Ok, so I was reading this really cool music rag yesterday called "Paste", which featured their list of the greatest 100 living songwriters (the key word being living). This is an American magazine, so of course the only Canadian representatives on the list were the usual suspects (Young, Mitchell, Cohen). Anyways, after skimming through their list (which was actually pretty damn good), I got to thinking about all their glaring omissions. So because I had nothing better to do at the time, and because I'm a big nerd, I decided to compile my own list of the greatest living Canadian songwriters. It started out as a list of 20, which eventually grew to 40 once I dug into my CD collection. So here it is. Feel free to add anybody I may have missed.
1. Neil Young
2. Gordon Downie/The Tragically Hip
3. Joni Mitchell
4. The Band
5. Leonard Cohen
6. Gordon Lightfoot
7. John K. Samson (The Weakerthans)
8. Greg Keelor/Jim Cuddy
9. Ron Sexsmith
10. Sarah Harmer
11. Neil Osborne (54-40)
12. Ron Hawkins (Lowest of the Low, Rusty Nails, solo artist)
13. Martin Tielli/Dave Bidini/Tim Vesley (Rheostatics)
14. Chris Brown & Kate Fenner
15. Andy Maize/Josh Finlayson (Skydiggers)
16. Peter Cash/Andrew Cash (The Cash Brothers, Skydiggers)
17. Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies)
18. Bruce Cockburn
19. Tom Wilson (Junkhouse, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, solo artist)
20. Neil Peart
21. Randy Bachman/Burton Cummings
22. Hayden
23. Hawksley Workman
24. Sloan
25. Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness)
26. Sarah McLachlan
27. Joel Plaskett
28. Hugh Dillon
29. Ian Blurton (Change of Heart, Bionic, C'mon)
30. Matthew Good
31. Kathleen Edwards
32. Matt Mays
33. The Arcade Fire
34. Daniel Lanois
35. Carl Newman (New Pornographers)
36. Dallas Good/Travis Good (The Sadies)
37. Sam Roberts
38. K-OS
39. Leslie Feist
40. Mike O'Neill (The Inbreds, solo artist)
Not really on topic, but Paste is a great magazine. I picked one up at the airport a few months ago and signed up for a subscription shortly thereafter.
Nice job. If I were to alter it, I'd throw Neil Peart/Rush and Matthew Good a bit higher. I'd also include Ian Thornley in there, and probably Raine Mada/OLP.
Paste sounds like a great magazine, I'll have to check it out.
I personally would substitute Robbie Robertson in place of The Band (as a whole). Rick Danko and Richard Manuel are both deceased; Robertson took 'the last waltz' literally and was the main songwriter anyways.
I'm gritting my teeth here until they bleed. Why, why the fascination with lists and rankings?
I saw the Paste list, and I have to comment that I found it kinda dumb. It listed Pink Floyd as the 80th best living songwriter. There really is an obvious problem with that....
Incidentally, did you know that J.K. Rowling is the UK's greatest living writer?
Crap. I guess I won't post my Top Ten Reasons Why Skippy Hates Lists list.
I like Paste a lot. This year in the NXNE media bag we go two issues. The cd/dvd it always comes with is full of cool stuff you may usually avoid.
As for living Canadian songwriters, you have to have Cohen, Joni, Neil, Gordon Lightfoot, and Bruce Cockburn as your top five, in my opinion. Then people from the modern era of Can-Rock can come in, where I would go GD, Sarah Harmer, Ron Sexsmith, John Samson, and probably the Rheos as a collective to round out my top ten.
Cheers,
Pat
cferneyh Wrote:Crap. I guess I won't post my Top Ten Reasons Why Skippy Hates Lists list.
What's that in yer signature? A list? That's it -- you just made my list.
To avoid crapping all over Direwolf's thread, I would say that people like Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, and Bruce Cockburn are all unquestionably great Canadian songwriters. And I really like Sarah Harmer and Kathleen Edwards these days. There's also this little-known guy called Gord Downey, I think, who has done some really cool solo work as well was what he has done with a band called ... uh, I forget. I'm sure I can't be the only one who's heard of them.
I just have a really hard time with rankings, which are entirely arbitrary. And the bigger problem is that, well, I like ice cream, but that doesn't tell you anything about what makes ice cream special.
And really, "Pink Floyd" is the 80th best living songwriter? I know Floyd is a touchy subject around here at the moment, but someone
has to tear that one apart.
i'm not goin near floyd on this one
skippy the wonder dog Wrote:And really, "Pink Floyd" is the 80th best living songwriter? I know Floyd is a touchy subject around here at the moment, but someone has to tear that one apart.
Hold on, now -- just because Floyd is a band (not an individual) doesn't mean it shouldn't make the list.
Oh wait. Yes it does.
The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. And by the way -- which one's 'Pink'?
-from Floyd's own "Have a Cigar" [for those of you who wouldn't know because you consider the band to be equivalent of canine excrement.....]
direwolf74, in attempt to list the Top Living Canadian Songwriters, Wrote:1. Neil Young
2. Gordon Downie/The Tragically Hip
3. Joni Mitchell
4. The Band
5. Leonard Cohen
6. Gordon Lightfoot
7. John K. Samson (The Weakerthans)
8. Greg Keelor/Jim Cuddy
9. Ron Sexsmith
10. Sarah Harmer
11. Neil Osborne (54-40)
12. Ron Hawkins (Lowest of the Low, Rusty Nails, solo artist)
13. Martin Tielli/Dave Bidini/Tim Vesley (Rheostatics)
14. Chris Brown & Kate Fenner
15. Andy Maize/Josh Finlayson (Skydiggers)
16. Peter Cash/Andrew Cash (The Cash Brothers, Skydiggers)
17. Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies)
18. Bruce Cockburn
19. Tom Wilson (Junkhouse, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, solo artist)
20. Neil Peart
21. Randy Bachman/Burton Cummings
22. Hayden
23. Hawksley Workman
24. Sloan
25. Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness)
26. Sarah McLachlan
27. Joel Plaskett
28. Hugh Dillon
29. Ian Blurton (Change of Heart, Bionic, C'mon)
30. Matthew Good
31. Kathleen Edwards
32. Matt Mays
33. The Arcade Fire
34. Daniel Lanois
35. Carl Newman (New Pornographers)
36. Dallas Good/Travis Good (The Sadies)
37. Sam Roberts
38. K-OS
39. Leslie Feist
40. Mike O'Neill (The Inbreds, solo artist)
Uh....hey dw74.....isn't that
EVERY living Canadian songwriter?
:mrgreen:
HAHAHA
I Think that is every Canadian songwriter,
What about Celine Dione I think she writes her own stuff
LOL
The Horrible Esthete Wrote:skippy the wonder dog Wrote:And really, "Pink Floyd" is the 80th best living songwriter? I know Floyd is a touchy subject around here at the moment, but someone has to tear that one apart.
Hold on, now -- just because Floyd is a band (not an individual) doesn't mean it shouldn't make the list.
Oh wait. Yes it does.
The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. And by the way -- which one's 'Pink'?
-from Floyd's own "Have a Cigar" [for those of you who wouldn't know because you consider the band to be equivalent of canine excrement.....]
:thumb:
Just to clarify for everybody, my list was in no particular order. I just wrote them down in the order I thought of them. If I was actually ranking them, I would've rated somebody like Bruce Cockburn much higher. Anyway, it's all just for fun. No need to grind one's teeth over it.
The Horrible Esthete Wrote:Uh....hey dw74.....isn't that EVERY living Canadian songwriter?
:mrgreen:
Haha! Pretty close. The good ones, anyway.
:thumb: