When I grow up I want to be like Jarvis.

Think about it. He's very well read, a great writer, a great songwriter, very stylish, probably has a killer musical taste and knowledge, not to mention hanging with very interesting music and arts people from the UK and the world. I mean, in everyday terms, Jarvis is the man.

He not only lead Pulp, one of my favorite bands and arguably the best band in Britain during the 90's. Yes, the same 90's of Britpop (which Pulp is a huge part of) and the same 90's dominated by bad pop and grunge. Britpop was the best genre out of that decade and Pulp was the best band, so screw you Damon and Gallagher's.

A few weeks ago I was working on an entry about the greatest songwriters of our time and realized that maybe he is my favorite one. As "our time" I mean mid 90's forward. And there's been a lot of great ones, that's why I now finally publish my list.

There's been many great songwriters in the history of music. But only a few of them stand out to influence the newer generations of musicians. And every era of music has one of these virtuosos of songwriting.
Songwriting isn't only about putting nice words into a verse. That's writing.
Songwriting is the ability of mixing the perfect words in the perfect melody. Sometimes the words are awesome, even poetic, but when put in a song they feel forced. Music and poetry are not the same thing. That is why good writers not necessarily make good songwriters and vice versa. I don't see Jack White writing a perfectly well written poem, book or novel (maybe he could), but he sure as hell can write songs, good songs.

In the future, these songwriters will inspire the coming musicians. As they have been inspired by the great songwriters of the past. To name a few of the old lions:

Bob Dylan (arguably the greatest)
John Lennon
Leonard Cohen
Nick Drake
Ray Davies
Morrissey



My list of the best songwriters of our time.

Jarvis Cocker
Elliott Smith
Jack White
Ryan Adams
Connor Oberst
Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy)
Thom Yorke


I might have forgotten some names, if I do come up with more I'll post them. Until then, enjoy.