We talk a lot about our favourite guitars here at guitarguitar, and about our favourite guitarists and genres of music. But one thing we’ve not covered are the songwriters themselves. Whether it’s an artist that writes their own music, or a writer who creates hits for others, the craft of songwriting is what I’m celebrating today.
In today’s run down, you’ll find all of the classic songwriters that are time-honoured, and a few modern day legends who are making tidal waves with today’s audiences. There’s no order here, because there’s no competition and no ‘best’, just a collection of some of the best writers the world has known…
Contents
Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is easily one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century. He dominated the 60s folk scene so much that his disciples were moved to yell ‘Judas’ at him when we came onstage with an electric guitar, such was their devotion to what they believed he was all about.
In truth, Dylan has been difficult to pin down as an artistic talent. He’s a mercurial, unpredictable style-swapper, but what is always clearly there is a genius gift for lyrics that are simultaneously direct and poetic. Every songwriter you love loves Bob Dylan: it’s as simple as that.
Brian Wilson
In the 60s, the Beach Boys were the band that people like the Beatles saw as direct competition/inspiration. Indeed, Brian Wilson’s deceptively complex song structures showed the world that ‘perfect pop’ could be a lot more than 3 chords and a nice melody.
Elton John & Bernie Taupin
In the rock/pop world, it’s relatively unusual to have a songwriting pair who divide the music and lyric-writing tasks as specifically as Elton John and Bernie Taupin. You see it often in the world of musicals, and maybe that’s appropriate, given Elton John’s glamorous songwriting style. The piano ace and his lyrical partner have a body of work together that rivals the very best in the world.
John Lennon & Paul McCartney
The Beatles have, with their undeniable catalogue of quality songs, cast a huge shadow over the world of music since their inception. Decades after Beatlemania died down, the songs created by the Fab Four continue to display a level of potency that few other acts have achieved.
Central to this situation was a songwriting nucleus of frontman John Lennon and bassist Paul McCartney. Together, they’ve written more classics than anyone, and their keen ability to capture specific feelings and moods in very simple ways have endeared their work to countless millions across the world. A simple paragraph in a blog like this will never suffice, but Lennon & McCartney are simply the most influential songwriters ever.
David Bowie
Bowie’s career was a masterclass of hiding in plain sight. Famously referred to as a chameleon due to his use of alter egos - Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke as just a few that spring to mind - his propensity for trying out new styles and sounds never disguised his singular writing style.
Bowie was able to take a song and dress it up in all manner of different guises, but as with all master songwriters, his gift for greatness shone through regardless. Whether writing on guitar or (mainly) piano, and whichever of his various singing voices he employed, what set Bowie apart from his contemporaries wasn’t image, nor was it a keen eye for marketing: it was that he simply had better songs.
Georgio Moroder
Certain songwriters sum up a time or an era, and with Giogio Moroder, that time was a semi-fictional 70s/80s that had permanent palm trees, sunsets and exotic people. Moroder was the writer behind Donna Summer’s iconic I Feel Love, and he was also responsible for the Scarface soundtrack.
The Italian synth pioneer is often called ‘the father of disco’, which is both appropriate and underrepresenting his titanic influence over the worlds of pop, new wave and movie soundtracks. Today’s synthwave genre is almost a direct tribute/ripoff of Moroder’s sound.
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is of course a cultural icon, but she’s an enormously popular songwriter too. Parton has penned some of the most successful songs in history, from her trademark Jolene to I Will Always Love You, covered by Whitney Houston and living at number one in the charts for about 8 years.
Part of Dolly’s success has lain in her shrewd managing of genres: whilst definitely being one of country music’s most visible stars, songs like 9 to 5 exist in a much more mainstream place, making them accessible to everyone. That common touch has gone fan in making Parton’s writing find a huge audience.
Neil Young
Whether as a solo artist or as part of CSNY or Buffalo Springfield, Canadian ‘Godfather of Grunge’ Neil Young has constantly shown the world that he has that illusive ‘thing’ that distinguishes a great songwriter from a merely good one.
Like Bob Dylan, Young has a catalogue of music that spans over half a century, and has become somewhat timeless nowadays as a result. Always favouring direct, gorgeous melodies and themes, Neil Young is proof that a handful of chords, a beautiful melody and some honest lyrics can go further than almost anything else.
Ashford & Simpson
Not all songwriting teams include a renowned performer, as is the case with Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Some hugely successful teams are happy to remain out of the spotlight and write classic songs for established artists.
Once such pair would be Nickolas Ashford and Valeria Simpson, whose collective purple patch lasted for almost half a century. Ashford & Simpson did actually put out a few songs in their own name, but it’s the enormous run of songs they wrote for others - and by that, I mean Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Marta Reeves & the Vandellas and Roberta Flack - that has secured their legendary status.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is the biggest, most successful musical artist in the world right now. Her army of Swifties love her with an intensity that threatens to out-burn that of Beatlemania, and her enormo-tours sell out almost as quickly as they are announced.
Swift’s songwriting is mostly a series of collaborations and cowrites but her stratospheric popularity - and the fact that she is involved with the songwriting process - means that her influence as a songwriter is large, to say the least. Like Dolly Parton, Swift came to prominence in the world of country but quickly outgrew that world and moved into a bigger global audience.
Bruce Springsteen
Perhaps one of the most prominent ‘post-Dylan’ male songwriters in the rock canon, Bruce Springsteen mixes old-school rock star machismo with an underrated, reflective side. Springsteen’s music is a mix between his grandiose everything-but-the-kitchen-sink productions with his E-street band, to understated solo efforts that are sometimes literally recorded on a Tascam Portastudio.
Siding with the underdog and with an affinity for the blue collar American everyman, Springsteen is loved for his ability to celebrate, lament and eulogise the ‘American experience’ no matter where in the world his audience may find him.
Paul Simon
Paul Simon has enjoyed two quite specific eras in his career. Firstly, as one half of Simon & Garfunkel, he wrote insightful tunes about the interiority of life as a young man in America. Folk-tinged but quietly powerful, his reputation would have been secure for this work only.
But as a solo artist, he brought things into a totally different place. Albums like Graceland combined African musical styles with his own more Western songwriting to create some unforgettable music.
Willie Nelson
For true outlaw country, look no further. Willie Nelson is the real deal, as authentic as it gets, and he is still going strong at 91 years old. Rebelling against the overly manicured sound of 1960s Nashville country, Nelson decided to ride his own horse, and brought around a whole new take on country as a result.
Interestingly - as we’ve seen with both Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift - Willie Nelson’s best loved songs transcend their country genre origins. You Were Always on My Mind, for example, is as well known for its Pet Shop Boys synthpop cover as it is in its original form. Proof, once again, that there’s no arguing with greatness.
Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell
Billie Eilish is one of the most outrageously successful artists of recent times. Nearly every one of her songs is a collaboration with her brother Finneas O’Connell, making them a songwriting duo for today’s audiences.
Opting for a laptop over the traditional songwriter tools of a piano or acoustic guitar, Eilish and O’Connell produce their music ‘in the box’, with Eilish adding her vocals to their productions. They’ve both spoken about how they enjoy creating characters to write around. From early songs written as a 13 year old and posted on Soundcloud, Eilish is now one of the world’s most recognised songwriters.
Burt Bacharach
Songwriting legend Burt Bacharach was such a force, he managed to have over 1000 artists record his music. During his 94 years, he wrote for almost every top artist in the 60s, and created timeless classics such as Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield and The Carpenters’ (They Long to Be) Close to You, amongst an avalanche of other hits.
Bacharach wrote many of his early hits alongside lyricist Hal David in the famous Brill Building, achieving back-to-back number one singles in the 50s.
Whilst most younger readers will perhaps only vaguely remember him from his piano-playing cameo in Austin Powers, Burt Bacharach was an enormously important songwriter.
Prince
Sometimes an artist is imbued with such talent, such a force of personality and such a drive that they become unstoppable. Such was the case for Prince Rogers Nelson, a Minneapolis singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, who generally went by his first name only.
Prince was so good, we was able to through out hit songs to other artists without a second thought: Manic Monday by the Bangles and Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O’Connor were both written by him.
Because he could - and did - it all, in terms of his writing, playing and producing, it’s often easy to forget what a monumental songwriter he was. His flamboyant image and behaviour were the reasons he was a star, but his songs were the reason why millions of people still love him today.
Jimmy Webb
My last choice today is perhaps the opposite of Prince in terms of persona and temperament. Jimmy Webb is a quiet, unassuming Oklahoman who just happens to have written some of the biggest songs ever.
Take this random list of his songs for a quick example: Wichita Lineman, Galveston, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, The Highwayman...there are tons more.
Most of his early work was country - or at least country-tinged - but in the 70s, Webb began working with people like Art Garfunkel and The Supremes, whilst Donna Summer disco-ed up a version of his earlier hit MacArthur Park, showing again that a great song can find lots of different ‘looks’ if the foundations are good.
Webb continues to write and release songs today, including solo work, and he has also written books on songwriting.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt will always inspire devotion and disdain in roughly equal measures. His sound, voice and songwriting style immediately change everything about rock music, and whilst he’s been intensely ripped off, the copycats have never been able to nail the same flavour of genuinely surreal lyricism and imagery that came naturally to Cobain.
A self-conscious stylist, Cobain never wanted to be seen as overly ambitious or driven by success, but his words and melodies were anything but improvised. Instead, they displayed deep consideration and refinement, and at their most deliberately abrasive.
Where he went, everyone followed, but none of them went quite as far as he.
Tom Waits
From barfly champion of the downtrodden and brokenhearted to the chronicler of those strange folks who live up the street, Tom Waits is like an alternate universe Dylan. He’s an arch stylist whose life seems as much a character creation as it does a reality, and he’s an arch social commentator who uses metaphorical freaks, creeps and weirdos to spell out his romance and anger at the real world.
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell uses her ability to sum up complex emotions with simple language to enormously influential effect. She was of course the definitive hippie era songwriter, but her evocative lyrics and vocal melodies describe time & place in a way that speaks plainly but brings shades and layers. The perfect example for me would be the song Woodstock, which reads one way but sounds another way entirely. After becoming disillusioned by the music industry - and then suffering health issues - Mitchell gave up music, but has recently returned to performing.
Billie Joe Armstrong
The voice of the suburbs, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has been more able to most songwriters to describe the broken hopes and quiet ennui that makes up the lives of many urban dwellers in the US and beyond.
By zooming in on the mundane and elevating it into a noble cause, he writes songs that are intensely relatable, and speak to the problems of actual people, not caricatures or cliches. He’s like a punk Bruce Springsteen in many ways, with the same ability to speak to the common person, plainly and directly. He’s so good at it, actually, that many miss the reality of just how good a songwriter he is.
Leonard Cohen
He’s the literary choice for Dylan fans who want even more in the way of storytelling, with a little added salt and sass. Leonard Cohen is a towering figure in the world of songwriting, as much for language itself as for his subject matter.
Ostensibly a folk artist, Cohen nevertheless branched out into more colourful areas later in life, including the ironically iconic I’m Your Man album, which blended spoken word crooning with French synthpop. Working on music right until the end, his penultimate record, You Want it Darker, was released just three weeks before his death in 2016.
Tori Amos
Tori Amos ground lots of ground - in an often subversive manner for the time - in terms of her lyrical subject matter. A gifted pianist who studied at the Peabody Institute (part of John Hopkins University) at the age of 5! It wasn’t until the comparatively ripe old age of 27 that her solo debut Little Earthquakes brought her to the attention of the world.
Amos’ song subject matter includes songs about feminism, religion, sexuality and politics, and also references themes like discrimination and sexual assault. Such themes had been touched on by other songwriters, but not in as direct and empowering a way as Amos’. She’s sustained a successful solo career for nearly 40 years now, and continues to push boundaries.
Nick Cave
Audiences watching the tall, skinny, crazed frontman of The Birthday Party in the early 80s would be forgiven for not expecting the man to live long, far less become a true elder statesman of song. This is exactly what has happened though, as Cave’s career has weaved through a number of dark districts over the last 50 years.
With his Bad Seeds backing band, he’s delivered sermon after sermon of demented post-gothic rock n’roll, nestled beside some of the most achingly exquisite love songs in modern music. An expert at mixing tragedy with euphoria, Cave still matters because it’s clear to everyone that he still feels every word that he writes.
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir’s contributions to songwriting are often only considered after her futuristic soundscapes and next-level visual presentation. Of course, it’s all part of her art, and she deserves to have her work considered within its own context. After all, to whom do you compare Björk?
There’s almost nothing traditional about Björk’s music, from her composition techniques (beats first, vocals last usually) to her unusual melodic vocal phrasings. Taking advantage of technology, her work mixes collages of sound, samples, full orchestras and synths, all of which provide cutting edge backdrops to her incredible voice. Central to this is the juxtaposition of her lyrics, which seek for human connection and emotional understanding, and stand out all the more clearly against her techno-futuristic music. Completely unique and endlessly inspiring.
You Can’t Argue with Greatness
This list contains some of the greatest songwriters ever, but that’s not to say that it’s in any way exhaustive! There are no rules about what’s considered a ‘good song’, so there similarly aren’t any rules on who is or isn’t a good songwriter.
All of these individuals have contributed greatly to the art of songwriting, and supplied us with countless song gems to enrich our lives. There are loads of ways to make music of course, and not every style of music is even about ‘songwriting’ per se, but at the end of the day, a great song is a great song.
