mine updated (because my last one makes me laugh now)

Ian Curtis
Syd Barrett
Damon Albarn
Thom Yorke
Elliott Smith
Patrick Wolf
Chan Marshall
Nick Drake
Morrissey
Joe Strummer

1. Mark E Smith
2. Mark E Smith
3. Mark E Smith
4. Mark E Smith
5. Mark E Smith
6. Bobby Dylan
7. Nigel Blackwell (Half Man Half Biscuit)
8. John Lennon (Beatles), for all those oblique references and the thinly-veiled misogyny
9. Ray Davies
10. Not Nick Cave.

Should have a separate one for hip hop aswell.

Bump, I fancied doing a list.

1. Ian Curtis - He cut his veins and let them bleed.
2. Morrissey - Wit, cynicism. It's Morrissey, he's brilliant.
3. Nick Cave - No one tells a story quite like Nick.
4. J. Mascis - Some of his lyrics are just amazing, I can relate to so many of them. And the ones I can't relate to and don't fully understand, they're still immense.
5. John Lennon - Yeah...
6. Jeff Mangum - King of Carrot Flowers! Just listen!! He sings his lyrics like he has a gun to his head, and that makes them so much better. They're already great.
7. Alex Turner - Poetic turn of phrase, and he commented on social issues in Britain with the Monkeys first album. I love his lyrics.
8. Billy Corgan - Pick your pockets full of sorrow, run away with me tomorrow.
9. Jack White - Old style bluesy stories.
10. Frank Black - Just for how bizarre they are

in no particular order

Tim Mcilrath
Matt Skiba
Dan Andriano
whichever member of In Flames it is that writes the lyrics
David Rovics
Geoff Rickly

Tommy Hall is a genius.

"If your limbs begin dissolving
In the water that you tread
All surroundings are evolving
In the stream that clears your head"

"Well, you finally find your helpless mind,
is trapped inside your skin.
You want to leave,
but you believe you won't get back again.
You only know ,
you have to go but still you can't get out.
You try and try,
you die and die.
You're stopped by your own doubt.
Reverberation,
reverberation.
You find no peace,
it doesn't cease,
it's deadly irritation.
It keeps you blind,
it's there behind,
your every hesitation.
It holds your thought,
your mind is caught,
your fixed with fascination.
You think you'll die,
it's just a lie,
it's backward elevation!
Reverberation."

Leonard Cohen
Van D.yke Parks
Ray Davies
Bob Dylan
Joni Mitchell
Van Morrison
John Lennon
Elvis Costello
Bill Callahan
Brian Eno

1. DooM - MF Doom, Viktor Vaughn, Madvillan, Dangerdoom, ect...
2. Issac Brock - Modest Mouse, Ugly Casanova
3. POS - POS, Doomtree
4. Ben Gibbard - Death Cab For Cutie
5. Chris Hannah - Propagandhi
6. Cody Bonnette - As Cities Burn
7. David Bazan - Pedro the Lion
8. Max Bemis - Say Anything
9. Dennis Lyxzén - Refused
10. Brian Fallon - The Gaslight Anthem

....explain?

Aaron Weiss
Leonard Cohen
Conor Oberst (yeah, yeah)
Bob Dylan
Jon Foreman
Cat Stevens

IMO.