“Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”
-Steve Earle
I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’ve just started listening but Steve Earle is a pretty good songwriter himself.
[quote]Eli B wrote:
“Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”
-Steve Earle
I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’ve just started listening but Steve Earle is a pretty good songwriter himself.[/quote]
See the 70’s doc called “Heartworn Highways” or some such. It chronicles Townes, Guy Clark, and David Allan Coe.
Interesting, poetic, sad, and insane. You’d be entertained. David Allan Coe is a true blue nutjob, be sure to pay attention to Coe when he plays at the prison. They don’t make 'em like Coe anymore.
However, if it were Townes and Dylan in a write off? I still have to take Dylan. “Hard Rain is Goona Fall” hits me dead in the chest every time, even when Eddie Brickell sings it. How good could Townes songs have been if I’d never heard of him till I shared an office with a 45 year old Texan?
Not that there’s a right answer but I’m going to opt for Paul McCartney.
Because as Alan Partridge once said “Who are The Wings? Only the band that The Beatles could have been!”
Probably won’t find that as funny if you don’t know who Alan Partridge is…
Dave Matthews both lyrically and musically is pretty damn impressive.
Steve Earl, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Towns Van Zandt.
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
[quote]Eli B wrote:
“Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”
-Steve Earle
I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’ve just started listening but Steve Earle is a pretty good songwriter himself.[/quote]
See the 70’s doc called “Heartworn Highways” or some such. It chronicles Townes, Guy Clark, and David Allan Coe.
Interesting, poetic, sad, and insane. You’d be entertained. David Allan Coe is a true blue nutjob, be sure to pay attention to Coe when he plays at the prison. They don’t make 'em like Coe anymore.
However, if it were Townes and Dylan in a write off? I still have to take Dylan. “Hard Rain is Goona Fall” hits me dead in the chest every time, even when Eddie Brickell sings it. How good could Townes songs have been if I’d never heard of him till I shared an office with a 45 year old Texan?
[/quote]
Yeah, its Dylan for me too. Seems like Steve Earle was making a point to compare one of his favorites to many peoples pick for best ever.
Denny Blaze
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
Tom Waits was a great songwriter.[/quote]
Last time I checked he was still alive.
Makkun
[quote]makkun wrote:
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
Tom Waits was a great songwriter.[/quote]
Last time I checked he was still alive.
Makkun[/quote]
Oh he is indeed.
And sorry…can’t resist =P
I can’t believe I’m the only one here who has said Miles Davis. Bob Dylan? Gimme a break. Comparing him to Miles is like comparing Raffi to Led Zeppelin.
Miles literally created several genres of jazz, most notably modal jazz and fusion. Modal jazz is the basis for virtually all “jam band”-type music. Duane Allman once said that he listened to nothing but Miles’ “Kind of Blue” for two straight years. And if anyone has ever listened to “In a Silent Way” or “Bitches Brew” or “Live at the Cellar Door”, they understand how far upside down he turned not only the jazz world, but music in general.
Listen to Bob Dylan and then listen to Miles Davis and, regardless of whether you like the music or not, there is no way you can argue that the lyrics and music that Dylan wrote is anywhere near as advanced and progressive as Miles.
On top of all that, Miles also practically invented trance music with his album “On the Corner”, and after his drug-induced retirement in the mid to late 70’s he came back and was the first guy in jazz to start using synthesizers and drum machines to make all of his music himself. Miles was always way ahead of the curve. Dylan and some of the others mentioned were great, don’t get me wrong. But they were just writing great pop music for the most part. Miles was writing music way more advanced music than some hippie bullshit like “Blowin’ in the Wind”.
Yeah I have some of Miles Davis’s albums. I agree. Davis didn’t write lyrics though.
I think most of us listed song writers not music writers.
[quote]calebsmitty wrote:
Yeah I have some of Miles Davis’s albums. I agree. Davis didn’t write lyrics though.
I think most of us listed song writers not music writers.[/quote]
The thread is called “Songwriters”, not lyricists. If we’re talking about the entire song, then no one in this thread belongs in the same recording studio as Miles Davis.
Ryan Adams or Warren Haynes.
Chris Whitley
Steven Wilson
Can’t forget Gil Scot Heron. Man’s a fuckin legend.
[quote]print wrote:
Ryan Adams or Warren Haynes.[/quote]
I like Ryan Adams, too. I’m embarrassed to admit it at times.
Here’s some more songs by people I’d consider songwriters…
Peter Gabriel.
James Taylor and Carol King
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
I can’t believe I’m the only one here who has said Miles Davis. Bob Dylan? Gimme a break. Comparing him to Miles is like comparing Raffi to Led Zeppelin.
Miles literally created several genres of jazz, most notably modal jazz and fusion. Modal jazz is the basis for virtually all “jam band”-type music. Duane Allman once said that he listened to nothing but Miles’ “Kind of Blue” for two straight years. And if anyone has ever listened to “In a Silent Way” or “Bitches Brew” or “Live at the Cellar Door”, they understand how far upside down he turned not only the jazz world, but music in general.
Listen to Bob Dylan and then listen to Miles Davis and, regardless of whether you like the music or not, there is no way you can argue that the lyrics and music that Dylan wrote is anywhere near as advanced and progressive as Miles.
On top of all that, Miles also practically invented trance music with his album “On the Corner”, and after his drug-induced retirement in the mid to late 70’s he came back and was the first guy in jazz to start using synthesizers and drum machines to make all of his music himself. Miles was always way ahead of the curve. Dylan and some of the others mentioned were great, don’t get me wrong. But they were just writing great pop music for the most part. Miles was writing music way more advanced music than some hippie bullshit like “Blowin’ in the Wind”.[/quote]
â??That will always be my music, man. I play â??Kind of Blueâ?? every day â?? itâ??s my orange juice.
It still sounds like it was made yesterday.â??
-Quincy Jones
“Miles Davis is my definition of cool”
-Bob Dylan
Some of that fusion stuff is a little far out for me but there’s no denying Miles Davis was a giant.
I don’t think you give Bob Dylan enough credit, citing some of his most hackneyed and cliched music. The Bob Dylan songbook is awful deep. I don’t think I’ll ever listen to Tambourine man or that other admittedly ‘hippie bullshit’ ever again, there’s just too much other good stuff. He got over that pretty quickly.
“Play it fucking loud” Said Bob Dylan at Newport in 65. Not giving a fuck about being boo’d for going electric.
I think its just not your musical preference given the other genres of music you’ve brought up.
Miles also had the luxury of navigating uncharted waters. Jazz being the only truly American art form just can’t be as old and thoroughly developed as the singer songwriter troubador thing. Perhaps he had more room to explore.
Screamin jay hawkins