To me this is one of the best decades of the singer songwriter.. if not the best.

Some of the greats

Cat Stevens

Joni Mitchell

Stevie Wonder

Patti Smith

John Lennon

Marvin Gaye

Lou Reed

Bob Dylan

John Cale

Carol King

Melanie

Rod Stewart

Gordon Lightfoot

Neil Young

Nick Drake

Leonard Cohen

Randy Newman

David Bowie

Tom Waits

Bill Withers

Van Morrison

John Denver

Elton John

Billy Joel

Lobo

Dave Loggins

Todd Rundgren

Jim Croche

Janis Ian

Carly Simon

Frank Zappa

Bruce Springsteen

Eric Clapton

Phoebe Snow

Al Stewart

Albert Hammond

Curtis Mayfield

Anymore you would like to add?

[Edited 10/2/11 15:04pm]

[Edited 10/2/11 17:08pm]

[Edited 10/2/11 17:09pm]

The P-Funk collective

Laura Nyro

Curtis Mayfield

David Bowie

Terry Callier

Judee Sill

Tortilla said:

Laura Nyro

Curtis Mayfield

David Bowie

Terry Callier

Judee Sill

wtf! how did i forget david & curtis! good call

Tortilla said:

Laura Nyro

Curtis Mayfield

David Bowie

Terry Callier

Judee Sill

Timmy84 said:

Tortilla said:

Laura Nyro

Curtis Mayfield

David Bowie

Terry Callier

Judee Sill

HARRY CHAPIN who is the greatest story teller of all time, never gets respect, but he is one of the very very few artists that can make a 10minute song enjoyable and seem short!

^ Harry Chapin is bad-ass, definitely a great singer-songwriter.

Same with Todd Rundgren.

[Edited 10/2/11 17:20pm]

Timmy84 said:

^ Harry Chapin is bad-ass, definitely a great singer-songwriter.

Same with Todd Rundgren.

[Edited 10/2/11 17:20pm]

Harry is mind blowing because he is also, one of the most if not the most vocal humanitarians of his time. He would do close to 200 gigs a year and donate more than half the money if not more. He walked the talk, unlike the artists of today that just write checks and dont know what they are writing a check for. Harry went to countries, saw famine, went to government officials, testifed and got things put into law that never were before. Hard to believe he has been gone 30 years now!! It was a sad day because his album was climbing the charts as it happend, ironically, i think Harry had a foreshadowing of Death when he wrote a song "Story of A Life" on his last album, he was on a plane that was caught in a tornado and he thought he was going to die, and he wrote that song, ironically HARRY died on his way to do a benefit show!

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

^ Harry Chapin is bad-ass, definitely a great singer-songwriter.

Same with Todd Rundgren.

[Edited 10/2/11 17:20pm]

Harry is mind blowing because he is also, one of the most if not the most vocal humanitarians of his time. He would do close to 200 gigs a year and donate more than half the money if not more. He walked the talk, unlike the artists of today that just write checks and dont know what they are writing a check for. Harry went to countries, saw famine, went to government officials, testifed and got things put into law that never were before. Hard to believe he has been gone 30 years now!! It was a sad day because his album was climbing the charts as it happend, ironically, i think Harry had a foreshadowing of Death when he wrote a song "Story of A Life" on his last album, he was on a plane that was caught in a tornado and he thought he was going to die, and he wrote that song, ironically HARRY died on his way to do a benefit show!

Usually artists who are that deep know when they're gonna go in some kind of way.

Timmy84 said:

lastdecember said:

Harry is mind blowing because he is also, one of the most if not the most vocal humanitarians of his time. He would do close to 200 gigs a year and donate more than half the money if not more. He walked the talk, unlike the artists of today that just write checks and dont know what they are writing a check for. Harry went to countries, saw famine, went to government officials, testifed and got things put into law that never were before. Hard to believe he has been gone 30 years now!! It was a sad day because his album was climbing the charts as it happend, ironically, i think Harry had a foreshadowing of Death when he wrote a song "Story of A Life" on his last album, he was on a plane that was caught in a tornado and he thought he was going to die, and he wrote that song, ironically HARRY died on his way to do a benefit show!

Usually artists who are that deep know when they're gonna go in some kind of way.

His eeriest song is "The shortest story" its tucked on the end of "Greatest Stories Live" as a studio track, its only 2:25 which is super super short for him, but the lyrics are so dead on, about hunger and a child dieing from it, its so freaking on point, scary to think what he would be writing in these times.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

Usually artists who are that deep know when they're gonna go in some kind of way.

His eeriest song is "The shortest story" its tucked on the end of "Greatest Stories Live" as a studio track, its only 2:25 which is super super short for him, but the lyrics are so dead on, about hunger and a child dieing from it, its so freaking on point, scary to think what he would be writing in these times.

Some songs usually say it all that the artist themselves felt they don't need to write it again. Like with Marvin, I doubt he would do another What's Going On because pretty much what he wrote and sung about in 1971 is still going on now, just like with Harry Chapin's "Shortest Story".

A few that come to mind.

Jackson Browne
Paul Simon
Kenny Loggins
Richie Havens
Leon Russell
Gil Scott-Heron
Michael Franks
Kenny Rankin
Gino Vannelli
Paul Davis
David Gates
John Sebastian
Joan Armatrading
Ben Sidran
Boz Scaggs
Al Green
Bobby Womack
James Brown
Maurice White
Donald Fagen
Donny Hathaway

Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

I've always found the term "singer songwriter" to be a bit of a turnoff. What the fuck does that even mean? Cats like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino were writing and singing their own songs a good fifteen years before the singer songwriter boom of the seventies. What about C & W acts like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson? They are some of the best singers and songwriters of the 20th century, regardless of genre. Bob Dylan? There's a singer songwriter. I just don't get what made all of those soundalike acts of the seventies special.

When I think "singer songwriter" I think of some bogus movement calculated to sell records. Like if you are labeled a "singer songwriter" it somehow legitimises you and makes your music deep. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Good music is good music regardless of who wrote it.

Timmy84 said:

lastdecember said:

His eeriest song is "The shortest story" its tucked on the end of "Greatest Stories Live" as a studio track, its only 2:25 which is super super short for him, but the lyrics are so dead on, about hunger and a child dieing from it, its so freaking on point, scary to think what he would be writing in these times.

Some songs usually say it all that the artist themselves felt they don't need to write it again. Like with Marvin, I doubt he would do another What's Going On because pretty much what he wrote and sung about in 1971 is still going on now, just like with Harry Chapin's "Shortest Story".

very true, i dont know if artists like Marvin and Lennon and chapin etc...could really look at these times now. I often wonder how that "writer" would fit in this generation of "soundbytes and media"

I think the times are where these artists grew out of, dont know whats growing out of these times

[Edited 10/2/11 17:45pm]

rialb said:

I've always found the term "singer songwriter" to be a bit of a turnoff. What the fuck does that even mean? Cats like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino were writing and singing their own songs a good fifteen years before the singer songwriter boom of the seventies. What about C & W acts like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson? They are some of the best singers and songwriters of the 20th century, regardless of genre. Bob Dylan? There's a singer songwriter. I just don't get what made all of those soundalike acts of the seventies special.

When I think "singer songwriter" I think of some bogus movement calculated to sell records. Like if you are labeled a "singer songwriter" it somehow legitimises you and makes your music deep. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Good music is good music regardless of who wrote it.

Well i understand that, because alot of artists write their own stuff and sing it. The term i think comes from a more acoustic Dylan like make a statement singer, but i also feel its a camaflouge way of saying folk singer, Rick Springfield from 1971-1976 was a singer-songwriter and reffered that way, so the term really stretches.

I mean its like the term corporate rock and faceless bands? WTF is that? I mean STYX has a face, and yet they were lumped in that, they were called corporate because they sold, but for almost 6 albums they didnt sell shit, so how is that corporate? what corporation doesnt sell?

Also the term blue eyed soul that one kills me, because it bothers Daryl Hall, who always gets lumped with it, as he said, its a backward racist term, soul is a type of music, not a color of skin.

lastdecember said:

rialb said:

I've always found the term "singer songwriter" to be a bit of a turnoff. What the fuck does that even mean? Cats like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino were writing and singing their own songs a good fifteen years before the singer songwriter boom of the seventies. What about C & W acts like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson? They are some of the best singers and songwriters of the 20th century, regardless of genre. Bob Dylan? There's a singer songwriter. I just don't get what made all of those soundalike acts of the seventies special.

When I think "singer songwriter" I think of some bogus movement calculated to sell records. Like if you are labeled a "singer songwriter" it somehow legitimises you and makes your music deep. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Good music is good music regardless of who wrote it.

Well i understand that, because alot of artists write their own stuff and sing it. The term i think comes from a more acoustic Dylan like make a statement singer, but i also feel its a camaflouge way of saying folk singer, Rick Springfield from 1971-1976 was a singer-songwriter and reffered that way, so the term really stretches.

I mean its like the term corporate rock and faceless bands? WTF is that? I mean STYX has a face, and yet they were lumped in that, they were called corporate because they sold, but for almost 6 albums they didnt sell shit, so how is that corporate? what corporation doesnt sell?

Also the term blue eyed soul that one kills me, because it bothers Daryl Hall, who always gets lumped with it, as he said, its a backward racist term, soul is a type of music, not a color of skin.

I agree with the both of you.

lastdecember said:

rialb said:

I've always found the term "singer songwriter" to be a bit of a turnoff. What the fuck does that even mean? Cats like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino were writing and singing their own songs a good fifteen years before the singer songwriter boom of the seventies. What about C & W acts like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson? They are some of the best singers and songwriters of the 20th century, regardless of genre. Bob Dylan? There's a singer songwriter. I just don't get what made all of those soundalike acts of the seventies special.

When I think "singer songwriter" I think of some bogus movement calculated to sell records. Like if you are labeled a "singer songwriter" it somehow legitimises you and makes your music deep. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Good music is good music regardless of who wrote it.

Well i understand that, because alot of artists write their own stuff and sing it. The term i think comes from a more acoustic Dylan like make a statement singer, but i also feel its a camaflouge way of saying folk singer, Rick Springfield from 1971-1976 was a singer-songwriter and reffered that way, so the term really stretches.

I mean its like the term corporate rock and faceless bands? WTF is that? I mean STYX has a face, and yet they were lumped in that, they were called corporate because they sold, but for almost 6 albums they didnt sell shit, so how is that corporate? what corporation doesnt sell?

Also the term blue eyed soul that one kills me, because it bothers Daryl Hall, who always gets lumped with it, as he said, its a backward racist term, soul is a type of music, not a color of skin.

Yeah, maybe you're right. The folk movement had kind of run its course by the seventies and I can see labels not wanting to have their acts referred to as folk music. It just seems so silly. Roger Miller was a singer songwriter and so was Blackie Lawless and so was Kurtis Blow. Musically they don't have much in common but technically they were all sing songwriters (or rapper songwriters in the case of Kurtis). I just never thought that there was anything that held singer songwriters together in the same way that there is in other genres.

I'm guilty of using "faceless" and "corporate rock" sometimes. I think it was just critics being frustrated that music they perceived as having little value selling boatloads while what they thought of as the good stuff was ignored.

I can understand the need for a tern to differentiate between soul music and white artists performing soul music. Realistically, when people think soul music names like Otis, Aretha and Wilson come to mind, it's not really a genre that is often associated with white artists.

rialb said:

I've always found the term "singer songwriter" to be a bit of a turnoff. What the fuck does that even mean? Cats like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino were writing and singing their own songs a good fifteen years before the singer songwriter boom of the seventies. What about C & W acts like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson? They are some of the best singers and songwriters of the 20th century, regardless of genre. Bob Dylan? There's a singer songwriter. I just don't get what made all of those soundalike acts of the seventies special.

When I think "singer songwriter" I think of some bogus movement calculated to sell records. Like if you are labeled a "singer songwriter" it somehow legitimises you and makes your music deep. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Good music is good music regardless of who wrote it.

I knew you come in here and hate this thread

Gunsnhalen said:

rialb said:

I've always found the term "singer songwriter" to be a bit of a turnoff. What the fuck does that even mean? Cats like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino were writing and singing their own songs a good fifteen years before the singer songwriter boom of the seventies. What about C & W acts like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson? They are some of the best singers and songwriters of the 20th century, regardless of genre. Bob Dylan? There's a singer songwriter. I just don't get what made all of those soundalike acts of the seventies special.

When I think "singer songwriter" I think of some bogus movement calculated to sell records. Like if you are labeled a "singer songwriter" it somehow legitimises you and makes your music deep. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Good music is good music regardless of who wrote it.

I knew you come in here and hate this thread

Dang, am I becoming too predictable? I actually enjoy most of the people on the list but I will never be a fan of that particular label.

Cat Stevens !!!

Bruce Springsteen

Don McLean

[Edited 10/3/11 5:14am]

Joni Mitchell

Townes van Zandt

Nick Drake

Richard Thompson

The "singer songwriter" is a genre where they could go up on a stage with just a guitar or piano, and maybe one other person accompanying them.

You can't put Fagen down without Becker. Or Elton without Bernie.

Tim Buckley

Harry Nilsson

Randy Newman

CSN (and sometimes Y)Crosby's solo album from '71 is def. worth checking out. Stills solo work was pretty good, too.

Neil Young

Joni

Kate Bush

Laura Nyro

Emmylou Harris - her 70s run with GP and solo have a lot of great songs

Dolly Parton - some of her best songs were written in the 70s.

Jerry Reed - funny songs and talented guitarist.

Paul Simon & Stevie Wonder dominated the Grammys for the first half of the 70s.

Carole King - Tapestry is one of the longest charting albums.

Harry was mentioned, but no Jim Croce? He had some great songs, apart from the hits.

Gerry Rafferty - had some great songs.

Al Stewart - Year of the Cat is

Moody Blues - They had some great albums before the split in '72.

Donovan - the stuff he did in the 70s didn't suck, was a little more jazzy, but def. worth checking out.

Roy Harper - one of my favorite singer-songwriters. They call him 'psychedelic folk". He had some heavy hitter rock legends on his albums. Same Old Rock, When the Cricketer Leaves the Crease, You, Another Day. Counter Culture is a good compilation.

Peter Gabriel - with Genesis and solo. Here Comes The Flood, In The Cage, Solsbury Hill.

James Taylor - pretty solid run from 70-77 as far as album cuts and hits go.

Cat Stevens -

Carly Simon - similar in vein to Carole King, but had a nice run in the 70s - That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be to Nobody Does It Better.

Billy Joel - The first 3 solo albums are more singer-songwriter genre than The Stranger or 52nd Street. Turnstiles has his best songs on there, but the worst production.

Tom Waits - Closing Time and Heart of Sat Night have been covered over and over, then he decided to affect his voice and go in a retro direction. I love Foreign Affairs, Heart Attack and Vine, and Small Change. Doesn't get better than Tom Traubert's Blues.

Lou Reed - poetry set to music, listen to Street Hassle, but his first solo were VU outtakes, and the solo catalog is a hit and miss over the decade.

Van Morrison

Bob Seger - songs are constantly played on classic rock radio. Turn The Page, Beautiful Losers, Still The Same.

Dylan in the 70s - had mostly great songs and a few misfires. Blood on the Tracks and Desire are great from beginning to end.

Rod Stewart - before he asked if people thought he was sexy and singing standards from the 40s, he was writing a lot of great songs.

Gordon Lightfoot - forget Edmund Fitzgerald. The back catalog is a really good one.

Dan Fogelberg - overplayed the heck out of Old Lang Syne, but had some great songs in the 70s.

John Denver - A little corny because of the TV appearances, but had a pretty solid catalog of songs.

Neil Diamond - granted, he can be overblown and overproduces his songs at times, but the run of songs he did in the early 70s are memorable and hold up.

Leonard Cohen - I don't think of him as a singer songwriter as much as a poet who decided the money was better in music. But on the last tour, he was singing his old songs as well as he did back in the day.

Hall and Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette or the first CD of the 2 CD hits collection.

Bob Marley - goes without saying. Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh also wrote some great songs.

Jimmy Buffett - he's continuing to tour on songs he wrote 40 years ago, but give them a listen. He was def. part of the singer songwriter group before the Parrotheads and the Margaritaville franchise eclipsed it.

Bill Withers

John Prine - still out there performing, another one that has the 2 CD collection worth checking out.

Jackson Browne

dalsh327 said:

The "singer songwriter" is a genre where they could go up on a stage with just a guitar or piano, and maybe one other person accompanying them.

You can't put Fagen down without Becker.

Sure you can, as his trilogy of solo albums illustrates even though they're outside the 70s time frame.
As with Lennon/McCartney, i'm willing to bet that certain of the Steely Dan material was primarily written by Fagen and others Becker.

And as detailed and orchestrated as most of the material is, they can stand on their own stripped down to their essence because bottom-line, they're well written songs.



...On The Dunes

Donald Fagen - Acoustic Piano
Warren Bernhardt - Fender Rhodes (melody)



Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

rialb said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I knew you come in here and hate this thread

Dang, am I becoming too predictable? I actually enjoy most of the people on the list but I will never be a fan of that particular label.

sahahah i am just fucking with ya. But yes i just had a feeling , really to me the label was given to them more then them making it. So i guess you could say it is a bit silly... but nowaday's idk what they call so called singer songwrites of the 00's

Johnny Bristol

Sam Dees

Al Green

Johnny "Guitar" Watson

Joyce Moreno

Leon Haywood

Willie Hutch

Joe Simon

Ruben Blades

Shirley Ceasar

Andre Crouch

Jose Feliciano (although he's mostly known for covers in English, a lot of his Spanish language songs were self written)

Singer-songwriter is indeed a confusing term: Chuck Berry could be called a singer-songwriter (allthough its rock and roll), George Clinton could also be (although he is a funkateer), Prince could be called one (allthough he plays like about everything), Van Morisson could be called one (allthough he plays a mixture of blues, jazz, folk and soul, and often with a large live band),

BUT

To me PERSONALLY i feel that singer-songwriter-music refers to a type of music primarily based on country and folk, sometimes with a bit of blues, that is mainly acoustic and with lyrics that deals with rather personal / intimate issues. First of all: it are the kind of songs that still stand (very) strong when they are sung by a single artist accompanying him or herself on guitar, piano or another acoustic instrument.

So within that context i would not name George Clinton or Frank Zappa singer-songwriter-music, but it would apply to lets say early Tom Waits (vocals and piano) or Cat Stevens (vocals and guitar).

[Edited 10/3/11 13:45pm]

[Edited 10/3/11 13:46pm]