Dealing with popularity has nothing to do with your ability to come at a constant level of excellence when it comes to writing. Dylan wanted to be popular and noticed, the guy was full of himself. Christ, he's still doing advertisements for car companies. Dylan was good in the mid 60's 'til the mid 70's and he fell off drastically, especially with albums like "Saved". His Christian period was awful, musically and lyrically, even the performances lacked any type of soul.

Tom Waits is EASILY the best song writer out there. In a time period where double LP's are a big deal.. he releases a 7 LP, 56 song album as his 20th studio production. He's been covered by the likes of Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles (to name a couple) and has won multiple awards and starred in many movies. Doing this well keeping it real and out of the spotlight.