Just to clarify, that’s Dylan, Springsteen & Joel
Which one do you think…
is the best songwriter?
is the best singer?
is the best musician?
Songwriter… Bob, hands down.
Singer… Billy, then Bruce, then Bob.
Musician… Bob
First, I do not think Billy Joel belongs in the rock genre. Maybe Dylan doesn’t either.
Anyway, Dylan is the best songwriter. Hell, he’s a poet. I’d give Springsteen the nod for best singer, although Joel gives him a run for the money. That said, I enjoy listening to Dylan more than the other two. Musician? Maybe give Joel that award out of sympathy.
All this is purely IMHO.
Dylan. No comparison. In my book.
You need to define “songwriter.” Just words, just music, or the package? Catchy tunes with hooks you find yourself singing along with, or haunting, 3-minute works of art that hit you emotionally?
IMHO, Dylan is on a separate planet. That leaves the other two.
Put Billy Joel’s Allentown against Springsteen’s My Hometown, which are two songs that essentially tackle the same topic. That pretty much defines the differences between the two.
Moving this to Cafe Society from Thread Games.
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Dylan is the best songwriter, with Bruce right behind. Billy doesn’t even get out of the starting gate. Scratched and sent to the glue factory.
Singer goes to Bruce, followed by Bob.
Musician depends on what you mean by the word. For pure showmanship Bruce is in a league of his own. Same-same for command of instruments.
And, in fact, Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as a special Pulitzer citation.
The Nobel award cites him “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” The Pulitzer cites “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
Love him or hate him, Bob Dylan is the closest person still living whose works will be passed down, studied and celebrated for generations to come, in different countries and cultures around the globe, like Shakespeare, Mozart, Twain, Van Gogh, etc.
You can see Bob Dylan cover bands in Brisbane, Berlin, Barcelona, Bangkok, Brazzaville, Buenos Aries, Baltimore and Boise, and will still be able to hear his music performed live for centuries after he dies.
Completely agree, and chimed in mainly because I thought Springsteen wasn’t getting enough credit as a songwriter, though he hasn’t won any Nobels.
In my ignorance, I didn’t think much of Springsteen, until I heard other musicians covering his work, and that made go back and listen and read works like Nebraska, Janey needs a shooter (covered so differently by Zevon), and most of his hits from Born in the USA. Which made me realize just how little I actually listened to the words of the songs I heard growing up.
Anyway, hell of a songwriter, but still, no Nobel.
For whatever reason, Dylan was never on my radar growing up. I mean, he was a bit before my time but I took my first musical cues from my older brother and Dylan wasn’t on his playlist. What little I’ve heard does nothing for me as music, though the poetic imagery is nice.
I wasn’t a big fan of Springsteen until a few years ago. I flat out didn’t like him until Born in the USA(though I still don’t like the title song). Then along came The Rising which prompted me to look further into his catalog and I really gathered a deep appreciation.
Billy Joel has been part of the soundtrack of my life so I *enjoy *him the most…
As to who I rank highest technically, I agree they’re all too different to compare.
Dylan is the best songwriter. Billy Joel is section; he’s a better lyricist than Springsteen, and has more range.
Best singer? All are great. Dylan is underappreciated because he doesn’t have a smooth voice and has a limited range, but he’s very expressive within that range. Joel probably has the best voice in the traditional sense, but Springsteen is barely behind.
Best musician: I’d say Springsteen. He’s a top-notch guitarist. But neither Dylan nor Joel really concentrate on being great with their instruments; they’re just there in service to their songs.
Dylan is definitely the best songwriter of the three. I’m not sure anyone in the past sixty years can compare with him.
Which one’s the best singer? It really depends on what you’re looking for. Each of them is good in ways the other two aren’t.
(Being the math geek I am, I’m going to say that they’re ‘incomparable’ in the partially-ordered-set sense of the term: there’s no definitive ‘>’ or ‘<’ relation between any of them.)
I’ll take a pass on who’s the best musician. I stay out of conversations about who’s the best guitarist, or who’s the best drummer, because I listen to music for the overall effect, and I’m bad about picking out the individual pieces that make it up. I find the conversations interesting, but they remind me that I don’t know shit about any of that.
And even though I’m a big fan of Billy Joel, I think he’s unquestionably the least of the three. I think you can talk about Springsteen in the same conversation with Dylan, but Billy’s only in this conversation due to the fluke of his stage name beginning with B.
In my mind, Springsteen tops all three categories, though I admit that I have just not felt the enduring hook into Dylan’s material that so many others get, so maybe it’s just me. Springsteen is what you get if crossed Dylan and Joel, and mixed in a degree of introspection and outward study that neither of the others quite manage.
Even granting that he’s a great lyricist, I don’t think he’s a great songwriter, and Springsteen has him beat in composing/arranging and crafting of the other things that make a song.
Ultimately, though, I think that they ended up writing with different enough voices as to make any pretense of an objective difference in greatness between the two impossible. It’s like comparing Joyce and Fitzgerald. One followed closely behind the other, both innovated in their own ways, and both unquestionably masters. One a master and twister of language, form and expectation, the other a sublime storyteller who places both his subjects and his readers in the void between reality, metaphor, symbol, myth and allegory.
As a lyricist, Dylan wins hands down. I think both Springsteen and Joel have better voices, but Dylan is a better singer than many people give him credit for. If you doubt this, I suggest listening to “(Sooner or Later) One of Us Must Know” from Blonde on Blonde.
When it comes to Springsteen and Joel, it would be hard for me to decide who is better as a songwriter and a musician. I would probably go with Springsteen simply because I’ve owned several of his albums, and I’ve never had any by Joel. However, Joel has written some great songs headed by “Captain Jack” and “Allentown.”
But, as far as I can tell, Billy outsold the other two. Maybe it’s because the other two weren’t shooting for it, but Billy is the one who banged out chart-toppers, because he was the one who was going for a catchy ‘pop rock’ sound. (And, yeah, that plus his ‘easy listening’ bona fides — putting together ‘adult contemporary’ chart-toppers like Just The Way You Are and This Is The Time — gets him THAT’S NOT ROCK sneers; but the point is that he went for that, and knocked it out of the park, when he wasn’t going for ‘pop rock’ hits for the win like I was just saying.)
He did stuff the other two didn’t. Maybe he did stuff the other two couldn’t, I don’t know. But he’s all over the place, is my point — and I can’t pretend like it’s not both entertaining and interesting, because if I’m not in the mood for one song or another from the guy there’s a third one that fits great.
Only three B’s?
Bob Seger, Barry Gibb, Buck Dharma, Bryan Adams, Black Sabbath, the B-52s, and Bill Clinton would like a word with you. 
Billy Joel is the best singer. I can’t imagine either Bob or Bruce pulling off something like “The Longest Time”.
Dylan is the best songwriter by far. I think Springsteen has the better singing voice, though some would probably rate Joel higher. Joel is the better musician IMO because he successfully incorporated great piano playing into a genre dominated by guitars and drums.
I forgot to add: All three are impressive talents.