411 Music Ten Deep 7.23.09: Top Ten Songwriters

Posted by Andrew Moll on 07.23.2009

Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith and Neil Young all made the cut, but click to see who else made 411 Music Ten Deep's list of the Top Ten Songwriters.











(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)


Welcome to Week 2 of 411 Music's Ten Deep, everybody. I thought last week went pretty well with a look at the top debut albums of all-time as it sparked some good debate in the comment section. Hopefully we'll continue the upward trend with this week when I rank my Top Ten Songwriters. But first, let's back track a little and see what people had to say about last week's column.



C'mon. No mention of Boston's debut album? It went platinum 17 times over. Enter the Wu-Tang Clan? An album that absolutely turned the world of hip-hop on its ear. The Doors first album? Led Zeppelin I? Black Sabbath debut? Van Halen I? And 'Ten' should be ranked much higher.
Posted By: MydniteSon (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 01:40 AM

I agree Boston's Boston was amazingly awesome
Posted By: Guest#4736 (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 02:11 AM

Boston should be on this list, yes.
Posted By: Roscoe Jenkins (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 02:20 AM

A few other people mentioned Boston's self-titled debut which is something I didn't really expect. I know it sold a lot of copies, 17 million to be exact according to Wikipedia, but it's not an album that comes up when I'm discussing the great albums. I honestly haven't listened to the album and that's mainly because I can't stand "More Than a Feeling" but maybe there's more to the record than I previously thought. But remember, popularity isn't automatically an indicator of quality.

arcade fire? over pearl jam and hendrix? come on now, that is damn ridiculous
Posted By: Guest#5255 (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 01:58 AM

Good list, but the Arcade Fire stand out like a sore thumb.
Posted By: Vordeo (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 05:23 PM

I find it hard to stomach Arcade Fire in there, but that's just me. Great debut Andrew, from a fellow Ten Deeper.
Posted By: Owain J. Brimfield (Registered) on July 17, 2009 at 01:26 PM

First off, thank you Owain, it's nice to be part of the Ten Deep team. While I was somewhat ignorant of the Boston love, I'm fully aware that the Arcade Fire can be pretty polarizing although I can never figure out why. To me they seem like the type of band that everybody can get into no matter what genre they normally listen to, since the music can be pretty uplifting and inviting.

I wrote Ten Deep in the Movies Zone originally, and I gave it its original title. What's cool about this first weeks column of yours is the fact that I took its name from Pearl Jam's album Ten and the song from that particular album Deep. Interesting to note, eh?
Posted By: Lucas Huddleston (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 01:38 PM

As a Ten Club member myself, I definitely noticed the connection here.

Freak Out! by Frank Zappa and the Mothers would be in mine.
Posted By: Ryan (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 10:17 AM

What about Definitely Maybe by Oasis and The Stone Roses album?
Posted By: Nax (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 11:33 AM

Metallica - Kill Em All
Posted By: HA~! (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 01:26 PM

Can't believe no one's mentioned Rage Against the Machines debut. One of the best records of the 90's and way ahead of its time
Posted By: Guest#7842 (Guest) on July 17, 2009 at 06:41 PM

These are all albums that people brought up and ones that I should have put in an Honorable Mentions section but neglected to. Other ones people brought up that deserved some mention were The Ramones, Illmatic, Horses, <>Led Zeppelin I, The Doors and others. But Lucas Wesley mentioned the PIxies' Surfer Rosa, which is an album that I realized would have had a good shot making the Top Ten if I had remebered it. Also there was one that nobody commented on, but it was a definitely a head-slapper when I thought of it, and that's Pink Flag by Wire, which is one of my favorite albums, so good work by me.

Thanks for the comments everybody, good stuff and good discussions going on there.


Top Ten Songwriters


It's a pretty simple concept. Great songwriters write consistently great songs; everything from the lyrics to the melody come from the mind of this person. Every great songwriter has their own style, a way of constructing songs that make you know exactly who wrote when you hear it. The musicians that make up this list have all forged a sound for themselves and/or their band and have a catalog full of great and memorable songs. Now, a list like this is usually biased towards "serious" songwriters, people with meaningful songs that make fans perceive them as "artists." This list is really no different. So even though I love a band like the Pixies, unfortunately Frank Black doesn't automatically come mind when one thinks of the great songwriters, and that's probably more my fault than his. However, there's no doubt the people on this list are more than deserving of the honor. First, though, let's see who just barely missed the cut.

Some Honorable Mentions: Nick Drake, Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel), Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground), Pete Townshend (The Who), Jeff Tweedy (Uncle Tupelo & WIlco), Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys)



10. Britt Daniel (Spoon)


OK, maybe you're saying to yourself, "Who the hell is Britt Daniel and how can you possibly consider him a better songwriter than those in the honorable mentions?" Well, remember it's my list. And I absolutely love Spoon and their lead singer/main songwriter Britt Daniel. Spoon have released six albums full of great pop-rock songs, and the roll they've been on with their last few records has been amazing. Ever since 2001's Girls Can Tell and continuing with Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, there haven't been many rock bands better than Spoon. That's mostly due to Daniel's knack for great melodies, combined with a number of different variations on the idea of a pop-rock song. From the sparseness of "Everything Hits at Once" to the dance groove and falsetto of "I Turn My Camera On" and the tension of "The Way We Get By," Daniel knows how to keep things intresting within his own formula.





In the last couple years Spoon have gained a bit more notoriety, with their most recent album debuting at number 10 on the Billboard album charts. Daniel has proven himself as one of rock's best songwriters this decade with his consistently impressive work. Lyrics like, "We get high in back seats of cars/We break into mobile homes/We go to sleep to shake appeal/Never wake up on our own/And that's the way we get by," from "The Way We Get By" skillfully reference certain aspects of adolescence. Also, a song like "Finer Feelings" contains more optimistic lyrics like, "Sometimes I think that I'll find a love/One that's gonna change my heart/I'll find it in Commercial Appeal/And then this heartache'll get chased away." Daniel is great at writing Spoon songs that fit in with the other songs by the group but are still original and catch you slightly off guard.





9. Paul Westerberg (The Replacements)


During his time with The Replacements, Paul Westerberg grew up from immature punk to world-weary rocker. Of course, Westerberg always had a little world-weary rocker in him when he was younger, and a little immature punk in him when he was younger. Westerberg has always written relatable lyrics, even when singing about getting some bad pot ("I Bought a Headache") or the joys of airline travel ("Waitress in the Sky"). In the middle of the Replacements' career they made two calssic albums, Let It Be and Tim. These records showed both sides of Westerberg and his writing style; a real sense of humor combined with real sensitivity. It takes a real talent to get away with singing "Gary's got a boner," on the album one sings, "Your age is the hardest age/Everything drags and drags/You're looking funny/You ain't laughing, are you?/Sixteen blue."





Even after his time in the Replacements, Westerberg continues writing quality tracks like "Waiting for Somebody" and "Dyslexic Heart," from the soundtrack to Singles. Over his career, he successfully traveled through different genres, dabbling in punk, country, arena rock and more. Westerberg was also blessed with a remarkable singing voice that maximized his most emotional lyrics, giving lines like "All I know is I'm sick of everything that my money can buy/The fool who wastes his life, God rest his guts," an extra emotional weight. But the real genius with Westerberg is his ability to balance out the fun, youthful side of his persona with the thgouthful, earnest side.





8. Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)


In Pearl Jam's early days, Eddie Vedder wasn't the one writing most of the songs, as that was up to Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. But it was Vedder providing the lyrics that made him a generational leader, against his best efforts. But the way songs like "Black" were written, it would be impossible for people not to latch onto what Vedder was singing. That connection with fans has only grown over the years as Vedder has penned classic Pearl Jam tracks like "Better Man," "Wishlist," "I Am Mine" and "World Wide Suicide." Vedder's talent has always been writing intensely personal lyrics that people can apply to their own lives. A lyric like "Everything has chains...absolutely nothing's changed," ends up meaning a lot to many listeners.





As much as Vedder writes about personal things, he's also as good as anyone at writing political statements. Lyircs from tracks like "Do the Evolution," "Grievance," and "Marker in the Sand" look at the political world with a skeptical eye, while the song "Bushleaguer" provides an excellent satirical take on everybody's favorite President. But Vedder's speciality is the personal, no doubt. He and Pearl Jam become stars by being direct and earnest and they haven't changed that approach at all. Whether he's whimsical on "Elderly Woman..." or exhausted on "All or None," Eddie Vedder knows how to tap into his own mind and make his statements mean something to rest of us as well.





7. Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)


At the same time Eddie Vedder was wearing his heart on his sleeve, Kurt Cobain was working through his inner demons with passion and a wicked sense of humor. "In Bloom" could poke fun at fans of the group that were unable to decipher the actual meanings of the song, but the great irony is that the lyric, "He's the one/Who likes all our pretty songs/And he likes to sing along/And he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means/Knows not what it means/When I say," is accompanied by one hell of a melody. Cobain was a big fan of both The Beatles and Black Sabbath and both of those influences shone through, with Sabbath's volume and intensity combined with the pop music awareness of the Beatles. The list of great Nirvana songs is a long one, with many of them containing great melodies and using them to provide catharsis from the emotional problems Cobain had.





Many of Cobain's lyrics are depressive and bleak, and unfortunately his suicide give them a harrowing context. It's impossible to listen to the lyrics of "All Apologies without thinking of the end of Cobain's life. It's a sad but unavoidable reaction to his music, but that doesn't take away from the genius of it in the first place. Much like Vedder, Cobain wore his heart on his sleeve, albeit in a slightly different manner. From the sleek melodies and hooks of Nevermind to the gritty work of In Utero, Cobain maximized every feeling to create haunting tunes that still last.





6. Bruce Springsteen


Bruce Springsteen is the songwriter of the people, crafting songs that tell stories of common people in the form of emotional ballads and inspirational anthems. When Bruce sings a lyric like, "In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream," from "Born to Run," you know that you're going to get an epic story that reaches the highest levels of drama that rock music can reach. That sense of drama was common in many of Bruce's best songs, from "Badlands" to "I'm On Fire" to "The Rising." He knew what people expected of him, that he would write purely American tales that were grounded in reality but were still able to transport people from any problems in their everyday lives.





People called Springsteen the next Bob Dylan when he started releasing albums, and he did share a knack for rock poetry and for creating characters that meant a lot to the audience. Lyrics like, "Then I got Mary pregnant/And man that was all she wrote/And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat," don't show up very often in rock music. I also don't think it's a coincidence that earlier this decade Springsteen was the one that was able to channel the whole country's feelings on The Rising with the title track and "My City of Ruins," most notably. Few musicians have been able to better tap into the American concsiousness than Bruce Springsteen and express what many of us want to say ourselves.





5. Neil Young


For all the transformations Neil Young has gone through in his career, he's always remained an exceptional songwriter. He started off in Buffalo Springfield before joining Crosby, Stills and Nash and then embarking on his own successful solo career. Throughout it all, Young has always been a standard for his peers to reach while at the same time seamlessly moving from one idea to the next, rarely letting people get comfortable with the position he was in. He moved from political rock to folk to industrial to rockabilly before becoming the Godfather of grunge. It's a career unlike any other and one full of tremendous songs, a list that reads like classic rock radio playlist. His great lyrics are known to any rock fan; "It's better to burn out than to fade away," " Southern man, when will you pay them back," "I've been a miner for a heart of gold," "Keep on rocking in the free world," and many more and part of the rock lexicon at this point.





Of course, his greatest lyrical statement was CSNY's "Ohio." You can probably make a safe bet you'll never hear lyrics today that are as relevant and important as Young's condemnation when he sang, "Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'/We're finally on our own/This summer I hear the drummin'/Four dead in Ohio."

The reason that Neil Young has been so successful at moving from genre to genre is that he has always produced quality work in whatever field he chooses to work in. It's one thing to change your image or try something new, but to be as good as Young has been at whatever he tries is an astonishing thing.





4. Tom Waits


Tom Waits hasn't always been the avant-garde rocker we know him as today, as in the Seventies he had a more jazz and folk-influenced style. But things changed in the Eighties as Waits' more experimental side came to the forefront, and he become one of music's singular talents. His use of unconventional instruments, including accordions, trombones and various different percussion made him stand out, but his work was more than just oddball stuff. There was a real depth that made the work tremendous. If you can find somebody that created albums with Waits' level of originality and songwriting ability like he has over the years, then I'd like to see it. There's just something so intriguing when Waits' gravely voice tells you, "We sail tonight for Singapore," and you feel like you have to take the trip with him.





Waits also has an emotional side, one that pops up on great songs like "Picture in a Frame," with him singing "I love you baby and I always will/Ever since I put your picture/In a frame." If that's not romantic, then I'm not sure what is. But Waits' best song is "Downtown Train," where he describes the NYC street life late at night in an incredibly descriptive and moving way. He sings, "The downtown trains are full with all those Brooklyn girls/They try so hard to break out of their little worlds." The song is a perfect pop and rock song (good enough to get covered by Rod Stewart), and proof that there's more to Tom Waits than just unconventional music. He's as skilled and talented a songwriter as there is in the world today.





3. Elliott Smith


I'll be honest here, Elliott Smith is quite possibly my favorite songwriter of all-time so I may be somewhat biased in my placement of him on this list. Of course, I don't really care because I love Elliott Smith. Nobody has ever described exactly how I felt and thought about things better than Elliott did, as if he was in my head and writing the songs for me. I know that wounds stupid and cheesy, but it makes sense to me. If it sounds foreign to you, all you have to do is listen to his music and you should then see what I mean. With the help of his soft, affective voice, Smith wrote beautifully delicate songs that made you feel for him as you listened. You feel the pain when he sings, "I'm so angry/I don't think it'll ever pass/And I was bad news for you just because/I never meant to hurt you."





The melodies that Smith wrote were clearly influenced by the Beatles, but they also had a sadness that hovered over much of his work. And, like Kurt Cobain, his early death provides a different context to some of his darker work that might not otherwise be there. That doesn't keep the work he created from being heartbreakingly magnificent. The pain, honesty and directness of lyrics like "I could make you satisfied in everything you do/All your 'secret wishes' could right now be coming trueAnd be forever with my poison arms around you," is amazing and proof that Elliott's music will be around forever and shows why it touches so many people.




2. John Lennon and Paul McCartney (The Beatles)


Yes, I know, techincally there are two men listed here. But John Lennon and Paul McCartney will always be connected, and their songwriting duo created some of the best rock music we've ever heard. Of course, "duo" is a somewhat dubious term, since many Beatles tracks were mainly by only one of them, but credited to Lennon/McCartney. Either way, take a look at each Beatles album and you'll see a number of classic songs on each. The amount of genius work these two created in less than a decade is very impressive and shows that if they were working with or even against each other, Lennon and McCartney were two of the best rock songwriters ever. To have them in the same band at their peak at the same time is an embarrassment of riches that no band would ever be able to complete with.





To list all the great Beatles songs that were written either together or individually is futile, since you probably know what they are already. And I know that a lot of people get annoyed at the adulation that gets thrown at the Beatles for their work, but there are a lot of good reasons for all that adulation. One of them is that they had two remarkably talented men creating music that more than holds up today. Both Lennon and McCartney went on to successful solo careers, proving they didn't need each other to produce good work, although there's no doubt that their best stuff came from when they were a team, harmonious or not.





1. Bob Dylan


There's really no one else that could top this list but Bob Dylan. "Highway 61 Revisited." "Blowin' in the Wind." "The Times They Are A-Changin'." "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35." These are just five of the classic songs in the Dylan catalog, the best catalog that any solo artist has ever made. For a lot of people, "How does it feel/How does it feel/To be without a home/Like a complete unknown/Like a rolling stone," is the apex of rock music. Dylan took the influence of Woody Guthrie and transformed the worlds of both folk and rock. He now stands as probably the most respected and revered figure in rock music today, and perhaps of all-time.





The word genius doesn't come up a lot when discussing rock music, and although I believe I've used the word a few times this column, I can say that there is really only one genius the fifty years of popular rock music, and that is Bob Dylan.


That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.