Greatest not obvious song writer ever

I was going to suggest Bozz Scaggs

BUT. As I'm listening to "Down on the farm" at the moment, it's got to be Lowell George.

John Stewart'... Exquisite songs brought to life by his resonant vocals and insightful lyrics.

Peter Hammill.

A vast trove, in or mostly out of, VdGG.

Harry Nilsson

Another genius who died too young.

Richard Strauss
IMHO, His most beautiful work were  tunes. Not those bombastic orchestral scores he's most famous for. He was a pretty good song writer.

hafler3o posted:

Peter Hammill.

A vast trove, in or mostly out of, VdGG.

+ 1

steve

Justin Sullivan 

steve

Very underrated lyricist Bob Marley.

Some of the suggestions are pretty obvious.  I like the Michael Head, Warren Zevon, and Richard Thompson suggestions though.

I'll throw Joe Jackson into the ring and, as far as current talent goes, it would be hard to beat Jason Isbell. 

If he doesn't belong amongst the obvious ones: Tom Waits. Otherwise Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy.

+1 for the Willie Dixon and Duke Ellington suggestions. Ry Cooder? 

Having watched Arena - American Epic and Richard D Hunter's Songs of the South, having a liking for folk, which leads to all those songs collected during thed last century, Anonymous must come high on the list.

If I have to name someone prhaps Leonard Cohen is obvious, so how about Chris Woods

notnaim man posted:

Having watched Arena - American Epic and Richard D Hunter's Songs of the South, having a liking for folk, which leads to all those songs collected during thed last century, Anonymous must come high on the list.

 

Or Anonymous's friend, Trad Arr.

Dolly Parton too obvious? Not many people think of her as a songwriter, but she wrote a lot of great songs.

Otis Blackwell, Bernie Taupin, Bert Burns are very not-obvious guys that wrote or co-wrote a lot of music that others made famous. Leon Russell, David Allen Coe, Elvin Bishop, Jon Anderson of Yes and Robbie Robertson of the Band may be too obvious, but they tend to get skipped over in songwriter discussions.

Hungryhalibut posted:

I don't need to justify my suggestions. None of the others have been questioned, and it's only an opinion after all. I've not had a pop at yours. 

Only an opinion indeed, so why so defensive?

Three late '60s kinda folk types - John Martyn, Michael Chapman and Roy Harper...

Clemenza posted:

Dolly Parton too obvious? Not many people think of her as a songwriter, but she wrote a lot of great songs.

Agree. She is a good tunestress. Excellent lyrics from Grammy winning 9 to 5. Ironically,  woman's work environment in the US  has not changed much since this tune was written in 1980.

Tumble outta bed
And I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch
And try to come to life
Jump in the shower
And the blood starts pumpin'
Out on the street
The traffic starts jumpin'
The folks like me on the job from 9 to 5

Workin' 9 to 5,
What a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by
It's all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It's enough to drive you crazy
If you let it
9 to 5, for service and devotion
You would think that I
Would deserve a fat promotion
Want to move ahead
But the boss won't seem to let me
I swear sometimes that man is out to get me

They let you dream
Just to watch 'em shatter
You're just a step
On the boss-man's ladder
But you got dreams
He'll never take away
You're in the same boat
With a lotta your friends
Waitin' for the day your ship'll come in
'N' the tide's gonna turn
And it's all gonna roll your way

Workin' 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by
It's all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind
And you never get the credit
It's enough to drive you crazy
If you let it
9 to 5, yeah
They got you where they want you
There's a better life
And you think about it, don't you
It's a rich man's game
No matter what they call it
And you spend your life
Puttin' money in his wallet

9 to 5, whoa
What a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by
It's all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It's enough to drive you crazy
If you let it

In the same vein, maybe Willie Nelson, too?  I did not know he wrote 'Crazy'. I thought Patsy wrote it.

Joe Jackson. Boz Scaggs. Richard Thompson.

Here are a few (some probably too obvious) that haven't been mentioned much so far:

Folk(y): Al Stewart, Eric Bogle (a bit of an acquired taste for most), Michael Chapman, Bridget St John, Louden Wainwright III , Judee Sill, Gerry Rafferty

Country/CR: JJ Cale, John Prine, Mary Gauthier, Gram Parsons

Kurt Wagner anyone? And to annoy Kevin-W, Elvis Costello continues to do fine work in many styles (never much liked North, mind you).

couple for me Neil Finn - Tori Amos

Joe Henry.

Try 'Sign' from his 'Invisible Hour' cd.

Tim Buckley

"Oh Mars of Slough...." etc etc.

G

John Philip Thackray
Born 27 February 1938
Kirkstall, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

Died 24 December 2002 (aged 64)
Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales

Genres Singer-songwriter
Chansonnier
Folk
Comedy

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen or maybe they're too obvious.