Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - TOP 20 Singer-Songwriters-L.A.Weekly

charlene · 05-12-2014, 01:01 PM

Tom Waits -
Before he was a raspy carnival barker, Tom Waits was a boozy barfly, a bargain bin Bukowski wielding a switchblade in a moth-eaten suit. His eclectic catalog includes Jackson Browne-style ballads, booze-soaked blues stompers and Beefheart worship. But one thing's certain: Waits crafted some of the best lowlife poetry this side of Buk, from "Well I bet she's still a virgin / But it's only 25 'til 9" to "but he ain't no good Samaritan / he'll make sure he's reimbursed / lot more than $29.00 and an alligator purse." -Nicholas Pell

Joni Mitchell -
Joni Mitchell is a crazy cat lady. Which is clearly the way to go, because maybe all that domestic quietude has contributed to her writing, performing and producing some of the most introspective records ever made. Hauntingly sweet and sad and sexy, her 1971 album Blue may as well be implemented into modern science as an actual psychological stage, a phase that every young adult must go through or risk emotional retardation. -Cristina Black

Lou Reed -
Fueled by heroin and self-loathing, Lou Reed deglamorized rock 'n' roll. With Velvet Underground, he influenced more bands than the Beatles. Then in 19 75, he released Metal Machine Music. "I was trying to do the ultimate guitar solo," said Reed, shortly before his death in 2013. MMM was over an hour of sharp feedback. He was a bullshitter (it was no guitar solo). But above all, Lou Reed 's words gave punk its first taste of street cred. -Art Tavana

Leonard Cohen -
Advice: If you show up at someone's house for a romantic hang, and they are playing a Leonard Cohen record when you arrive, consider backing away slowly. Cohen is a consummate cry-to, and you will never, ever, know how the object of your affection feels. -Cristina Black

Townes Van Zandt -
Like so many great singer-songwriters (see #1), Townes Van Zandt re-created himself through song.
In truth, he was a Texas son of privilege whose desperate substance abuse struck him down in what could have been his prime.
It's probably best to see his catalog as apart from himself, as it's often hard to see him in it, the way it's so easy with lesser artists.
Regardless, it contains some of the most precisely-descriptive, emotionally upsetting, hilarious and heartwrenching songs put to record. -Ben Westhoff

Bruce Springsteen -
Springsteen is somehow considered too pop, or too polished for some of the most self-hating of music fans, and indeed albums like The River and Born in the U.S.A. contain not a note out of place - though that's the result of his (oft-obnoxious) perfectionism rather than any sort of corrosive record label influences. But why anyone would fault a guy who could write the perfect pop song, over and over - with increasingly emotional resonance - remains a mystery. His catalog up through the '90s is basically flawless, and with each work he found new ways to tell truth. We might never know what, exactly, propels Springsteen to play evangelistic three hour plus shows around the country into his advanced age; the best guess is a deeply-buried need to please every last one of us. Though perhaps not the best way for him to live, for it we can nonetheless thank the Lord. -Ben Westhoff

Neil Young -
Though they've tried, none of the derivative songwriters troubadour-ing their way through his wake can capture the tousled genius of Neil Young. From his coke-nosed rockstar days to the wizened grey elder statesman he's become, the Canada-born Young has told the great American story with a sage's acumen. In his ongoing 50-year career, he's tried his hand and his voice at genres ranging from techno to grunge - always managing to expound on every shade and hue in the range of human emotions. -Paul T. Bradley

Paul Simon -
Paul Simon spent the first part of his career living resentfully in the shadow of the edgier, artier Bob Dylan - he even released a nasty but pretty spot-on Dylan parody, "A Simple Desultory Philippic" in 1965. Since the folkie era, he's carved his own path, igniting world music with Graceland and enjoying a late-career renaissance with 2011's brilliant So Beautiful or So What. Whether on gentle folk ballads or rollicking Afro-pop, Simon's genius has always been for turning the prosaic into poetry: finding prophecies in graffiti on "The Sound of Silence," evoking years of marriage in the lyric, "The bedroom breathes in clicks and clacks" on So Beautiful's "Love and Hard Times." He's the Fitzgerald to Dylan's Faulkner, a master of economy and style with just enough edge of his own. -Andy Hermann

Bob Dylan -
Discussing Bob Dylan without lapsing into cliché is near impossible: The great American songwriter; the man who introduced the Beatles to grass; the motorcycle-riding iconoclast. Uncomfortable with his own fame, he didn't want to be the voice of his generation. "I never wanted to be a prophet or savior," he told Ed Bradley, "Elvis maybe." But Elvis wasn't a songwriter like Dylan; nobody was, and while everyone has a favorite Dylan album, we've all been touched by him in the same way - as someone who can express the pain and complications of life on earth in a way we've felt. -Nicholas Pell

Follow us on Twitter @LAWeeklyMusic, and like us at LAWeeklyMusic.

05-12-2014, 01:01 PM	#2
charlene Moderator Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 16,001	Re: TOP 20 Singer-Songwriters-L.A.Weekly Tom Waits - Before he was a raspy carnival barker, Tom Waits was a boozy barfly, a bargain bin Bukowski wielding a switchblade in a moth-eaten suit. His eclectic catalog includes Jackson Browne-style ballads, booze-soaked blues stompers and Beefheart worship. But one thing's certain: Waits crafted some of the best lowlife poetry this side of Buk, from "Well I bet she's still a virgin / But it's only 25 'til 9" to "but he ain't no good Samaritan / he'll make sure he's reimbursed / lot more than $29.00 and an alligator purse." -Nicholas Pell Joni Mitchell - Joni Mitchell is a crazy cat lady. Which is clearly the way to go, because maybe all that domestic quietude has contributed to her writing, performing and producing some of the most introspective records ever made. Hauntingly sweet and sad and sexy, her 1971 album Blue may as well be implemented into modern science as an actual psychological stage, a phase that every young adult must go through or risk emotional retardation. -Cristina Black Lou Reed - Fueled by heroin and self-loathing, Lou Reed deglamorized rock 'n' roll. With Velvet Underground, he influenced more bands than the Beatles. Then in 19 75, he released Metal Machine Music. "I was trying to do the ultimate guitar solo," said Reed, shortly before his death in 2013. MMM was over an hour of sharp feedback. He was a bullshitter (it was no guitar solo). But above all, Lou Reed 's words gave punk its first taste of street cred. -Art Tavana Leonard Cohen - Advice: If you show up at someone's house for a romantic hang, and they are playing a Leonard Cohen record when you arrive, consider backing away slowly. Cohen is a consummate cry-to, and you will never, ever, know how the object of your affection feels. -Cristina Black Townes Van Zandt - Like so many great singer-songwriters (see #1), Townes Van Zandt re-created himself through song. In truth, he was a Texas son of privilege whose desperate substance abuse struck him down in what could have been his prime. It's probably best to see his catalog as apart from himself, as it's often hard to see him in it, the way it's so easy with lesser artists. Regardless, it contains some of the most precisely-descriptive, emotionally upsetting, hilarious and heartwrenching songs put to record. -Ben Westhoff Bruce Springsteen - Springsteen is somehow considered too pop, or too polished for some of the most self-hating of music fans, and indeed albums like The River and Born in the U.S.A. contain not a note out of place - though that's the result of his (oft-obnoxious) perfectionism rather than any sort of corrosive record label influences. But why anyone would fault a guy who could write the perfect pop song, over and over - with increasingly emotional resonance - remains a mystery. His catalog up through the '90s is basically flawless, and with each work he found new ways to tell truth. We might never know what, exactly, propels Springsteen to play evangelistic three hour plus shows around the country into his advanced age; the best guess is a deeply-buried need to please every last one of us. Though perhaps not the best way for him to live, for it we can nonetheless thank the Lord. -Ben Westhoff Neil Young - Though they've tried, none of the derivative songwriters troubadour-ing their way through his wake can capture the tousled genius of Neil Young. From his coke-nosed rockstar days to the wizened grey elder statesman he's become, the Canada-born Young has told the great American story with a sage's acumen. In his ongoing 50-year career, he's tried his hand and his voice at genres ranging from techno to grunge - always managing to expound on every shade and hue in the range of human emotions. -Paul T. Bradley Paul Simon - Paul Simon spent the first part of his career living resentfully in the shadow of the edgier, artier Bob Dylan - he even released a nasty but pretty spot-on Dylan parody, "A Simple Desultory Philippic" in 1965. Since the folkie era, he's carved his own path, igniting world music with Graceland and enjoying a late-career renaissance with 2011's brilliant So Beautiful or So What. Whether on gentle folk ballads or rollicking Afro-pop, Simon's genius has always been for turning the prosaic into poetry: finding prophecies in graffiti on "The Sound of Silence," evoking years of marriage in the lyric, "The bedroom breathes in clicks and clacks" on So Beautiful's "Love and Hard Times." He's the Fitzgerald to Dylan's Faulkner, a master of economy and style with just enough edge of his own. -Andy Hermann Bob Dylan - Discussing Bob Dylan without lapsing into cliché is near impossible: The great American songwriter; the man who introduced the Beatles to grass; the motorcycle-riding iconoclast. Uncomfortable with his own fame, he didn't want to be the voice of his generation. "I never wanted to be a prophet or savior," he told Ed Bradley, "Elvis maybe." But Elvis wasn't a songwriter like Dylan; nobody was, and while everyone has a favorite Dylan album, we've all been touched by him in the same way - as someone who can express the pain and complications of life on earth in a way we've felt. -Nicholas Pell Follow us on Twitter @LAWeeklyMusic, and like us at LAWeeklyMusic.