Boston (1976)

US #3 UK #11

hit singles:
"More Than A Feeling" US #5 UK #22
"Long Time" US #22
"Peace Of Mind" US #38

All songs written and composed by Tom Scholz, except where noted.

Side one
1. "More Than a Feeling" 4:44
2. "Peace of Mind" 5:02
3. "Foreplay/Long Time" 7:47

Side two
1. "Rock and Roll Band" 2:59
2. "Smokin'" (Scholz, Brad Delp) 4:22
3. "Hitch a Ride" 4:12
4. "Something About You" 3:48
5. "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" (Delp) 4:44

Ah-a nice, short discography to review this time!
Boston is easily one of the greatest debut albums ever for so many reasons and this is not hindsight-how the hell could every label reject these songs? Scholz's demos which essentially WERE the album were incredible. The arrangements, the melodies, the hooks and the songs themselves are pure genius.
Everything is so well crafted it's ridiculous.
Amazing that ALL 9 songs became radio staples and there were 3 hit singles. I remember being so thrilled to learn all the guitar harmonies on "Peace Of Mind" in High School and I still love playing that song on guitar. Everything about that song is awesome.
I also think "Hitch A Ride" has one of the greatest guitar solos in Rock history. And what about those guitar tones? Man, each note is exquisite. "Long Time" features stunning guitar sounds on the lead and the rhythm. How about all the bass lines many of which were played by Scholz? And the organ playing?
And of course-the voice.
Brad Delp-what can I say?
How can one not feel good listening to this album from start to finish? I listen to it every summer and it still sounds beautiful.
17 million sold-not a shabby start!

I was in high school when this album came out. I never actually owned it but you didn't have to because it was everywhere. Hard enough for the rockers but with plenty of hooks for the popsters. And it was influential too ... just ask Nirvana.

I think to truly make this a Boston thread, you should post one album every eight days or so.



Yeah, being from New England and growing up not far from the band's namesake city, you couldn't escape this album if you listened to album rock radio. There's really nothing to find fault with here, because for all of Tom Scholz's obsessive laboring, it yielded...results, to say the least.

Everything just melded together. Delp's soaring voice combined with Scholz's madness on the guitar and keyboards was a match made in heaven. I thought the album's 8 songs (yes, Pete, it's eight ) being on rock radio was because they were local boys, but I guess that translated across the country.

I remember always seeing that album cover in the racks and thought it looked cool, but I didn't start buying Boston albums until the CD era. Luckily,it didn't take long to get the rest of the catalog as there were only three albums available at that time.

In a way, this album could be reissued as Boston's Greatest Hits if you think about it.

Every eight days? Why so often?

I first got this album on 8-track with my first stereo. Awesome album. Add a song or three from "Don't Look Back" and you've got it pretty much covered.

Alan

Good one Chris-I should actually do an album every 8 YEARS!
I do consider this 9 songs as "Foreplay" is a seperate song to me. And really, if they can list "The Journey" as a seperate song on Don't Look Back and that's nothing, than yes, "Foreplay" is a seperate song to me, especially as the single eliminated it.
Apples/oranges/peanut butter/jelly!

Pete, you have to labor obsessively over each post as well -- you'll have to rewrite some paragraphs 700 times before it's "just right" to you. And even once you've posted it, you'll claim that it's not finished, that you didn't have enough time to work on it.

I had to nit-pick on the number of tracks and I still stand by my post.



And now, back to Pete's Boston albums thread...because you asked for it!

One thing I remember about this debut on lp is it sounded damn good on my stereo, back in the days when you actually listened to an album mainly at home. But thankfully this was a big radio hit so the album seemed to be always on wherever you went in 1976 (I was 16).

I've always wondered how they got that great guitar tone on the album and is Scholtz that good a guitar player?
It is an impeccable peice of work.

"Smokin'" has always been a favorite and nothing beats that opening acoustic guitar in More Than A Feeling.

scholtz: an MIT grad, invented the rockman guitar processor. creating the technology that gave him his unique guitar tone. i still have my rockman.

And to think all those musicians went to Berklee when it was MIT that was producing rock stars.

I used to install my own cheap speakers in my car and I could always tell when one of the speakers crapped out from listening to "Peace Of Mind". There's a section in the song when the guitars alternate speakers and that was always the test. This is one of those albums that sounds good on almost any player, radio, home stereo or other.

As I recall he also had part of one of the Kodak instamatic patents.

I loved this album when it came out. And I remember the seemingly eternal 2 years it took for the second album to come after it. Back then, no on ever took two years between albums, especially after such such a monstrous start. Still a great album by any starndard.

This was the first band I saw in concert-- 1978 at the Naval Academy. Pretty great first show!

I think everyone in the United States has owned this album. When I was a cop I was having a conversation with my partner about that very fact. Couldn't have been 2 or 3 nights later that we got a call about a disturbance in an abandoned house, and when we went in - the only items in the entire home were an ashtray and a vinyl copy of Boston's first album.

Also, I hear "Hitch A Ride" differently now that Brad has taken his own life.

The very first album that I bought from a record store, with my own hard-earned money. I still have it, along with the original shrink wrap sticker containing a review from Rolling Stone magazine, which I cut out and tucked inside the album jacket. The back cover has detailed liner notes, and at the end of every paragraph it says "Listen to the record!"

What a great record !! Incredibly catchy tunes, impassioned vocals, and unbelievable guitar sounds. Even the front cover picture was too cool for words! My only complaint is that Brad Delp performed all of the harmony vocals as well as the lead vocals, and the backing vox sound a little too much the same, but this is a very minor point.

I agree that this music sounded fantastic, no matter if it was played on an expensive stereo system, or a car radio speaker!

I saw Boston in concert in April '77, with Rick Derringer opening. Derringer was probably one of the loudest acts I had ever seen, then or now. Boston played most of their debut album, a song or two that we were unfamiliar with (not sure if they were early versions of any song from the second album), and a song that we thought was cover of a late-50's/early-60's minor hit.

Great show, and since it was the 70's, it was "festival seating" with a large cloud of "smoke" hanging over the crowd, trapped inside the civic center arena. A contact high was inevitable

The familiar story says that the album was rejected by several labels. I can't fathom any record executive hearing "More Than a Feeling" in 1976, and not knowing it would be a smash.

Is the remaster of this first album a worthy upgrade over the original CD? I passed on it after Scholz had the version w/the bonus disc stopped.

Alan:
There was no bonus disc-just a few extra tracks on the pulled release. And yes, it sounds dynamite-but there is no way this album has ever NOT sounded dynamite!

Cool - I had it locked in my head it was a full second disc. Now I feel slightly less ripped off! And I never sweated the remaster because, as you said, the original sounds so good.

The bonuses on the short-lived versions of the two CDs are as follows:

"Boston" - "Smokin' (Live)" & "Foreplay/Long Time (Live)"
"Don't Look Back" - "Help Me (Live)"

All live tracks recorded on December 18, 1976.

Needless to say, this was pretty slim pickings as bonuses go. I got both of the CDs because I pre-ordered them. They got shipped to me just before they were pulled. To this day, both of them remain sealed, so I can't tell you about sound quality. I have live versions of these songs via a KBFH CD anyway. I don't know if they're the same versions, but I'm sure they're similar.