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[Greg]

I am at a loss except to say this: 

The Notorious B.I.G wrote better songs than The Clash or REM ()

And Springsteen...he is not in the same league as Costello, but of course he is recognized as a god in RS.

Finally...Chuck Berry.  He wrote the same song over and over for the most part.  He is the King of RR to me but really belongs in a different category of greatness.

[2 of 3]

As I age, I get less and less annoyed at these lists. In fact, at this point I'm totally over it.    I mean, I can't really get upset about people on this list that I know nothing about...and there are a lot of them. I guess RS had some idea of what they wanted beforehand. I mean...no Cole Porter on this list...and he was pretty darned big. There are some surprises on the list for me...I thought for sure MJ would be in the Top 10. He wrote a lot of hits for sure...but man he drove me nuts with some of the manipulative things he put out. U2 I thought would be higher also. Same with Elton John.  I'm ok with the top 3 really. I personally would put McCartney at ONE..but that's just a matter of personal preference I guess. I still can't think of anyone else who has written so many different kinds of songs. The same guy who wrote and performed Yesterday wrote and performed Helter Skelter.....and everything in between. Crazy when you think of it. 

[kylenz]

I scrolled down as far as Kanye and that was enough to void the list and really can't be bothered to find out who else they had there. 

[Keri]

I see Hank Williams is only 3 floors above Leonard Cohen in the Tower of Song.

I didn't know a lot of those artists, but what gets me is the "of All Time" and they're all modern.

[kylenz]

Just had a closer look at the list, here are my more-considered thoughts (and keen to hear your own ones):

For starters, which people do you think shouldn't be on the list? For me, there should be no rappers. To be a song, lyrics have to be sung as a melody - not spoken. Therefore Kanye, Timbaland, Eminem, Biggie, Jay Z etc should not be on there. And the ABBA peeps are at #100 - therefore all those rappers and Taylor Swift have all written better songs! This is crazy! Also, there's been debate about all the songwriting teams yet Lennon and McCartney are listed separately - I think this is fair enough - most people that know the Beatles' music know that they generally wrote separately and that the 'Lennon/McCartney' partnership was in name only. Plus of course, both these guys also had massive solo careers in their own right.

A few placings I thought were a bit strange - Elton John at 48 for example shows the Americentric partiality in the list - well below the likes of Robbie Robertson, Jacskon Browne and Jerry Bloody Garcia for goodness' sake! What the hell are any of them doing there?! Probably the strangest placing of all, was the inclusion of Chuck Berry at #4. I recently got a box set of everything he ever recorded - 16 discs, year-by-year, all remastered including live stuff. I was hoping to uncover some 'lost gems' but it dawned on me that every other song on all his albums was a rewrite of his hit song riffs - over and over. People accused The Beach Boys and other groups of pinching his hooks - well he was the king of recycling the same old song over and over. Granted, his greatest tunes were rock and roll landmarks - but the 4th-greatest songwriter of all-time?

I'd be interested in who you think should be your personal #1. Mine of course would be Paul McCartney (no big shock there, lol). Who would you have on the list that isn't there? I would have Elliott Smith, Jeff Lynne, and Patti Rothberg. It sure would be fun to construct one's own 'Top 100' list!

[2 of 3]

Yeah, I don't get the Gerry Garcia placement either....but then again..I don't get that band at all. I guess you had to have been there. Hang on..I was...I still don't get it. But hey, I don't get a lot of things haha
Let's not forget the source. Rolling Stone needs to sell itself. If they start leaving off rap and hip hop, they lose a huge demographic. I didn't notice any EDM on there. Maybe next year.

Notable exceptions:

Sting. No matter what you may think of the guy, he's written a ton of hits and a ton of pretty good songs.

Nobody Prog: Not surprising since its RS...but Peter Gabriel maybe? 

Clapton: How many classics do you need to write?

Not to mention all the people who may not have had any HUGE hits, but have never released a bad song. Anyone with the surname Finn comes to mind.

The trouble with these lists is that everyone likes different genres. So hard to please everyone. 

[kylenz]

I just made my own Top 100 list! (Personal taste thing of course!) Poor ol' Bob Dylan drops to 70!!!

re. Eric Clapton, there's no denying he's one of the great guitarists and legends, but as a pure songwriter I'm not sure he belongs in there. Thinking of his hits, some of his biggest songs were cover versions of other people's songs (thinking of 'I Shot The Sheriff', 'Cocaine', 'Motherless Children', 'After Midnight' etc). And the best Cream songs were written by Jack Bruce.

But yeah - very interesting thinking of who else could be on the list that Rolling Stone missed out..

[kylenz]

My Top 100 Songwriters list! 

1. Paul McCartney
2. John Lennon
3. Elliott Smith
4. Billy Joel
5. David Bowie
6. Brian Wilson
7. Elton John and Bernie Taupin
8. The Bee Gees
9. Robert Smith
10. Kurt Cobain
11. System of a Down
12. Robbie van Leeuwen
13. Neil Young
14. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
15. Siouxsie Sioux, Budgie and Steve Severin
16. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
17. Stevie Wonder
18. Scott Weiland
19. Jimi Hendrix
20. Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell
21. Paul Simon
22. Jeff Lynne
23. John Fogerty
24. Holland/Dozier/Holland
25. Neil Diamond
26. Bjorn Ulvaleus and Benny Anderson
27. Patti Rothberg
28. Donovan
29. Tony Iommi
30. Pete Townshend
31. Melora Creager
32. Faith No More
33. Ben Folds
34. Madonna
35. Jonathan Davis
36. Jonathan Richman
37. Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
38. Morrissey and Marr
39. Ray Davies
40. Nick Cave
41. Slipknot
42. Don Henley and Glenn Frey
43. Prince
44. Laura Nyro
45. Tommy Roe
46. Beck
47. Buddy Holly
48. Freddie Mercury
49. Marc Bolan
50. Andrew Eldritch
51. Blur
52. Burt Bacharach and Hal David
53. Ladyhawke
54. Peter Svensson and Nina Persson
55. Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook
56. Marina Diamandis
57. Lady Gaga
58. Matt Bellamy
59. Nash Kato and Eddie Roeser
60. Josh Homme
61. Radiohead
62. Graham Gouldman
63. Daniel Johns
64. Julianne Regan
65. Billie Joe Armstrong
66. Chuck Berry
67. The Bangles
68. Dave Grohl
69. Juliana Hatfield
70. Bob Dylan
71. James Dean Bradfield
72. Carole King/and Gerry Goffin
73. Tim and Neil Finn
74. Buffy Sainte-Marie
75. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
76. Tom Petty
77. George Harrison
78. Christine McVie
79. Emily Haines
80. Brett Anderson
81. Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia
82. Peter Murphy
83. Michael Jackson
84. Lindsey Buckingham
85. Daryl Hall and John Oates
86. John Phillips
87. Tori Amos
88. Paul Stanley
89. Leo Sayer
90. Smokey Robinson
91. Bono and The Edge
92. Cat Stevens
93. Pete Ham
94. Randy California
95. Bob Marley
96. Lionel Ritchie
97. Sting
98. Bruce Springsteen
99. Sly Stone
100. John Frusciante

[2 of 3]

Ooooooo...Kyle...pressure is on to do a top 100 now. I better get thinking here before the topic goes dead. 


By the way, I see Morrissey will be on The Late Late Show with James Corden tonight. They must be friends or something...you almost never see Morrissey on a chat show.  The musical guest is always on Youtube later.

[kylenz]

Well I just realised I missed Costello out on my list! Surely he would be somewhere between Chuck Berry and The Bangles. So tough and so subjective isn't it! Yeah I just wrote em all down on Notepad and then did a bit of cut/pasting and re-jigging around til it seemed right. My Top 20 would be a solid order - the rest, maybe they change day to day? Maybe not? Hmm.

Yeah it's not very often you see Morrissey doing press stuff. It's such a shame both Morrissey and Johnny Marr are adamant they will never reform The Smiths. Morrissey seems to lack the melody and catchy riffs on his own, while Johnny Marr's solo music is not up to par either. But together, they were dynamite! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnpILIIo9ek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkrVNaf7UWk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SckD99B51IA

[2 of 3]

Yeah, it is weird how some people create magic and don't really like each other.

Here's Morrissey from last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHmizsvM4PY

[kylenz]

Thank you that was good. Enjoyed that.

It must feel strange being the lead guitarist in Morrissey's band knowing you're basically Johnny Marr's fill-in.

[Greg]

KyleNZ, who was the top NZ artist on your list?  I'd like to check them out. (Their are many on your list that I didn't recognize.)

[2 of 3]

It must feel strange being the lead guitarist in Morrissey's band knowing you're basically Johnny Marr's fill-in.

Yeah, especially when you see the songwriter credits on the songs and it's Morrissey and Guitar Player. 

I'm probably way off here but wasn't the Morrissey-Marr dynamic..lyrics/music? I mean...does Morrissey write music? I seem to recall that Marr would send him tapes and he'd write the lyrics.

[kylenz]

KyleNZ, who was the top NZ artist on your list?  I'd like to check them out. (Their are many on your list that I didn't recognize.)

That would be Ladyhawke at #53.. Tim and Neil Finn at 73.. hmm maybe I should swap them around?