What a fantastic list. Thanks for finding/posting it.
A few comments to the suggested ommissions/alterations.
Billy Joel. I will admit straight away that this man has written some absolutely fucking brilliant songs. But I would also say for every fantastic song he wrote (mostly early, but not all) there are 2 songs that are pretty majorly blah. I think this list was focusing on consistently. Otherwise we'd see more one hit wonders up there.
Tool. I know you guys have raging hard cocks for tool and anyone who doesn't is a terrorist...but imo they aren't really doing anything that is all that new or revolutionary. They just happened to get popular playing a brand of heavy prog rock at a time when everyone in the mainstream had completely forgotten what prog rock was. I'm not saying they aren't good, and I'm not saying MJK doesn't have an insane set of pipes. I know you guys are fans and all, but try to put things in perspective.
Prince. Sartori was right...he does play a fuckton of instruments...and play them well I might add. He has numerous albums where he played every instrument on the album. He also is known for writing his own orchestrations and horn arrangements (which get quite intricate) which is an area that most artists/bands will hire someone to do for them.
Michael Jackson. While many of his early hits were completely written by Quincy Jones (genius)...he did develop his writing as he grew and ended up a very talented writer.
Suev, as far as BB King. He wrote most of his songs, with some old blues standards mixed in. And while I absolutely love BB, and the blues. I don't think writing in a 12 bar blues form is really going to do much for a songwriting list. He's an absolutely brilliant performer...but there's not much complicated about his songs from a writing standpoint (we're not talking about guitar solos unfortunately).
I really enjoyed the list though, and everyone's take on it
