Greatest Songwriter
 

Does any one agree with me that Gordon Lightfoot is the purest and most prolific songwriter of our time..or maybe any time!

He is a great songwriter. The greatest? I can think of a few other contenders: Jimmy Webb, Tony Banks, Bob Lind, Joni Mitchell, Steven Wilson. A lot is going to depend on what your personal musical tastes are. No doubt someone else would nominate an early blues artist.

Greatest Songwriter
 

All great artists, but none with the depth and wealth of high quality songs that Lightfoot has produced...certainly not Mitchel, not even in the same league. But then, as you say, it depends on your tastes...or lack of it in many case.

Tony Banks and Steve Wilson are musicians in the "Progressive Rock" genre, and this is a "Country, Folk, & World Music Forum." Please stay on topic. I assume answer to the question should include only Country/Folk artist, unless otherwise stated by the OP. And if that was the case that it includes all genres it would better suited in General Music Forum.

Gordon Lightfoot is very prolific, and I like a few songs of his. He does get bonus points for writing songs about rain, but I'm unfamiliar with all his work, so I say can not say he's the greatest. I really don't consider any one artist as the greatest, however within the realm of Country & Folk my choice as one of the greatest would be Marty Robbins. I
would consider John Fahey, but he is not a singer/songwriter. Jim Croce is a personal favorite but I wouldn't pit him in a "Greatest Songwriter of our time..or maybe any time!" smack-down with Gordon Lightfoot. So it has to be Marty Robbins with his hundred singles, and albums filled gun fighting songs that would have duel it out with Gordon Lightfoot as the "Greatest Songwriter of our time..or maybe any time!"

Precisely. You assumed. I did not assume. The OP simply referred to "greatest and most prolific songwriter of all time" without specifying genre.

Why don't you ask the mods if the thread can be moved? That would be a productive course of action than picking on me simply because I answered the question as it was put.

I don't consider the OP well thought out in any sense at all. Ronagain is a newcomer, so he's entitled to a bit a leeway, but I think these kind of vague quests for an even vaguer superlative in songwriting or whatever are a waste of time:
- not worth pursuing seriously, not worth moving to another part of MB, and certainly not worth fighting over.