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| You see success, I see excess, so.... |
The Biggest Surprise: The story behind the “Mary Ann” on “More Than a Feeling,” or the fact that every person in that video is playing a lie....
The Most Famous Line-Up: Tom Scholz on everything (and all production), but also Brad Delp (vox/guitar), Barry Goudreau (guitar), and, later, Sib Hashian (drums), and Fran Sheehan (bass).
What You Need to Know
“I was just writing the kind of music I wanted to hear.”
Tom Scholz developed the material that became Boston’s first album in his basement, with him playing, recording, and crucially manipulating the production to get the sound he was after. He financed the whole thing through a day-job with Polaroid and, no matter how many record executives tried to flush Scholz out of the various basements he created, he never produced a Boston album anywhere outside the basement studios he built for himself wherever he settled down. And that’s the real point of interest in all this: Scholz has as many technical achievements as he has musical ones. When he couldn’t figure out how to get a sound out of the equipment he had, he made new equipment – all of them analog, notably, a point of pride he advertised on some Boston albums. And he really did some incredible stuff with this – specifically, the guitar sound, which, one person interviewed in that “Behind the Music” described as “crunchy guitar that sounded almost three-dimensional.” By my (untrained) ear, he did the same thing with Delp’s vocals – i.e., adding layers to them to make his voice sound like a chorus. When Scholz needed a physical band to record final demos or for the “showcase” he arranged to secure a recording contract to put out six albums in 10 years, he called in connections he made playing in bands during college (e.g., Freehold and Mother’s Milk). Scholz creative process/perfectionism made that rate of production laughably unrealistic - he never got over the b-side of Boston’s rushed (for him) second album, Don’t Look Back (1978) - and a major lawsuit inevitably followed when he insisted on taking his own damn time for a third album. That album, Third Stage, finally came out in 1986 and produced one monster hit (“Amanda”), but Boston’s history basically dries up there (and gets a little weird; see the final minutes of that “Behind the Music” linked to below).
Because Boston is based on Scholz’s singular vision, it’s probably worth taking a little time on Scholz’ influences. He grew up listening to and (I think) playing classic music. According to the “BtM” documentary, The Kinks were the first rock band he really liked – and he did branch out from there – but, if two things stand out about Boston musically, it’s the intricate structure of the songs and, most of all the production. The success of the band’s first, best-known album (1976, “Foreplay/Long Time,” “Peace of Mind,” and “More Than a Feeling*”) still feels like the creative peak. Full disclosure: I barely looked into either Third Stage, never mind 1994’s Walk On, and on the grounds that Boston’s time had passed.
My Favorite Anecdote
As Scholz bravely confessed, the inspiration for “Mary Ann” came from an older cousin Scholz had a crush on when he was 8 or 9 years old. Given the timing, I’m willing to give him a pass.
Why They Didn’t Make the Island
I struggle with Boston because too much of Scholz’ music sounds the same - something that could come from my own shitty ear just as much as repetition. I chose the one track I did from Third Stage – “We’re Ready” – precisely for its slight tonal differences with Boston’s earlier music, whether reining in the trebles or leaving a little more dead-air in the production. That gets at another fun detail: the song “Let Me Take You Home Tonight,” is a rare example of song that didn’t come from Scholz; that more roots-based tune came from Delp, and it’s enough to make you wonder what a different balance would have sounded like
The Most Famous Line-Up: Tom Scholz on everything (and all production), but also Brad Delp (vox/guitar), Barry Goudreau (guitar), and, later, Sib Hashian (drums), and Fran Sheehan (bass).
What You Need to Know
“I was just writing the kind of music I wanted to hear.”
Tom Scholz developed the material that became Boston’s first album in his basement, with him playing, recording, and crucially manipulating the production to get the sound he was after. He financed the whole thing through a day-job with Polaroid and, no matter how many record executives tried to flush Scholz out of the various basements he created, he never produced a Boston album anywhere outside the basement studios he built for himself wherever he settled down. And that’s the real point of interest in all this: Scholz has as many technical achievements as he has musical ones. When he couldn’t figure out how to get a sound out of the equipment he had, he made new equipment – all of them analog, notably, a point of pride he advertised on some Boston albums. And he really did some incredible stuff with this – specifically, the guitar sound, which, one person interviewed in that “Behind the Music” described as “crunchy guitar that sounded almost three-dimensional.” By my (untrained) ear, he did the same thing with Delp’s vocals – i.e., adding layers to them to make his voice sound like a chorus. When Scholz needed a physical band to record final demos or for the “showcase” he arranged to secure a recording contract to put out six albums in 10 years, he called in connections he made playing in bands during college (e.g., Freehold and Mother’s Milk). Scholz creative process/perfectionism made that rate of production laughably unrealistic - he never got over the b-side of Boston’s rushed (for him) second album, Don’t Look Back (1978) - and a major lawsuit inevitably followed when he insisted on taking his own damn time for a third album. That album, Third Stage, finally came out in 1986 and produced one monster hit (“Amanda”), but Boston’s history basically dries up there (and gets a little weird; see the final minutes of that “Behind the Music” linked to below).
Because Boston is based on Scholz’s singular vision, it’s probably worth taking a little time on Scholz’ influences. He grew up listening to and (I think) playing classic music. According to the “BtM” documentary, The Kinks were the first rock band he really liked – and he did branch out from there – but, if two things stand out about Boston musically, it’s the intricate structure of the songs and, most of all the production. The success of the band’s first, best-known album (1976, “Foreplay/Long Time,” “Peace of Mind,” and “More Than a Feeling*”) still feels like the creative peak. Full disclosure: I barely looked into either Third Stage, never mind 1994’s Walk On, and on the grounds that Boston’s time had passed.
My Favorite Anecdote
As Scholz bravely confessed, the inspiration for “Mary Ann” came from an older cousin Scholz had a crush on when he was 8 or 9 years old. Given the timing, I’m willing to give him a pass.
Why They Didn’t Make the Island
I struggle with Boston because too much of Scholz’ music sounds the same - something that could come from my own shitty ear just as much as repetition. I chose the one track I did from Third Stage – “We’re Ready” – precisely for its slight tonal differences with Boston’s earlier music, whether reining in the trebles or leaving a little more dead-air in the production. That gets at another fun detail: the song “Let Me Take You Home Tonight,” is a rare example of song that didn’t come from Scholz; that more roots-based tune came from Delp, and it’s enough to make you wonder what a different balance would have sounded like
Other Featured Songs: I also added "Don't Look Back"
(LIVE!) but only as an act of hostility; that sounds so, so very
Boston; the same goes for another successful single from the same album, "A Man I'll Never Be." It's the same gimmicks, the same vague uplift that defines some part of arena rock. That’s not the kind of thing one takes to a desert
island, because until the end of your life? Seriously?
Most Boston Song: “More Than a Feeling,” and sorry for being boring.
Sources
Wikipedia
Most Boston Song: “More Than a Feeling,” and sorry for being boring.
Sources
Wikipedia
Behind the Music (actually a Japanese/reverential documentary on Boston).
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