The Telegraph has compiled a list of the fifty best British songwriters. Their top ten are:

1. John Lennon
2. Kate Bush
3. Morrissey/Johnny Marr
4. Paul McCartney
5. Elton John/Bernie Taupin
6. Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
7. Noel Coward
8. Ian Curtis/New Order
9. Van Morrison
10. Joe Strummer/Mick Jones

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/18/sv_songwriters.xml

This sort of thing is a waste of time except as something to argue about late at night in a bar, of course; and, as you'd expect, some of the comments are more interesting than the list itself:


Best English song writers? John Dowland, Thomas Campion, Henry Purcell, Hubert Parry, Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius, W. Denis Browne, Ivor Gurney, Peter Warlock, John Ireland, Gerald Finzi, Geoffrey Bush, Roderick Williams ...

Oh! Not THAT sort of song writer? Well, in that case, I wouldn't put Joan Armatrading at no. 48, but definitely in the top ten ...

But then ...
Posted by Garry Humphreys on May 20, 2008 12:27 PM

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This is diabolical. Lazy, list-based Polly Filler journalism at its very worst. How can the British songwriter who wrote a third of one of the best-selling albums of all time (amongst other things) be considered unworthy of inclusion in a list of "50 Greatest British Songwriters" when someone like Mike Skinner is? That's only the tip of the iceberg. Dreadful stuff.
Posted by Nanker Phelge on May 19, 2008 4:14 PM


Good to hear from you again, Mr Phelge: it's been awhile.

Very predictable as usual. Lennon's God like status once again masks his poor solo career. Here's a few:

Ray Davies
Paul Weller
Karl Wallinger
Andy Partridge
Billy Bragg
John Martyn

We'll all have a different list.

Kate Bush above macca? please.........you can no longer take these things seriously anymore

1.john Lennon
2.Paul McCartney
3.Ray Davies
4.Pete townsend
5.U2
6.Noel Gallagher
7.Paul Weller
8.Jagger/Richards
9.Whigfield
10.Mr Blobby

Quoted from Paul Doherty

you can no longer take these things seriously anymore

It's a sad thing, really; utterly predictable as BlueMeanie said above and boringly conventional in the most feckless possible way. Follow the link and have a look at the comments, though: they're actually the reason I bothered posting the thing at all.

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I love these "Top 50 crap British songwriters" type articles. Pure pot-boilers from the authors who, job done, shuffle-off out for a drink, pissing themselves laughing in the sure-fire knowledge that there will be hundreds of you with eyes bulging screaming, "You idiots, my dog wrote better songs than Paul McCartney..."
Mind you, they'd have a point - Frogs Chorus anyone?
Posted by Rhubarb on May 19, 2008 3:24 PM

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I was going to add some names but I can't for laughing.
Posted by lou roll on May 19, 2008 9:33 PM

Quoted from Paul Doherty

10.Mr Blobby

What i don't get is how they can divide Lennon and McCartney yet count Morrisey and Marr as a one ? Morrisey has had a solo career and Marr has had a few bands.

why isnt it Lennon and McCartney

infact look through the whole list, they are the greatest songwriting partnership ever, yet there are many lesser partnerships kept as one :@

Quoted from fendertele

What i don't get is how they can divide Lennon and McCartney yet count Morrisey and Marr as a one ? Morrisey has had a solo career and Marr has had a few bands.

why isnt it Lennon and McCartney

infact look through the whole list, they are the greatest songwriting partnership ever, yet there are many lesser partnerships kept as one :@

Absolutely right. But the folly implicit in compiling another list like this in the first place is also the reason why such screamingly obvious inconsistencies are only to be expected. The thing's filler and good only for loud, rude laughs or an excuse to go off on one of your favorite rants about music or this or that musician the next time you and your friends are sufficiently drunk or bored in a bar. It's what I'm going to do with it.

just noticed they have placed Radiohead as a unit at 22 or something yet put Albarn on his own even though half of blurs success comes from Coxons unique guitar work and arrangements.

I am amazed - but very happy - that a man no-one has ever heard of - Bill Fay, made it onto the list. If people like him had got the recognition from journals like this at the time, then maybe they wouldn't have disappeared in the first place!

And Van Morrison is from Belfast, and therefore NOT British. And half of U2 are from Dublin, so they're not even from the UK!!

Quoted from BlueMeanie

And Van Morrison is from Belfast, and therefore NOT British. And half of U2 are from Dublin, so they're not even from the UK!!

Your right!

lol well spotted

not to down John because I think he SHOULD be at the top of the list.
but here's a question:

do you think he's really at the top because he's dead/was shot/tragically died or because he really is the best british writer.

just asking. because again I think he should be at the top.

my top 10

1) Lennon/McCartney
2) Albarn/Coxon
3) Sting/Summers
4) Yorke/Greenwood
5) Morrisey/Marr
6) Fripp/Sinfield
7) Davies
Smith
9) Doherty/Barat
10) Weller

Here's the Telegraph's list of the fifty best cult books, just in case their efforts above aroused either your interest or sense of humor:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/26/nosplit/boanotherlist126.xml

Erm, Dr Spock's Baby and Child Care qualifies, I see.  

Kirsty MacColl and her father Ewan MacColl are missing from this list , both of whom are very good songwriters .
Joan Armatrading was born in  " Saint Kitts " don't think she came to live in England until she was about 8 year old , likewise Freddie Mercury was a teenager when he came to live in England , he's from Zanzibar .
And Stock Aitken and Waterman are missing they wrote zillions of annoying hits

Why don't we just include Cliff Richard and all it a day

Quoted from Mairi

Why don't we just include Cliff Richard and all it a day

Don't diss our Cliff!