Some wonderful points Mary (and thank you for the inclusion). Personally I would see the twa Gordons as absolute masters of songmaking. The fact that Mr. Lightfoot scores those Streisand, Elvis, Marty Robbins and PP and M royalties obviously makes his bank account swell, but I can assure you, not his head. Granted I certainly CAN be a folk snob (on a bad day) but even Multi-millionaires like Paul Simon, Bobby, and Cat Stevens (oops, he's probably given it all away) have written magnificently in folkish styles. Nope, it's the folks with much attitude and little experience that I find tedious. BUT here's the part that makes any (and certainly my) argument just plain meaningless: friends of mine who've known them say Dylan and Simon had astonishing gall and aggressiveness in their youth. So would I have felt they were not worth the trouble then? I didn't. I thought they were both exceptionally talented...so I guess I'm just full of hot air on this one. I'm now going to coin my own little buzz thing: S.S.S. (SELECTED singer songwriters!..who, when I'm feeling grumpy..I'll dump on!
Tammy Lin