best singer/songwriter

Vote for the best, and make a top five list.

1. Ray Charles (mostly singer than songwriter)

2. Bob Dylan (the opposite of Ray)
3. John Lennon
4. Johnny Cash
5. Bob Marley

Ummm, Prince and Stevie Wonder are the best song-writers.
It's scandalous they aren't on your list.

Yeah...they're great...especially Stevie...guess he means they would go under "can't name all". What are your 5 then Funky?

I'll tink about that one.

1. Prince (Just listen to the song 'Crystal ball'😉
2. Stevie wonder (No need to explain, I hope)
3. George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic is classic stuff)
4. Jimi Hendrix (The lyrics to 'Belly Button window'😉
5. Dunno

I tried to name all the classics.

My list would probably look like this.

1. Bob Dylan
2. Paul Simon
3. Joni Mitchell
4. Elliot Smith
5. Leonard Cohen

Originally posted by Funkadelic
1. Prince (Just listen to the song 'Crystal ball'😉
2. Stevie wonder (No need to explain, I hope)
3. George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic is classic stuff)
4. Jimi Hendrix (The lyrics to 'Belly Button window'😉
5. Dunno

5. Sly from Sly & The Family Stone

Ryan Adams
Adam Duritz
Tim Buckley
Joni Mitchell
Gram Parsons

Prince/Mike Patton
Sufjan Stevens
Joanna Newsom
Rivers Cuomo
Thom Yorke.

-AC

Originally posted by Funkadelic
1. Prince (Just listen to the song 'Crystal ball'😉
2. Stevie wonder (No need to explain, I hope)
3. George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic is classic stuff)
4. Jimi Hendrix (The lyrics to 'Belly Button window'😉
5. Dunno

That 'dunno' is unsurprising. You need to broaden things up a bit. Prince only spreads so far.

You have yet to mention him in a metal thread though, so that's one thing.

Having said that, he is my number one as well.

Though, vanice, could you elaborate a bit more on what makes a good 'singer/songwriter', or even what qualifies an artist as one, for the purposes of the thread?

How in hell's name can you say John Lennon/Paul McCartney?

1.Prince(That's cool to see him on top of others list)
2.Freddie Mercury
3.Robert plant
4.Chris Cornell
5.Anthony Kiedis

My list is based on personal favorites,and those I listen to the most.

Robert Plant isn't really a songwriter.

vanice needs to be a bit clearer about what criteria is being used.

Originally posted by Alpha Centauri
Prince/Mike Patton
Sufjan Stevens
Joanna Newsom
Rivers Cuomo
Thom Yorke.

-AC

I knew it...Mike Patton is an alias of Prince.

Originally posted by Victor Von Doom
Robert Plant isn't really a songwriter.

vanice needs to be a bit clearer about what criteria is being used.

Ok I will. I've caught a bad fever so I've been in bed almost all day.
What I mean by a singer/songwriter is more of a person who composes songs with the focus on the lyrics. He/she doesn't necessarily have to perform it as a solo artist, but most of them do anyway. As you can se on the names i mentioned in the poll, most of them are solo artists. Modern singer songwriters are guys like John Ledgend for instance. They tend to be not as good as the old ones, for some reason.
Hip-Hop is a complete other thing though, even though MC's focus on the lyric.
I would say out of those others you have mentioned, I can think of some of them as songwriters, but definitely not all of them. Antony Kiedis for instance.
Overall the sound often is more "popish" 😛

How about musically? When I think of singer/songwriters, I think of someone that writes the song, IE the music.

Not, for example, 'singer'/lyricists, which could be someone like Zack DLR, who isn't technically a singer/songwriter.

I think it's not that hard to find out what kind of music I'm looking after by simply reading the names in the poll. They're all pretty much of the same genre.

Genre? That's making it even harder I think.

How about:

List your best singer/songwriter solo artists (ex. John Mayer).

I'm guessing what would be most effective and easiest...just a suggstion.

And even Lennon and McCartney above would fit in that criteria...individually (with their work outside of the Beatles).

It looks like this is what most people have thought in the first place too.