As a sucker for music lists, you might think I would glom onto the New York Times’ Greatest Living American Songwriters. Well, no. It is because I feel desperately unqualified compared with “More than 250 music insiders and six New York Times critics [who] weighed in on who defines the new American songbook.”
Sure, there were people I put on my Top 10 or so: Lucinda Williams (I have at least a half dozen of her albums), Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Dolly Parton, Brian and Eddie Holland, Carole King, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, and Willie Nelson. But most of them began in the 1960s, give or take.
This is the unranked list.
I have a greatest hits collection of Mariah Carey, whose music performances… well, I’m not her biggest fan. Interesting that she’s been nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thrice, never came in the top 7 in fan vote, showing 8th in 2024, 9th in 2025, and 10th in 2026, AND was not inducted.
Cornpone
This is factually correct, of course. Some of the folks who came to mind – Barry Mann (Cynthia Weil has passed), Jeff Barry (sans the late Ellie Greenwich), even Carole King (without the late Gerry Goffin) -I mused on this point.
Great choices
In any case, he had two people on his ACTIVE list, Jonathan Richman and especially Todd Rundgren, who are clearly worthy; I say especially Todd because I have more Nazz/Utopia/et al. And he rightly has Dolly Parton and Paul Simon, who also made the survey list. It is very likely that I own more Simon than any living American songwriter. The others I don’t know well enough, other than Eric’s love for Buggy Jive.
In his INACTIVE list, he rightly notes Neil Diamond, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, and Mark Mothersbaugh/Gerald V. Casale.
As for the fans, some folks couldn’t seem to understand the title. The songwriters had to be American and alive.
I saw some interesting choices: Billy Joe Armstrong, REM, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Chrissy Hynde, George Clinton, James Taylor, Madonna, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Al Green, Dwight Yoakam, Jimmy Webb, David Byrne, and Billy Joel. I do own songs by all of them.