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New topic PrintableI and believe he may be the greatest rock musician of all time, but songwriter? Not so much. Besides Dylan, Lennon & McCartney and Leonard Cohen, what about Bruce Springsteen, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Joni Mtichell, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, and even Randy Newman? | |
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I was pleased to see Kris Kristofferson on this list.. He doesn't have the best voice, but that man has written some amazing songs. Very underrated. | |
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Yep, Bob Marley would deserve this title more than Prince, he wrote many classic songs with deep and meaningful lyrics.
Prince would definately be the "Greatest One Man Band of all time" though IMO. But that is not what this poll is about. RIP Prince: thank U 4 a funky Time... | |
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Agreed with the last 30 years concerning Stevie. But unlike Prince stevie only released about 3 albums during that period of time, which -admittedly- weren't classics like his 70's work, and has thus not diluted his legacy as much as Prince has done. - Of course Prince has written quite a few very good songs (mainly in the eighties and early nineties), but overall his output hasn't been as strong as Stevie's, or Bob Marley's, or Lennon&McCartney's output. IMHO of course... RIP Prince: thank U 4 a funky Time... | |
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RIP Prince: thank U 4 a funky Time... | |
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Lol. Delusional fans. Grow up already, Prince is not, was never and will never be the greatest songwriter of all time, I'm beginning to doubt he'd even crack the top 15... Seriously, guys, ain't it enough that he is a respected musician all over the globe, between all music listeners (not all of them, though)? He's known to be a great guitarist, great musician, great dancer... He's just not the best.. He ain't no Marvin Gaye, he ain't no James Brown, he damn sure ain't no Lennon McCartney and if he was better than them (good joke) he'd have shown it in his work, but at his best Prince can write a ballad with different characters and unique storytelling... (I consider Sign o the Time (song) his best song lyrically and it's not a ballad anyway)... Lennon-McCartney / Bob Dylan are class songwriters, Prince.... he isn't there... simple as it is. | |
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there it is.
"Hyperactive when I was small, Hyperactive now I'm grown, Hyperactive 'till I'm dead and gone"
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___ "Midnight is where the day begins" | |
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The poll disagrees with you. :lol: Prince is #1. |
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YAY!!! Prince #1...voters speak louder. | |
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Wow, Tori Amos has jumped into the Top 10. That's good. I like her a lot. Helluva songwriter. |
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I totally agree for those amongst us that are truly re cog nized! There are others that are amazing that will never be truly heard - un fortunatley! | |
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they should poll coke or an avacado and see which food is the best of all time
pretty sure coke would win even tho it will give you cancer
glad we resolved this .. listening to prince gives fans cancer .. you will find yourself addicted no matter how many shitty illness inducing ingrediants he throws in .. you will crave more and more and try to convince everybody to love him as much as you do even tho his music is killing you from the inside out .. people are dumb
prince is good for what he did .. not what he does .. and i have serious doubts he could write a hit without stealing from other talents .. unfortunately the past 20 years have proven this fact true | |
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You can't talk about MJ here, take it to the MJ sticky. Luv4u is slipping! | |
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Marrk said:
You can't talk about MJ here, take it to the MJ sticky. Luv4u is slipping! Hey...its fine by me...as long as opinions stay opinions and facts stay facts. | |
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Just as Pink Floyd are the most overrated band ever, so too is Bob Dylan the most overrated songwriter. Really, its about time these turgid, plodding misery-guts of musicians are brought down a peg or too. Definitely wouldn't be played on my desert island. I'd rather throw myself to the sharks. As for Lennon & McCartney....Yellow Submarine anyone, Hey Jude zzzzzzzzzzzzzz | |
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Arms of Orion, anyone? Grafitti Bridge? Jughead?
Your comment is meaningless. | |
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My art book: http://www.lulu.com/spotl...ecomicskid
VIDEO WORK: http://sharadkantpatel.com MUSIC: https://soundcloud.com/ufoclub1977 | |
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First of all - Lenon and McCartney are two people - so listed them together as "best songwriter" (singular) is a little strange but I digress...
I think a lot of you are focusing more on just lyrics - if it was "best lyricist" I think Prince would probably fare a little worse. However, best songwriter should take into account melodies, structure and of course DIVERSITY - this is where Prince ranks very high.
Prince has covered Soul, Rock, R&B, Funk, Gospel, Jazz, New Wave, Punk and even mixed in Egyptian and other world music elements. He has also come up with a huge amount of original melodies. Prince has also written songs from many points of view (male, female, alien, religious, non-religious and on and on).
Ask yourself what an Egyptian/Dance/Funk song composed by Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen would sound like. Most people, whether they are informed about these artists musically or not, tend to think that most Springsteen and Dylan songs (just using these guys as an example) sound realtively similar musically - you will have guitar, drums, bass and piano and maybe every now and then mix in some new musical element.
With Prince you could get a harpsichord, no bass, many different tones, sounds and techniques coming from the guitar, many different bass lines from ascending to decending and on and on - you get someone who is really putting some effort into creating a new sound to go along with the story he is telling. This is part of songwriting in my opinion and I think a lot of people see this in Prince's music which is why he ranks pretty highly in these polls.
I see Tori Amos is now moving up the charts and again she represents someone who has a very similar technique. As a matter of fact, Tori has listed Prince as one of her all time favorite artists who has had a huge influence in her life as a composer. She ranks Purple Rain as her favorite album and talks about Prince quite frequently in interviews. Here is just one example:
http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/post/from-the-vault-on-the-record-with-tori-amos
Anyway I am just stating my opinion and trying to add something to the conversation and I do agree Prince probably needs to be better as a lyricist...
Cheers!
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so ..no one else has written subpar songs like the prince songs u mentioned? | |
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Prince is one of the Greatest song writers of all time! Then he also produces and does all the other technical stuff that is involved with making music. Plus, he sings and plays more than 10 instruments. Not too many people can do a- l- l -that! | |
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Show "Nough, Amen! [Edited 5/1/14 20:47pm] | |
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"Purple & Gold", people, "Purple & Gold"... "Had to get off the boat so I could walk on water..." | |
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Done! | |
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Although, not a great song, it is at the same level as most collegiate and professional football fight songs. I thought it was just terrible when it first came out, until it was compared to other fight songs for football teams. It's rather standard sound and presentation as most the other fight songs. 99.9% of everything I say is strictly for my own entertainment | |
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I can't believe people are trying to discredit Prince for being one of the greatest song writers. The man was a songwriting machine back in the day. He's had some solid albums, while at the time had b sides that were classics , and albums with other artist performing his material all at the same time period. I think he's underrated as a song writer. In my opinion he's the greatest song writer of all time. I don't disagree there are others who are great as well, but Prince deserve to be in the place within the top best. You can't deny that hardly anyone has been as diverse as him or done a good job at it. | |
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Why ? Prince isn't the greatest songwriter of all time... He's just a good songwriter who's very prolific. He's no Lennon, nor a McCartney, or even a Glimmer Twin duo, or a Cohen. "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. And wiser people so full of doubts" (Bertrand Russell 1872-1972) | |
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Pretty sure that a lot of people who replied to this thread actually don't know what the term songwriting really means. [Edited 5/4/14 0:16am] | |
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Prince wrote a lot of good music, some great lyrics too. But he isn't the greatest lyricist there is now, is he ? But, again, funk songs with personal lyrics like When Doves Cry, or Head, Sister are great to me and probably loads of others, but that doesn't make him the great songwriter to me. I believe Sign O The Times is great. Simple great music, lyrical wise it's perfect. Cause it was able to grab the zeitgeist so perfectly back in '87. No one else was able to do that in a couple of minutes. "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves. And wiser people so full of doubts" (Bertrand Russell 1872-1972) | |
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If this poll had any credibility (discounting the fact that probably only hardcore fans of each artist are voting), then it lost it for me by labelling Prince in the genre of: Hip hop music, Synthpop, New Wave hmmmm although the 'genres' for the the other artists seem like a fair description My password is what | |
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