No.553: “Elton John” by Elton John (1970)
breaking out of the minor league with his first bona fide classic hit ‘Your Song’, Elton began his road to superstardom. We all know that famous single of course so let’s play this one from the album instead, ‘Sixty Years On’:
No.552: “Boy” by U2 (1980)
Debut album from the band who were to become (and still are) the biggest band in the world. Look at how young these guys look in this early video:
I have never really been a fan of Simply Red but I have to say, I heard him sing without music once and he had the most amazingly pure voice.
One more to come very soon, then a chart run down from 600-551.
Nearly missed your post there mate.
Simply Red I liked because of some of their early songs, and Mick Hucknall does have an amazing vocal range, but there’s something really odious about him isn’t there?
Great songs though and one more album from them soon.
No.551: “Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1976)
Last year’s demise of the great Tom Petty was one of the saddest events in any rock ‘n’ roll calendar. He was one of the best songwriters in his field.
This was his first album from way back in 1976 and features one of his most famous songs, here performed a couple of years later:
600-DAVID BOWIE-David Bowie-1967
599-B-52’S-The B-52’s-1979
598-JIMMY PAGE & ROBERT PLANT-No Quarter – ‘Unledded’ (Live)-1994
597-JOHN LENNON-Walls And Bridges-1974
596-JEFF BUCKLEY-Grace-1994
595-STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN-Texas Flood-1983
594-SHERYL CROW-Tuesday Night Music Club-1994
593-LYNYRD SKYNYRD-Last Of A Dyin’ Breed-2012
592-MAHOGANY RUSH-Strange Universe-1975
591-COLDPLAY-Viva La Vida-2008
590-CHRIS REA-Dancing Down The Stony Road-2002
589-CLIFFORD T. WARD-Home Thoughts-1973
588-DOOBIE BROTHERS-Toulouse Street-1972
587-IGGY POP-Lust For Life-1977
586-PAUL & LINDA MCCARTNEY-Ram-1971
585-SHERYL CROW-Sheryl Crow-1996
584-YARDBIRDS-For Your Love-1965
583-THORNS-The Thorns-2003
582-VELVET UNDERGROUND-Loaded-1970
581-STYLE COUNCIL-Café Bleu-1984
580-SCRITTI POLITTI-Songs To Remember-1982
579-ROXY MUSIC-Flesh + Blood-1980
578-JOHN MAYALL’S BLUESBREAKERS-A Hard Road-1967
577-KILLERS-Sam’s Town-2006
576-KILLING JOKE-Killing Joke-1980
575-BOSTON-Walk On-1994
574-EDITORS-The Back Room-2005
573-EAGLES-The Long Run-1979
572-FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD-Welcome To The Pleasuredome-1984
571-FOO FIGHTERS-One By One-2002
570-FISH-Field Of Crows-2004
569-BEAUTIFUL SOUTH-Welcome To The Beautiful South-1989
568-CAST-Allchange-1995
567-DAVID BOWIE-1.Outside-1995
566-SYD BARRETT-The Madcap Laughs-1970
565-SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES-Juju-1981
564-POLICE-Ghost In The Machine-1981
563-NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS-Murder Ballads-1996
562-MICHAEL JACKSON-Thriller-1983
561-PYTHON LEE JACKSON-In A Broken Dream-1972
560-CLASH-Sandinista!-1980
559-BOB SEGER & THE SILVER BULLET BAND-Live Bullet-1976
558-BYRDS-Younger Than Yesterday-1967
557-BRIAN WILSON-Smile-2004
556-SIMPLY RED-Picture Book-1985
555-KING CRIMSON-Discipline-1981
554-ALAN PARSONS PROJECT-Stereotomy-1986
553-ELTON JOHN-Elton John-1970
552-U2-Boy-1980
551-TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers-1976
Nice to see Crimbo featured after Larks Tongues in Aspic i stopped following the band, but covered many of Fripps solo work and collaborations. Saw the classic Crimbo only once circa 1970 remains in my top ten of gigs ever.
I have a mate who says says the same Nom, he’s a big fan or was in the early days. Being of a younger generation I don’t know too much about those very experimental albums but love their debut and the much heavier Red and then Discipline onwards.
Very talented band.
To be fair Floydy by about 1974 there was little of note coming out of the Prog scene except in Europe and Japan, The Times They Were a Changing.
Bigbig fan of Tom Petty.
Breakdown is from that LP too.
Yes were doing extremely well mate. As were Pink Floyd.
Plenty of other Brits too - Barclay James Harvest, ELP, Wishbone Ash and Rick Wakeman’s solo extravaganzas to name but a few.
Pleased you added that one mate. Thanks 
Very little time for anything today, unless I find a few minutes later.
In the meantime, this is a quick breakdown of how many albums feature in each decade. This is for the whole list, not just the ones we’ve had so far. I’ll do list of albums per each year when we get nearer the top of the chart (don’t want to give anything away!).
1950’s - 2 albums
1960’s - 140
1970’s - 287
1980’s - 259
1990’s - 131
2000’s - 180
For some reason I’ve ended up with only 999 albums…it looks like there’s a number missing somewhere! :shock:
No.550: “Whitney” by Whitney Houston (1987)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a9/Whitney_Houston_-_Whitney_(album).jpg/220px-Whitney_Houston_-_Whitney_(album).jpg
Don’t worry, I haven’t gone completely commercial pop in this thread. Some albums serve as a reminder of special moments in one’s life and Whitney’s second album was the soundtrack to a particularly wild and wonderful holiday I had in 1987. 'Nuff said really.
No.549: “Neil Young” by Neil Young (1969)
No.548: “Everybody Knows This Nowhere” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse (1969)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/30/Neil_Young_(album).jpg/220px-Neil_Young_(album).jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e5/EverybodyKnowsThisIsNowhere.jpg/220px-EverybodyKnowsThisIsNowhere.jpg
Okay, back on track with the proper music…
These two albums were placed consecutively intentionally as they were Neil Young’s first two solo releases following his earlier stints with Buffalo Springfield and The International Submarine Band.
I like both these landmark albums equally, the second one with his long-term partnership with the Crazy Horse band. I always try to find the most suitable video clips from the era and these are two of the nearest I found relevant to these albums:
No.547: “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” by Genesis (1974)
Classic-era Genesis with their double concept album from 1974. This tour went down a storm and was the final album featuring Peter Gabriel before the band slimmed down into a four-piece then a trio following the departure of Steve Hackett too.
From this tour, ‘In The Cage’:
No.546: “Strangers In The Night” by Frank Sinatra (1966)
Yes yes, another surprise! Nothing wrong with Sinatra and this album was given to me by a friend a while ago and I thought one day I would bother to play it. Going against the musical grain of my tastes, I loved it. The title track is of course tremendous all on its own.
Difficult to find live clips, but as this is the only Frank Sinatra album in the list here’s a clip of him with the title song from 1992, together with an early ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ montage.
Surely, we’ll get some interest from the ladies now…or maybe not.
No.545: “Fleetwood Mac” by Fleetwood Mac (1975)
https://i0.wp.com/www.the-arcade.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/fleetwood-mac.png?resize=700%2C330
I’m not going to call this the “classic Fleetwood Mac line-up” as that wouldn’t be right. The 1960’s “Peter Green years” were just as important, albeit in an entirely different way. The 1975 line-up therefore is better known as the popular megabucks grouping.
After floundering in the early to mid 70’s, the band acquired the duo of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham whilst touring Los Angeles, a partnership who came ‘as a package’ and not singularly as the Mac wished. Hence, the band were now a five-piece once again and after this middling album, took the world by storm. many older fans turned away in disgust as all manner of blues material was thrown out in favour of a sun-kissed, mellow L.A. rock sound in their place. Can’t complain about songs like this though: Rhiannon.
More tomorrow
First time i saw Genesis it cost me 50p with Lindisfarne and Van der Graff Generator on the same bill. I think Gabriel left at the right time,his little stories between songs wer always popular with the crowd.
And some excellent solo and collaborations.
