[lbo-talk] Fwd: 100 Best Living Songwriters -- from Paste magazine

ravi gadfly at exitleft.org
Wed May 31 10:44:47 PDT 2006


At around 31/5/06 12:49 pm, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
we hope the list inspires some heated debates, new
> discoveries, and lots of listening.


>
> The complete rankings:
>
> 3 Bruce Springsteen
> 5 Paul McCartney
> 13 Paul Simon

That inspired some heated laughter in my household ;-).


> 35 Steve Earle

Is that the guy who repeats over and over "The revolution starts ... now!" during Al Franken's Air America Radio show?

Did the list include all the supercool lyricists of the 80s (I couldn't tell because I only skimmed through the list and I am not familiar with all the names of members of music bands):

For instance A-Ha, "Sun always shines on TV".

Or Tears for Fears, speaking about the working hour:

These things

That I've

Been told

Can rearrange

My world

My doubt

In time

But inside out

This is the working hour

We are paid by those who learn by our mistakes

Or even better, these bits should throw you head over heels:

I wanted to be with you alone

And talk about the weather

But traditions I can trace against the child in your face

Wont escape my attention

You keep your distance with a system of touch

And gentle persuasion

Or Mr. Mister offering his love some broken wings:

Take these broken wings

And learn to fly again

learn to live so free.

And when we hear the voices sing

The book of love will open up and let us in.

Personally my favourite (I'll leave it to you to guess who it is by):

Neon on my naked skin

Passing silhouettes of strange illuminated mannequins

Shall I stay here at the zoo

Or shall I go and change my point of view for other ugly scenes

Coupled with this certainly unique take:

Its so hard to get old without a cause

I dont want to perish like a fading horse

I think these could hold up quite well against the Beatles/McCartney and The Boss, yes? ;-)

--ravi

-- Support something better than yourself: ;-) PeTA: http://www.peta.org/ GreenPeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/



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