Despite trying to think of abstract or off the wall songwriters...

I am still in awe of Ewan McColl.

Just listen to "The Joy of Living" and you will see what I mean. Then note how the songs from the radio ballads provide a narrative that sets the scene better than a thousand words.

Oh, and then the love songs.

He may have been an ill tempered old so and so, and his politics never quite swung by mine, but he was the 20th century bard.