Boston
Boston
The Band: Brad Delp- Vocals
Tom Scholz- Guitar
Barry Goudreau- Guitar
Fran Sheenan- Bass
Sib Hassian- Drums
The 70’s were an certainly an interesting era. They were certainly my favourite decade of the nineteen hundreds. Simpler living styles, better cars, really just a more colorful time to be alive. But, when comparing the seventies there’s one thing you simply cannot leave out. The music! The seventies were arguably the greatest decade for music. It saw the peak of the careers of many great bands such as Fleetwood Mac. It also saw the birth of many bands like Black Sabbath and The Clash. Then there was
Boston. To be honest they weren’t the most successful band of the seventies. They only released two albums in the time period. Although, they weren’t the most successful band at the time, their debut was certainly one of the most successful albums. It was immediately well received by the public and sold thousands upon thousands of copies instantly and over time has sold over seventeen million. Lead by the most popular track from the album
More Than A Feeling it had an easygoing feel to it that people could relate to. So, how did this seventies arena rock band come to be? Boston all started with guitarist Tom Scholz. He began to create a series of tape recordings in his home studio accompanied by Barry Goudreau (guitar) and Jim Masdea (drums). Tom submitted these tapes to various record labels. Unfortunately no one was interested. Ever the enthusiast Scholz was not discouraged. He rounded up vocalist Brad Delp and once again started recording. After submitting his second tape he heard back from Epic Records, a division of CBS. However, the label was not content with Masdea’s drumming, so
Sib Hassian was brought in. The label also wanted the band to professionally record all the tracks, as a full band, hence the hiring of bassist Fran Sheenan. As I mentioned the label wanted all tracks to be professionally recorded. Tom however, managed to trick the label and record all the tracks in his home studio again, with the exception of
Let Me Take You Home Tonight, which was recorded in California. And so concludes the tale of the birth of
Boston (The band not the city, of course).
Now let’s get back on the topic of the album. One of the main reasons I’ve always loved this album its positive message. Its warm hearted lyrics seem to wrap themselves around you like an infant in its favorite blanket. You have no idea how much I personally enjoy that aspect of this album. It seems to be so rare in modern day music. Most bands nowa seem to only sing about things along the lines of: My girlfriend dumped me, my parents are to controlling, I was a loser in high school. Nothing against modern music, but it just gets old after a while and when it does I like to take refuge in albums like this. Aside from the lyrics having a positive image the majority of them are also quite well written and combined with the stupendous vocals of Mr. Delp the truly bring you
Peace Of Mind. Here’s an example. This is the chorus from the track,
Peace Of Mind.
I understand about indecision
But I don't care if I get behind
People livin' in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind
Now, isn’t that a lovely message. It preaches that rather than cut corners and cheat to get ahead in life, we should live with morals to keep our conscience clean. Moving right along, not every track had a specifically positive image, but not a negative one either. A few tracks were just sort of telling a short tale. Mostly they were about just being a rocker. I’m not sure whether the band based these songs on actual experiences, or are just about the life of the average rock n’ roll artist in general. Regardless, they’re still really fun tracks and seem to correctly depict the lifestyle of an up and coming rock band that doesn’t have much money yet. Here’s an example from the track
Rock And Roll band.
Well, we were just another band out of Boston
On the road to try to make ends meet
Playin' all the bars, sleepin' in our cars
And we practiced right on out in the street
It’s not just this albums lyrics that make it great. A large portion of this album’s greatness must be credit to this albums instrumentals. The guitar work was nothing short of spectacular from the first note plucked in
More Than A Feeling to the last note in
Let Me Take You Home Tonight. Some guitar parts actually seemed a tad blues-esque, which I enjoyed. For example, the verse in
Peace Of Mind. the album also had it’s some clean toned riffs like the intro to More Than A Feeling, but regardless of tone or the style of riff everything was well written. Even the chord progressions were great. The only aspect of the guitar work that wasn’t quite top notch was the solos. Not to say that they weren’t great, they just weren’t the Stairway To Heaven solo, or anything. Although, the solo in
Foreplay/ Longtime was astounding. Tom’s tone was also splendid. It really sounds wonderful, which says a lot considering this album was recorded in a home studio. Sure, on the Cds it has probably been edited, but I listened to this on vinyl earlier today and it still sounds good. One thing this album did lack was some good bass, with the exception of a few moments in the keyboard into of Foreplay/ Longtime. Although, I can understand this. You see, music from the seventies was very guitar oriented, so when listening pretty much any band from that time period there’s a lack of bass. Though you can’t hear the bass that well it is still fairly well written. I checked some tabs and the bass lines are more than adequate. Not the best I’ve ever heard, but they certainly didn’t take anything away from the album. The drums were good too. Sib put on a good show with some skillful roll beats and fills. He played more simple beats than I usually like to see but that’s understandable due to the slow pace of some songs. He also kept great timing, though that’s basic drummer criteria. Then there’s the keyboard. It played only a small part in this album, but I feel I have to mention it. Foreplay actually has a keyboard into and what an intro it is. It’s by far the best keyboard solo I’ve ever heard. My only complaint is it’s a bit lengthy, but it makes up for it with its immeasurable greatness.
Pros: Instrumentals
Vocals
Production, considering were it was produced
Cons: Guitar dominated album
Overall Rating:
5/5
Well great album, amazing band, and RIP Brad Delp.
