Songwriters - Who are your main influences?

erocshifty

Feeling a little reminiscent & a tinge of nostalgia this afternoon after listening to Neil Young's "On The Beach" album. I was thinking about all the artist that have influenced/inspired me over the years. Dave Matthews, PJ, Jimmy Page, Jerry Cantrell, Neil Young, Keith Richards & Bob Dylan are probably my biggest influences with my songwriting.

I'm sure there's a couple more, but these are the bands/artists that really taught me how to play and who I was mainly listening to when I wrote a lot of my first group of songs. I've not written anything in a bit, but am about to pick my 2 Alvarez guitars (tuned differently of course) back up and try to bang some new songs out. 

Just wondering who influenced some of the other songwriters here? 

pjpjpaul

Eddie Vedder, Jeff Tweedy, Elliott Smith, Jason Isbell, Neil Young, Trent Reznor, Josh Homme, Chris Cornell, Thom Yorke, Stephen Malkmus, Michael Stipe, Joe Strummer, j. Mascis, Robert Pollard, Wayne Coyne, Roger Waters, Robert Smith, David Byrne, Thurston Moore, Pete Townshend, Lennon/McCartney, Ben Harper, Jimmy Page, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan...

dudeman

Jessica Simpson. Katy Perry. 

erocshifty

Yeah, just try to find a point of relation and the smartasses have to come out, huh?

dudeman

I'm serious. Not that I like them, but they inspire me to write about what I feel is wrong with the music industry. 

Not trying to be a smart ass at all.

Edited to add: If I focus on the songwriting of any artist I listen to, I end up writing songs that sound like them. The goal I have set for myself is to take inspiration from everything but songwriters I like.

FinsburyParkCarrots

John Martyn.