that educated of a choice (No jab Avoids).
However, in my opinion there are two different kinds of song writers. There’s the ones that write excellent lyrics and there’s the ones who write excellent music.
In the category of excellent lyrics:
Bono
Robert Plant
Matthew Good
Ian Thornley
In the category of excellent music writers:
Jimmy Paige
Jimi Hendrix
Ian Thornley
Ah. Big Sky County. Where men are men, women are women and sheep are nervous. 
Go Bobcats!
I nominate Harlan Howard and John Prine.
I was going post a new thread about this but found this when searching and the last poster mentioned the John Prine, who is the reason for the post to begin with.
Are we talking strictly lyrics or the whole song? For entire songs, I’d go with Robert Plant/Jimmy Page for my all-time favorite. I’d also put James Brown up there since he not only wrote most of his songs, he also conducted the entire band. Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker wrote a lot of that stuff, too. But James was a constant presence the whole time and wrote more of the best funk than everyone else combined, in my opinion.
Regarding more modern stuff, I think the songwriting team of Danny Carey and Maynard James Keenan from Tool is the best out there now, hands down. As far as song structure goes and their ability to effortlessly change time signatures, tempos and feel, all played over all kinds of polyrhythms, they are without peers in the music industry today. It doesn’t hurt that Danny Carey is the greatest living drummer on the planet, either.
I’d also put the RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan way up on the list as well. He produced literally all the beats from Enter the Wu-Tang AND all of their first solo albums. Jerry Cantrell/Layne Staley from Alice In Chains should rank near the top as far as the last 25-30 years. And lastly, I would put the Red Hot Chili Peppers on that list as well. Pretty much all their songs are written by Anthony Kiedis, Flea and John Frusciante, with some input from Chad Smith.
But the greatest songwriter of ALL-TIME? Miles Davis. /thread
Off the top of my head: Prince, R Kelly, Dave Grohl, 2pac