All For A Song

As you might remember from when our own Stacy Chandler told you about it in February, Paste magazine is conducting a survey to determine the top 100 living songwriters. Up until about a week or two ago, they had a big-ass list of songwriters on their Web site. From said big-ass list, you could vote for 20 (including write-ins). Paste will publish the survey results in its June/July issue, which according to my calculations could be coming out any time in the next month.

Anyway, I wanted to get a feel for what the average music fan thought of this survey. So I asked four people I know, who are co-workers or former co-workers and are dedicated music fans, to take a crack at this ginormous list o' songwriters and give me their top 20. These folks range from their mid-20s to, well, let's just say over 40, so I expected a pretty wide range of responses. And, for the most part, that's what I got. But I found certain patterns, too. So here are the results, which include my ballot. You'll notice there are more than 20 names, on account of the logjam at No. 11. But what do you want from only five people? The number in parentheses is the number of people who voted for each songwriter.

1. Bruce Springsteen (5)
2. Bob Dylan (4)
(tie) Mick Jagger-Keith Richards (4)
(tie) Paul McCartney (4)
5. John Fogerty (3)
(tie) Willie Nelson (3)
(tie) Paul Simon (3)
(tie) Jeff Tweedy (3)
(tie) Lucinda Williams (3)
(tie) Neil Young (3)
11. Chuck Berry (2)
(tie) Eric Clapton (2)
(tie) Guy Clark (2)
(tie) Elvis Costello (2)
(tie) Steve Earle (2)
(tie) John Hiatt (2)
(tie) Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Eddie Holland (Motown) (2)
(tie) Kris Kristofferson (2)
(tie) Loretta Lynn (2)
(tie) Tom Petty (2)
(tie) Smokey Robinson-Pete Moore (Motown) (2)
(tie) Jack White (2)
(tie) Brian Wilson (2)

Oh, man, I guess that's a logjam at 11. In hindsight, I would have liked to collect a few more ballots to create distance between the members of the top 20. I'd probably like to go back and delete all those (tie)s, too, but all that deleting would just interrupt my flow.

For the sake of at least partial disclosure, here's my top 20, in alphabetical order:
Chuck Berry
Guy Clark
Elvis Costello
Bob Dylan
Steve Earle
John Fogerty
John Hiatt
Holland-Dozier-Holland
Mick Jagger-Keith Richards
Kris Kristofferson
Lyle Lovett
Paul McCartney
Willie Nelson
Dan Penn-Spooner Oldham
Tom Petty
Paul Simon
Bruce Springsteen
Lucinda Williams
Neil Young
Paul Westerberg

To give some idea of the range, here are the others who got a vote:
Ryan Adams; Fiona Apple; Jackson Browne; David Byrne; Jerry Cantrell; Bruce Cockburn; Rodney Crowell; Ani Difranco; Dennis Drew (10,000 Maniacs); Drive-By Truckers (Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Jason Isbell); Jay Farrar; Mary Gauthier; Jay-Z; Elton John-Bernie Taupin; B.B. King; Carole King; Led Zeppelin (Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and, though he's dead John Bonham is listed on the ballot); Aimee Mann; James McMurtry; John Mellencamp; Colin Meloy (Decemberists); Pink Floyd (Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Rick Wright); Pixies; Prince; John Prine; R.E.M.; Robbie Robertson; Billy Joe Shaver; Chris Smither; Ralph Stanley; Cat Stevens; James Taylor; Eddie Vedder-Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam); U2; Rufus Wainwright; Tom Waits.

With such a small sample, my survey obviously is unscientific. Really, though, the whole thing is unscientific. It's subjective, no matter how large the sample. I think still think you can spot a few trends from looking at my meager list:

1. Winnowing down all of the songwriters out there to a top 20 is a frickin' bear. I'm glad it wasn't the top 20 songwriters of all-time. Cripes, the dead guys (and gals) would have been driving me mental. As it was, after completing about my 63rd draft I realized that Brian Wilson wasn't on my list. He probably would have made the 64th, but you gotta draw the line somewhere.

2. Bruce Springsteen's unanimous selection suggests pretty much what you'd figure about him. The Boss (at least the Boss persona) represents Everyman, and as such he appeals to a pretty wide range of listeners.

3. I know at least one person who thinks Bob Dylan isn't one of the top 20 living songwriters. I believe in second chances, so I'm going to try to have a civil discussion of this oversight with the participant, who shall remain nameless. (A little hint for all you un-scientists out there: if you want friends to participate in your surveys, don't out them when you disagree with your opinions.)

4. Lists such as this one tend to favor the folks who have been around for a while. In the agonizing final cut, I had to take Gillian Welch and David Rawlings off my list. Tim Easton is one of my very favorite songwriters, and I think he's going to be around for the long haul, but I just couldn't justify including him ... yet. Even Ryan Adams, with his reputation for being (overly) prolific, garnered only one vote among my participants.

There are some pretty heavy hitters on this list, and I'd be willing to bet that at least 10 of these picks will be in Paste's top 20. No matter who makes the top 100, the list will be a sure-fire argument starter. If you take the time to fill out such a survey, you're bound to have an opinion. I invited my participants to make comments on their sheets for possible use in this post. Here are some of the statements that stuck out in my mind:

Dalton didn't write any comments, or even fill out a sheet. He walked into work with a mix CD containing a song each from his top 20. Actions speak louder than words. As a result, I'm grooving out to Tom Waits' "San Diego Serenade" as I type this sentence.

Speaking of actions, I was walking by Eric's desk and he made a point of showing me that he was furiously scribbling on his sheet. He said, "I can't cross out Natalie Merchant's name hard enough," and wrote, "Robert Buck and Dennis Drew wrote all their [10,000 Maniacs'] good songs � Merchant went out on her own and proceeded to waste her voice."

Sharon had this to say about John Fogerty: "Have you ever changed the channel when a CCR song comes on the radio? If you have, you're an idiot."

Fun, huh?

It appears that it's too late for you to vote in Paste's survey, but it's not too late for you to come up with your own list of the top 20 living songwriters. We all know what we like, but putting it down on paper can force us to articulate, at least in our own minds, why we like what we like. Besides, there are worse ways to spend an evening or two. At least until you reach that 63rd draft.