Singer-songwriters often do a lot more than singing and songwriting

Dylan, whom I have already mentioned, has starred in several films including Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. David Bowie, who started his career as a singer-songwriter has been in movies too including The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen was a poet and novelist before he found fame with his songs. Cohen wrote The Favourite Game (1964) and Beautiful Losers (1966) as novels and had his poems published in Let Us Compare Mythologies in 1956 and Flowers For Hitler in 1964.

According to Wikipedia, Cohen had described songwriting in an interview in 1998, as "...like a bear stumbling into a beehive or a honey cache: I'm stumbling right into it and getting stuck, and it's delicious and it's horrible and I'm in it and it's not very graceful and it's very awkward and it's very painful and yet there's something inevitable about it."

Bruce "the Boss" Springsteen is usually thought of as a rock singer and star but although he is usually fronting a rock band he is in essence a singer-songwriter.

Marc Bolan

The late Marc Bolan, who became famous for his "glam" image at the height of his fame and pop chart success, was another singer-songwriter. Marc had first found success with the duo with Steve Peregrine Took known as Tyrannosaurus Rex in which they performed all of Bolan's songs, and he continued singing and playing his own material fronting the band T.Rex.

Madonna, is another big star who found fame as a singer-songwriter with hits like Like A Virgin beforeshe showed she could act many years later in Desperately Seeking Susan.

The late great Bob Marley is thought of as a reggae singer and he was backed by The Wailers but again, in essence, Marley was a singer-songwriter who wrote and sang his own songs.

Neil Young began his successful career as a solo artist as a singer-songwriter who backed his songs with guitar but he swiftly transformed into a rock guitarist too and became subsequently dubbed the "Godfather of Grunge" for his distorted and loud style. Young has shown throughout his career that he can readily switch from traditional singer-songwriter with acoustic guitar to full-on rocker when fronting Crazy Horse or any of the other bands he has worked with.

Neil Young has also branched out into making films like Human Highway as well as writing the instrumental soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man.

Boy George

Boy George, who found international fame as the gender-bender singer for Culture Club, later went into a solo career, and in later years re-launched himself as a DJ. Boy George has always sung songs he himself had written so again is an example of a singer-songwriter.

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