Today we have a combined Long Song Tuesday and Album of the Week post and it is a good one.
Travel with me, if you will, back to 1976. I am on my way to one of my graduate school classes, playing my radio at full volume with my windows down. Out of the blue, the best song that I have heard in years come on the radio and I am transfixed. I listen to the end of the song (even though it makes me late to my class) and find out that the group is named Boston. I am intrigued….the band has a incredibly clean sound, kick ass guitars, and a singer that rivals the Roger Daltrey’s and Robert Plant’s of the day. The song was More Than A Feeling and we will check it out in a minute but first let’s listen to today’s long song offering from that same band.
As it turns out, the band’s clean sound and kick ass guitars were the product of it’s founder, Tom Sholz. Tom was a genius graduate of MIT, working at Polaroid as an engineer, but completely obsessed with music. When Tom wasn’t at work he was investing all of his money in a home studio and working on demos. Even before he had a band he used his home studio to record demos for most of the songs that would appear on Boston’s debut album. The singer, Brad Delp, was just a natural talent (RIP Brad!). The results were amazing. Let’s listen to a live version of the song that originally caught my attention.
I was lucky enough to catch Boston on their first headlining tour and they were amazing. I actually had a bad seat on the right hand side of the stage pretty high up. It gave me a perfect view of Tom Sholz who had what was obviously a homemade box of effect pedals that he used throughout the show. I learned later that he was indeed a “mad genius” who had designed and built his own guitar effects. I finally understood where that awesome guitar sound came from!
Lucky for you, this is also an Album of the Week post because the Boston debut album was and still is an amazing record. Without further ado, I give you Boston…..
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 