Who's your personal favorite song writer

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: topical tom
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:01 PM

Eric Bogle has a great mastery of words and rhyme but I also like Tom Paxton, Stan Rogers,David Massengill,Garnet Rogers, Utah Phillips,Pete Seeger, and the list goes on and on.....

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Arkie
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:07 PM

The list could go on and on. Some others in the country vein who produced good songs over a considerable period of time are:

Merle Travis
Harlan Howard
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
Lefty Frizzell
Hank Thompson
Willie Nelson
Marty Robbins
Roger Miller
Tony Joe White
Dolly Parton
Kris Kristofferson

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:23 PM

Bill Caddick , Jon Heslop, George Papavgeris (not sure if I spelt thet right) Dave reader, Gilly Kemp, Anne Lister, and then on a broader scale Joni Mitchell ,Leonard Cohen, Ian Anderson but the problem is as soon as some one mentions another name or sings another song I would say oh and them as well, really the favourite is going to depend on my mood at the time it may even be me

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Silver Slug
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:33 PM

So many favourites, (note the proper spelling!) including

Lennon/McCartney for simple tunes like Things We Said

Brian Wilson, God Only Knows - simple yet beautiful

Neil Young, Graham Nash, Steve Stills and Dave Crosby for Deja Vu

Paul Simon - For Emily... will always move me

Fairport Convention for Babbacombe Lee

Guy Garvey - songs which have stopped me in my tracks over the last few months.

Kirsty McColl - tragically no longer with us. "I fell out of favour with Heaven somerwhere and I'm here for the hell of it now"

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: mg
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:37 PM

wHO IS Guy Garvey? Perhaps we are long-lost cousins.

I was trying to think of more women too. Certainly Judy Small, Linda Allen. Lady Christina Oliphant? Do I have her right. Lots of Scots classics. Certainly Dolly Parton. Sylvia Tyson came up with one stunning song to me..Truckers' Cafe. Sometimes they might be really well known for only a few songs..Mary Benson with Sail Away. Linda C. of B.C. on Canning Salmon. My favorite is Gordon Bok and Robert Burns and Stephen Foster. mg

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:44 PM

Richard Grainger,Bert lloyd,Ewan MaCColl,Dick Miles,Alan Smethurst,Tom Lehrer,Lennon and Maccartney,Stephen Foster,John Conolly.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Brakn
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:25 PM

Probably Loudon Wainwright. Love Bruce and Hank as well.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jayto
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:33 PM

You are my kinda person Arkie GREAT list.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Silver Slug
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:40 PM

wHO IS Guy Garvey? Perhaps we are long-lost cousins.

He fronts a British Indie band called Elbow. Excellent musicians, sometimes wonderful lyrics and melodies, brilliant live, and a crap name which should ensure that they don't get the recognition they deserve. Still, the're good enough for me!

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:44 PM

Thanks Joe and Mrs Scarecrow, you put me with esteemed company indeed!. Mine are:

Rob Johnson
Leon Rosselson
Stan Rogers
Eric Bogle
Sydney Carter
Jez Lowe
Cyril Tawney
Dave Webber
the whole bunch of the Cornish songwriters
and going off-centre a bit:
Billy Joel
Mark Knopfler
Angelo Branduardi

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Elmore
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:57 PM

Bob Franke, Enoch Kent,Kate Wolf

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 06:59 PM

Hoagy Carmichael!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Acorn4
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:10 PM

In the current crop of singer/songwriters, Richard Shindell.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:29 PM

I assume we get Dylan free, like the Bible and Shakespeare on Desert Island Discs. After Dylan, Robyn Hitchcock; after him, Peter Blegvad.

I'd also recommend Hilary Bichovsky, Carl Corbett, Richard Frisson, Mark Greer, Mark Simpson and Copland Smith (in alphabetical order) - none of them's particularly famous, but they're all fine songwriters.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,cStu
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 08:38 PM

Peter Blegvad the cartoonist?

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 08:49 PM

I have been compiling a list of songs that are, in some way, magical for me, and looking up (as best I can) their authors, composers, & dates; so I can give a quantitative answer to this question. So far there are 280 songs on the list.

Anon. wins hands down, with 99. Runners up are Robert Burns & Rudyard Kipling, with 5 each. Stan Rogers has 4, and Cyril Tawney, Woody Guthrie, and Michael Flanders have 3 each. There are twelve who have 2, and the rest are 1-hit wonders.

The median date of composition is 1900.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Arkie
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 09:13 PM

Jayto, nice to get an amen.

I am glad to see Sydney Carter and Bob Franke finally make the list.

Fred Eaglesmith's name just popped in my head. An exceptional writer.

John Williamson from Australia has also written many good songs. There should be more writers from Down Under in this list. I like Kasey Chambers, but more as a singer than a songwriter though she has written some good songs.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Peace
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:02 PM

George W Johnson, 1866

I wandered today to the hills, Maggie,
To watch the scene below
The creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie,
As we used to long long ago
The green grove is gone from the hills, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung
The creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.         

2. Oh they say that I'm feeble with age, Maggie,
My steps are much slower than then
My face is a well written page, Maggie,
And time all alone was the pen
They say we have outlived our time, Maggie,
As dated as songs that we've sung
But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie,
When you and I were young.




As far as I'm concerned, it ain't been equaled yet.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:08 PM

Hmmm. For me, personal favorite depends a lot on who I am listening to at the moment.

Today, Elizabeth Cook
Yesterday, Hugh Moffatt
Earlier in the week, Norah Jones, Tom Paxton

Actually, I'd stack that list up against most any for listenability over a long period of time.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:19 PM

Jesse Winchester

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 04:38 AM

cStu - the same. He's a versatile guy.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: van lingle
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 05:37 AM

Dylan, Cole Porter, Robbie Robertson (though I haven't heard any recent stuff of his), Johnny Cash, Blind Lemon Jefferson...

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: van lingle
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 05:38 AM

Shane MacGowan

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 07:17 AM

Impossible to say. Depends on my mood and I have as many moods as favorite song writers. If I had to name one, Gordon Bok.That's complicated by the fact that he's my oldest best friend as well.
Everyone knows I love Utah Phillips' songs, he was also a dear friend. Tom Paxton, somewhere between acquaintance and friend.
Dave Mallett also a close friend.
Stan Rogers, outstanding song writer. Spent a weekend with him but couldn't call him a friend.
Bob Zentz, friend.
Seamus Kennedy, friend.
Tom Rowe dear friend, now deceased.
You have to love such songs as, "Handful of songs" by Jerry Rasmussen.
Jim Stewart dear friend.His Marco Polo suite is a masterpiece.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 07:18 AM

I've also been in love with our own KT since I heard her sing. Her song, Old Salt hits home.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 08:44 AM

Personal favourite male is Shane MacGowan.
Personal favourite female is K D Lang.
There are many others that I particularly like such as:
Bob Dylan
Leonard Cohen
Johnny Cash
Yellowman
Bruce Murdoch
Bo Diddley
.
.
.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: john f weldon
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 12:18 PM

Oops forget...

Yip Harburg (lyrics)
Uncle Dave Macon (Folky and funny!)

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: pdq
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 12:35 PM

John Hartford, just because he ain't been mentioned yet. He had a unique point of view, to say the least.

John Stewart was at least as good a writer than he was a singer/personality. He wrote so many songs that the gems are still, for the most part, not recognized.

If I had to pick one, it would be Gordon Lightfoot. But then, Ian Tyson and Steve Goodman would probaly be there some days. And Chris Hillman is almost criminally under-appreciated as a writer, and then...

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Guldhamstern
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 01:36 PM

I'm not a very good
In no particular order:

Roger Waters
Bob Dylan
Mickey Newbury
Leonard Cohen
Paul Simon
Tom Waits
Phil Ochs
Neil Young
Allan Edwall

Allan Edwall (1924-1997)
is best known for being an actor, for instance in most of the Astrid Lindgren-movies. His music is not very well known outside sweden. The best swedish lyrics, very witty and clever, often satirical and beautiful at the same time.

Dan Anderson (1888-1920)
Was more of a poet. But he made music to some of his poems. The most beautiful swedish tunes comes from his poems.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Singer's Knight
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 03:02 PM

Oh gosh, these choices are so hard!

First thoughts? Garnet Rogers and Jerry Rassmussen.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 04:47 PM

Marvin Gaye

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: John Hardly
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 04:52 PM

Writers?

Stevie Wonder
Felix Cavaliere/Eddie Brigatti
Hoagy Carmichael
James Taylor
Carole King
Carly Simon (That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be is nothing short of brilliant -- lyrically and musically)
Pierce Pettis
Paul Simon (charges of light-fingered writing, notwithstanding)
Bachrach/David
Rodgers/Hammerstein
Lennon/McCartney

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: kendall
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 06:25 PM

Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 07:43 PM

They were composers of music Kendall (musical composition) .... they were not songwriters (wrote musical compostion and the lyrics to that music).

But ... what the hell, who really gives a rat's ass.


biLL

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 07:48 PM

Now kendall, if you had made a note of Amadeus Mozart in you post ... well, I guess he could be classified as a songwriter.

... but ... then again ... as I say .... who really gives a rat's ass.

biLL

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 11:35 PM

I would have many of the above mentioned songwriters on my own list but would add: Michael Smith, Kim Ritchey and Jack Williams. Cheers.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Ravenheart
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 01:03 AM

Jack Hardy. Without him, whole regions of our experience would have no maps to them.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: eddie1
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 01:52 AM

So many names I have to agree with but three missing so far (I think)

Jake Thackray – for looking at the world in a different way from the rest of us.

Finbar Furey – if only for his song "Lonely One" which should be compulsory listening for everyone who tours doing gigs.

Iain Mackintosh – his "For The Special Friends" is definitely one of these "I wish I'd said that" songs.

Eddie

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: kendall
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 07:10 AM

Schubert wrote Ava Maria, one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: kendall
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 07:20 AM

Ludwig wrote "Ode to Joy". Beats the hell out of "I love a rainy night."

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 07:54 AM

Ludwig wrote the musical score to 'ode to joy' .... Fredrick Schiller wrtoe the words as a poem.


biLL

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 08:08 AM

I sit here corrected (by my wife) and I am in a rather humbled dispostion ... Amadaes cannot be considered a songwriter as he did not write the librettos ... so, alas he is but a mere musical composer.

now ... a songwriter not so far as mentioned and I feel should be most certainly be mentioned (as he is a favourite of mine) and that is Jimmy Webb.

biLL

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 10:09 AM

In no particular order
Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Niel Young, Bruce Cockburn, Van Marrison, Paul MacCartney, Ian Anderson, Hank Williams, Stephen Foster, Stan Rodgers,David Byrne, Rita Mac Niel, Johnny Cash,Eric Bogle, Paul Simon, Jagger and Richards.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 10:16 AM

Oh how could I forget Richard Thompson....one of the best ever.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: bankley
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 10:18 AM

okay, for lyrics.. my huckleberry friend, Johnny Mercer

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Midchuck
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 10:26 AM

Favorite is easy: Tom Russell.

Second is very hard. A tie between

Utah Phillips
Jim Ringer
Stan Rogers
Ian Tyson
Guy Clark
Dick McCormack (link; link
Andrea Cady (purely personal bias)

And probably two or three others that I'll think of as soon as I post this.

Peter

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Lucky7s
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 11:19 AM

For the ladies, Joni Mitchell, Patti Griffin, and Patti Smith.

For the lads, Andy M. Stewart, kinda old school but Leon Russell, and my fave of all time, Arlo Guthrie.

I'd second Laura Nyro & John Prine, too.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Gene
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 12:11 PM

Everybody has their favorite songwriters, Hank Williams, Sr. has
always been a favorite of mine, but consider the two below.

IMHO, two of the greatest songwriters that ever lived.
I cannot think of any others that come close to this record of
achievement.

=============
HARLAN HOWARD

"I Fall To Pieces", "Life Turned Her That Way", "Above And Beyond", "I've Got a Tiger By The Tail", "Don't Tell Me What To Do", "Somebody Should Leave", "Somewhere Tonight", "Too Many Rivers", "Why Not Me", "Busted" & "Blame It on Your Heart".

Most people knew Harlan Howard by the songs he penned, more than 4,000 of them. In a career that spanned more than six decades, the "Dean of Nashville Songwriters" established himself as one of the greatest and most prolific songwriters of the Twentieth Century. One critic daringly dubbed him the "Irving Berlin of Country" because of the number of classics he added to the annals of country music.

More than 100 of his self-penned tunes hit the top ten and his compositions became chart-toppers for artists as diverse as Patsy Cline, Ray Charles, Buck Owens, Dean Martin, The Judds, Reba McEntire, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, and Dolly Parton. But Harlan Howard's friends knew there was more to the man than song titles. Behind his enshrinements in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the CMA Hall of Fame, the National Academy of Popular Music Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame was a complex and unique man, a true interpreter of life well and fully lived.

Those fortunate enough to number among Harlan's intimates knew he was born in Detroit and raised on farms in Michigan, but times were tough for a young farm boy in the years following the Depression. He started writing country songs around the age of 12, listening to and loving the Grand Ole Opry, Ernest Tubb and Floyd Tillman. Although he managed to complete just nine years of formal education, he educated himself by reading books – sometimes as many as four and five a day.

Harlan moved to Los Angeles in 1955 to pursue his dream of songwriting, where lacking faith in his ability as a songwriter, he took a job as a forklift operator (There were no factories in Nashville). He devoted every spare minute to perfecting the craft of songwriting. He was possessed by songwriting, and each day left the factory with several new songs stuffed in his shirt pocket.

"I'd come home from work sometimes with six songs," the writer said. "During that period of time, I never knew there was that much money in songwriting. I was just writing because I loved it. I never thought I'd be able to quit the factory and make a living full-time as a writer."

A year after moving to LA, he met Tex Ritter and Johnny Bond and played them some tunes from his cardboard box full of songs. Slowly at first, with their help and that of others such as Wynn Stewart, Bobby Bare and Skeets McDonald, he began to have his songs recorded. His first real hit came in 1959 when Charlie Walker recorded "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down." Shortly after that both Ray Price and the pop singer, Guy Mitchell, put his "Heartaches By The Number" on the top of the country and pop charts simultaneously and his destiny was sealed.

Harlan moved to Nashville in 1960, and as the hits began to chart, the legend of Harlan Howard began to soar. A year later, in 1961, his career exploded, and he had as many as 15 songs in the top 40 of the country charts at one time - an amazing feat for any writer and one never since equaled.

Harlan began hanging out with the other struggling writers, such as Hank Cochran, Willie Nelson, and Roger Miller at Tootsies Orchid Lounge across the alley from the old Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry. Patsy Cline was a favorite Opry star who used to stop in between shows. This nucleus would gather wherever there was a guitar and swap their latest songwriting efforts, hoping to plug a few songs to Opry stars. From these late night/early morning "guitar pulls" another Nashville legend was born.

Harlan scored hits in the five decades: the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. Harlan was fond of saying, "The lyrics usually flow easily and often." The "three-chord kid", as he was frequently called, believed country music was mostly lyrical content - about 90% words and 10% melody. He considered his songs his children and tried to find the perfect home for them; crediting much of his success with matching the right song with the right singer.

Artists such as Nanci Griffith, Mel Tillis, kd Lang, Collin Raye, and Patty Loveless chose Harlan Howard compositions to establish themselves on country radio. Producers rarely passed up an opportunity to listen to a tune submitted by Howard for fear of missing the next country classic.

In the late '80s, Harlan's publisher, Tree, was sold to the foreign conglomerate, Sony. Howard took on a new endeavor and started a small publishing company, Harlan Howard Songs, Inc. With his guidance, several "juveniles" had recent chart-topping successes such as The Chain of Love, Clay Walker; Real Live Woman, Trisha Yearwood; Someone You Used To Know, Collin Raye; and She Was, Mark Chesnutt. His hit by Patty Loveless, Blame It On Your Heart, was named BMI Song of the Year as the most performed country song of 1994.

Harlan continued writing well into his seventh decade of life, long after many other writers had begun to relax on their royalties. Howard didn't intend to put aside his pen. "I've been wanting to do this since I was 12, so it's a lifetime hobby and quest," he stated. "I never tire of it. Sometimes I do get burned out temporarily, but I can't imagine not wanting to write one more great song, get one more great record, or work with one more great singer. I like to give artists a song they have to sing the rest of their lives. Songwriting is both my living and my pleasure, so I'm a happy man."

On March 3, 2002, Harlan passed away at home with his wife, Melanie, by his side. He was 74 years old. A memorial celebrating his life and songs was held at the Ryman Auditorium.

============
CINDY WALKER

Cindy Walker (87), died on March 23 in Mexia, Tex. A country songwriter whose pure, plainspoken lyrics of romance, heartbreak and picturesque prairies were recorded by major artists like Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson, making Top-40 country or pop charts more than 400 times.

Until the 1990's, Texas Monthly observed in 1999 it was easier to count the number of country stars who had not recorded Cindy Walker songs than those who had, She had Top 10 hits in every decade from the 1940's to the 1980's.

Even as country music veered in louder, brasher directions, her continuing appeal to traditionalists is suggested by Willie Nelson's release of an album of her songs, "You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker."

The title song was a hit for Eddy Arnold in 1956, Ray Charles in 1962 and Mickey Gilley in 1981, and was re-recorded by Mr. Charles with Diana Krall for his best-selling 2004 album of duets, "Genius Loves Company." Presley, Van Morrison, Patti Page, Roy Orbison, Kenny Rogers and Emmylou Harris are among others who have recorded the tune.

Will some JoeClone straighten up any misalignement of text after posting.

Thanks
G

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: dwditty
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 12:14 PM

Oscar Brown, Jr.
Tom Waits
Randy Newman
Tim Buckley
Mose Allison
Billie Holiday (For God Bless The Child - My favorite song of all time)
Dan Hicks

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Marymac90
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 01:42 PM

Thanks, Gene, for introducing me to Harlan Howard and Cindy
Walker.

On the American audiences thread there's been some talk about how "folkies" are divided up into different communities,
based on genre, Like trad, Irish, singer-songwriter, blues,
bluegrass, contra dancers, etc. One such community that isn't
known terribly deeply by most "folkies" is the social change
music community. Of course, a fair number of the songwriters
mentioned are in that community, but others not mentioned are Charlie King and Fred Small, as well as Joe Hill and John
McCutcheon, who has one foot there and one foot all over the
map!

Other great songwriters that I don't THINK were mentioned
(please forgive me if I'm wrong) include: Willie Nelson,
Fats Domino, Bruce Cockburn, Bill Staines, Elizabeth Cotten,
Tom Lewis, Fats Waller, Steve Goodman, and Lyle Lovett. If
you want more info on any of these, please drop a line in the
thread.

All the best,

Marymac