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Top Five Songwritwers

One Thing I've come to Realize is that when you ask someone to name the top five songwriters of all time they might have a few the same but none have all the same. I want to know some peoples thoughts. My top five are:

1.Hank Williams SR.
2.Bob Dylan
3.Kris Kristofferson
4.Townes Van Zandt
5.Guy Clark

You?

Tags: Songwriters

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by edward perez on February 10, 2013 at 9:06am

I'm not sure I saw any mention of Burt Bacharach & Hal David.

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Permalink Reply by Henry Jasen on February 12, 2013 at 8:24am

This is painfully difficult, as shown by the folks who list way more than five. How does one decide? I picked the 5 whose material I never get tired of and often try to play myself:

Lennon/McCartney

Garcia/Hunter

Steve Goodman

Townes Van Zandt

Kinky Friedman

Of course, I have runners up too. They're just too good not to mention. Until this thread I did not realize what a great song writer Gordon Lightfoot was. I'm adding a couple of his songs to my amateur repertoire. Check out Stephen Foster's song list - amazing. John Prine, Paul Simon and Dylan would all be there if I had 10 slots or didn't want to recognize a few lesser known personal favorites.

I am also surprised that no one has mentioned David, son of Jesse, whose lyrics remain popular almost 3000 years after they were written.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Kocher on February 13, 2013 at 7:54pm

1. Boy Dylan

2. Ray Davies

3. Lennon/McCartney

4. Joni Mitchell

5. Neil Young

There are a million other good ones, like Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Pete Townshend, Carole King, legions of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building greats, plus the writers of the great musicals and such American originals as Hank Williams Sr and Willie Nelson. I list the five above because i have 913 songs just by them on my I Pod and own 88 of their albums on CD.