Songwriting Genius Quotes

Bob Dylan enabled rock & roll to grow up and survive. He injected the power of language and ideas into the music.

Leonard Cohen kept his Jew name. He's so cool. It's too bad he died.

I'll never be Bob Dylan. He's the master.

As long as Elton John can bring forth one performance per album on the order of 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight,' the chance remains that he will become something more than the great entertainer he already is and go on to make a lasting contribution to rock.

Paul McCartney, one of the best songwriters of all time, has only produced manure for the past 25 years.

I'm a really huge John Prine fan; I love his clever conversationalist songs.

Carole King is one of my all-time favorite songwriters.

I don't think there's anything anybody's doing that the Beatles didn't at least try at some point.

I don't know anyone who sits down to write a song hit except Irving Berlin. He can't help writing hits.

I listened to a lot of Joni Mitchell in high school. She was sort of an inspiration to me. I think she's a great lyricist, and she makes interesting choices.

You can't ever really replace Jon Anderson because he's been such a force in the music business.

I've always loved the fact that Bob's [Dylan] been able to sustain his mystery over 50 or 60 years.

Bob Dylan is great. I've been compared to him a lot. I think when people see a person on stage with a guitar they just think, 'Bob Dylan!'

Sting can call out whoever he wants; he's a legend in this business.

Holy Joy were a cult '80s band led by the wonderful songwriting genius that is Johny Brown.

Elvis Costello's song writing is so peerless and individualistic. It's storytelling and it's deeply intelligent and clever.

I just think that Jack White is the consummate artist - an artist's artist. I'm a huge fan.

My dream duet would be with Dolly Parton!

I will say one thing: Mick Mars is one of the greatest songwriters I've ever met in my life and had the pleasure to work with.

Bacharach has such a brilliant ear for melody and his music has a completely timeless feel to it; I thought it would be great to do a whole album of his music and to record with a full orchestra and big band which is something I hadn't done before.

I want to say at once that I frankly believe that Irving Berlin is the greatest songwriter that has ever lived.... His songs are exquisite cameos of perfection, and each one of them is as beautiful as its neighbor. Irving Berlin remains, I think, America's Schubert.

I was one of those guys, you know, playing and singing, and there was no reason for me to write a song, because there were so many beautiful songs out. And Bob Dylan was always the ultimate songwriter, and nobody could ever write a song as good as him, and nobody ever has written a song as good as him.

It's nearly redundant to enumerate the reasons The Beatles are important. There are probably different reasons why The Beatles are important to a musician like myself and to the millions of Beatles fans who just enjoy listening to the music.

Donna Summer was one of the strongest female singers in pop music. She was very underrated as a vocalist and a writer, and her songbook is just outrageous.

My love of Green Day is on so many levels. It's their genius for songwriting, the fact that they write about very important subjects, both personal and political, and they're just a timeless band.