Greatest Songwriter of all time


I was reading the Dylan post and it got me thinking. There are many great songwriters that come to mind, my expertise/knowledge is primarily with rock music. If you could only pick three, what would they be? My vote for best lyrics goes to:

Jim Morrison
Bruce Springsteen
Elvis Costello

Best music goes to:

Mark Knopfler
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Frank Zappa
jeffloistarca

Three best of all time is a pretty high bar, but I certainly appreciate the lyrics by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen,  Steve Earle.  But that leaves so many out, such as Townes Van Zandt & so may more that if I thought about it might be in my top three.

Jack White.

Muddy Water.

BB King.

John Lee Hooker

Ray Charles.

Johnny Lydon 

Johnny Cash

Joe Strummer

Bob Marley 

Toots Hibbert. 
Robert Fripp

Willy Nelson

 

 

I always thought John Prine did some pretty good song writing, and I like Josh Ritter's lyrics a lot. 

@acefactory  ,  it was "Girl In The War" that got me paying attention to him.

\I fully agree - Josh Ritter is an outstanding wordsmith!