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
Comsider the following:
Patti Smith - Horses
Leonard Cohen - Any and all of it
Richard Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
John Hiatt - Bring The Family
Laurie Anderson
Lou Reed
mes: thanks for your second on guy clark's "cold dog soup" but townes van zandt didn't write any of the songs on that cd. sure you're not thinkin' of "poet-a tribute to TVZ." guy's on that one, too. -cfb
cfb-Yes, I have "Poet" also, quite good. I know TVZ didn't write any of the songs on "Cold Dog", but I thought some of the songs GC wrote on it were about, and a tribute to, TVZ. I also recall an article ( S'phile?) about CDS about a year or so ago re same. But then again, the neurons aren't synapsing like they once used to. Age? Possibly. Posited smack dab in the midst of divorce? Naaahhh :-)