Five Best American Rock and Roll Songwriters

[pottedplant]

In my mind's idle moments recently, I've tried to compile the five greatest American rock and roll songwriters. This topic requires a lot of thought because several questions come to mind, first and foremost being how one defines "rock and roll". I decided that old blues and straight country did not count, but that folksy-rock did. The next

Comments

[bscox00]

I'd also nominate:

Tom Waits
Bruce Springsteen
Greg Dulli

[anonymous]

Really good list. Malkmus/Kannenburg is the Lennon/McCartney of indie rock. And I'm glad you've finally made it to the Pavement party. And don't overlook his solo work and the Silver Jews. What I also like about Malkmus is that he didn't sit on his laurels after Slanted and Enchanted, possibly the greatest album of the past 20 years. He completely revamped the band's sound by Wowie Zowie. Pretty ballsy.

I'd consider Ian MacKaye for inventing two subgenres (hardcore and emo), which is a difficult trick.

[stepbaker]

Oops. Didn't log in. Anonymous was me.

Oh, American.

[deltalitprof]

Mine would be

1) Dylan

2) Merle Haggard

3) Lucinda Williams

4) Townes Van Zandt

5) Robert Johnson