Music is bloody marvelous.You wouldn’t think that West Coast Californian sound would resonate with a young lad first hearing in wet Welsh Wales,would you? 
No mate. Nor I residing in the nondescript gloom of a fishing town liking the riches of Bruce Springsteen and so on. But we investigate these sounds I think to take us to a place we may seem more happier with.
Nowt wrong wi’ T’Housematins tho’.
Bit more Walter(from a Scouser)
Thanks. I enjoyed that. Reminds me of when I saw them at Wembley. Afterwards there were a couple of hundred people singing ‘Eeyo eeyo eeyoyo’ en route to the tube. :-p
Okay back on it again. Thanks wholeheartedly to PSmith and others who held the fort with some typically relevant videos while I was absent.
Today we’ll climb up a few more places taking us close to the 600-point…
No.616: “Nature Boy” by Joe Beck (1968)
Joe beck was a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia who played alongside such greats as Buddy Rich and later, David Sanborn. Typically jazz-fusion based, he released this delightfully psychedelic offering featuring the standard ‘Nature Boy’ amongst its excellent track listing.
No.615: “Journey To The Centre Of The Earth” by Rick Wakeman (1974)
Yes keyboard maestro Rick Wakeman’s glorious masterpiece and musical version of Jules Verne’s literary classic. Call it preposterous, overblown, whatever, it contains a sublime suite of music but it was of its time for the mid-1970’s.
No.614: “Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze” by Kurt Vile (2013)
Some modern spaced-out psychedelia for you now with Kurt Vile’s solo offering from 2013. Taking the field of Americana a step further, Vile released this hippy trippy album full of very long songs to vast critical acclaim.
No.613: “The Original Soundtrack” by 10CC (1975)
Cerebral studio band 10CC with their magnum opus from the mid-70’s. Textured using multi-layered harmonies and overdubs this classic album contains the single ‘Life Is A Minestrone’, plus a track which some say heavily influenced Queen’s Bohemian Rhpsody in it’s execution of production techniques, the conceptual piece ‘One Nuit A Paris’. But the song the album is best known for is this wondrous piece of popular music:
No.612: “Toto IV” by Toto (1983)
In a way Toto could almost be called a sort of American version of 10CC, so good as they are at their songwriting and production expertise. This career high point featured the singles ‘Rosanna’ and this great single too:
No.611: “Otis Blue/Otis Sings Soul” by Otis Redding (1966)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Otisblue.jpeg
Changing the mood now for one of the greatest soul singers of all-time and his greatest release Otis Blue (Otis Sings Soul). Nobody came close to his heartbreakingly soulful voice as this clip from The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 shows:
No.610: “Hotter Than July” by Stevie Wonder (1980)
Staying with the soul greats and this time it’s the Motown label and one of their greatest legends, Stevie Wonder. Hotter Than July really transported Wonder back into the charts after a couple of years floundering with their excellent soul/reggae/jazz album full of potential hits.
No.609: “Tin Machine” by Tin Machine (1989)
Some ridiculed Bowie for doing this ‘group thing’ in the late 80’s saying that he’s made his worst ever record. On listening to it again (and it’s 1991 sequel, shown earlier in this list), the band weren’t half bad at all and seemed to have matured with age. This is a live clip of Bowie performing with the band in the early 90’s:
I thought Toto were a great band. My favourite being ‘Hold the line’ although ‘Africa’ was a close second.
No.608: “Bad As Me” by Tom Waits (2011)
Maniacal, manic and totally out there, Tom Waits’ delightful blend of ramshackle rock and blues created this brilliant return to form which features Keith Richards on guitar. It’s really an album worth checking out as long as you can stomach Waits’ gutteral drawl. Can’t find a live clip, but here’s the title track:
Same here bud. Hold The Line is a great song, I think from their debut album in 1978. 
No.607: “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle (1988)
Singer, songwriter, producer and actor (‘Sons Of Anarchy’ for one), six times married Steve Earle has been making great rock-country-blues since the early 80’s. Like some kind of earlier version of Walter Trout, his songs are always very thought-provoking and near the bone in many cases.
No.606: “Permanent Waves” by Rush (1980)
I’ll leave you with this one for today. Rush are one of the biggest rock-progressive bands in the world making some excellent albums and touring consistently since their debut in 1974. I just feature this one in my list though and it’s classic single:
More tomorrow when I’ll get to the 600-mark as promised.
Thanks for your interest as always
Time for a couple more:
No.605: “Buffalo Springfield Again” by Buffalo Springfield (1968)
Second and final album from the Californian combo. This features early versions of Neil Young’s ‘Mr. Soul’ and ‘Expecting To Fly’ plus this favourite of mine:
No.604: “The Gilded Palace Of Sin” by The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969)
Hot on the heels of their debut album in my list comes the Burrito’s other release. Gram Parsons was soon to go solo but he left us all with this high class county album in the meantime:
Well, it looks like we’ve exceeded all expectations and made up for some lost time. We’re going to reach the Top 600 today after all…
No.603: “The Colour Of Spring” by Talk Talk (1986)
before Mark Hollis and his band went all new age on us, they were one of Britain’s finest rock-pop bands progressing as they did from early hits such as ‘Today’ and the brilliant ‘It’s My Life’ and culminating into really classy stuff with this 1986 release and it’s lead single ‘Life’s What You Make It’:
