Uh, No

A little over a year ago, Paste went a-trollin' with its list of the 100 Best Living Songwriters. I just found it today...

You can read it for yourself, but, hey, wait, I have a few complaints:

  1. Pink Floyd (#80) vs Fleetwood Mac (#83) is an argument worth having. But claiming that Conor Oberst (#67) is better than both is just goofy.
  2. Jack White (#59) is better than Sting (#62) ? This is about songwriting, right?
  3. I like the Replacements just fine, but no way is Paul Westerberg (#52) a better songwriter than Becker & Fagan (a.k.a. Steely Dan), who don't even appear on the list.
  4. As the only rap group to make the list, (which makes them like the best rap group of all time, I guess) Public Enemy at #50 seems a little out of place.
  5. Sufjan Stevens (#47) doesn't deserve to be anywhere on this list.
  6. Nor does Ryan Adams (#43), who in no possible universe could be a better songwriter than David Byrne (#46), let alone James Brown (#56) or any one of the Fleetwood Mac principles.
  7. I like Beck too, but his position at #36 is puzzling.
  8. Where's Robyn Hitchcock??!

I know, lists like this are generally pointless, but this one seems particularly silly.

6 thoughts on “Uh, No”

  1. anandamide

    I’m with you on this. People want a “new Dylan” so badly that they elevate the likes of Conor Oberst who is mediocre at best. And James Brown at #56? That’s nutty. Just because a guy re-writes the same song a few hundred times doesn’t mean he doesn’t get credit for writing it in the first place.

  2. anandamide

    …ok, and now that I’ve seen the list, I’ve got a few things to add:
    -Tom Waits is good, but higher than Paul McCartney? That’s crazy. And what’s his wife doing getting equal credit with him?
    -Others who got robbed: Richard Thompson and Merle Haggard.
    -Who the hell is this Vigilantes of Love guy and how did he rank so high?

  3. cleek

    “Who the hell is this Vigilantes of Love guy” ?

    beats me. (a little iTunes proves he’s another alt-folk-rocker, along the lines of, well, 1/3 of the bands on that list)

    i get the feeling that some of these picks were there because the artists were popular when the list was made. Outkast ?

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