Boston
In 1976, the “coolest” kids in my high school – meaning those wearing tattered jean jackets, not brand-new Baracutas – owned at least three of the “coolest” albums released that year: Aerosmith‘s Rocks, Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same, Queen’s A Day at the Races, The Doobie Brothers’ Takin’ It to the Streets, Steve Miller Band’s Fly Like an Eagle, KISS’s Destroyer, Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive! and ELO’s A New World Record.
But the 1976 release they all had without fail – the very “coolest” LP on every “cool” stereo in every “cool” kid’s room and on every “cool” radio station – was Boston’s eponymous debut. Knowing every lyric and every riff of every track by heart was de rigueur for any zit-faced boy who wanted any semblance of respect from his male peers and any chance at some “quality time” (ahem) with any of the “cool” girls.
Though most often classified as “arena rock” or “stadium rock,” Boston’s sound was infinitely more sophisticated than either term implies. The band’s founder, primary songwriter and technical mastermind, MIT grad Tom Scholz, incorporated elements as diverse as Mozart, Muddy, Monk, Mingus and Merseybeat into his painstakingly crafted tunes and his recording techniques were revolutionary in an era when the word “sampling” was used exclusively at wine tastings, never in recording studios. As musicians, engineers and fans have discussed, dissected and debated for some 50 years, the multi-lead guitar harmonies Scholz constructed were simultaneously catchy and complex, which provided the band with an appeal that was a broad as it was deep among the rock ‘n’ roll public.
In hindsight, it’s easy to see how all that, combined with superb songwriting and frontman Brad Delp’s breathtaking vocal range – over 20 years before Auto-Tune hit the market in 1997 – made Boston a band that just had to be discovered, just had to be huge and just had to become exactly what they became: one of the most iconic, commercially successful and internationally renowned acts in rock history.
ORIGINS, MOTHER’S MILK, BRAD DELP, LAST-DITCH EFFORT DEMOS
Boston’s backstory is a classic tale of passion and persistence overcoming rejection. It begins in 1969, when the Toledo-born Scholz, who studied piano from age seven to nine but is self-taught on guitar and bass, was a junior at MIT and wrote his first song, “Foreplay,” an instrumental that was on Boston’s debut album. In 1970/’71, he was in the band Freehold with guitarist Barry Goudreau of Lynnfield and drummer Jim Masdea of Worcester; the trio cut a demo of “Foreplay” in Masdea’s basement using a taping system Scholz rigged based on his experience at Polaroid, where he’d recently taken a job as a design engineer. By 1972, Scholz was booking studio time to make demos on which he played everything but drums (played by Masdea) and sending them to record labels.
After being rejected by every label he’d approached, Scholz concluded that booking professional studios was a waste of money, and in 1973 he and Masdea, joined Goudreau in Mother’s Milk, which went through several lead singers before Danvers native Brad Delp auditioned. Realizing that the new vocalist’s four-octave range perfectly suited his guitar orchestrations, Scholz started writing prolifically and the pair cut new tunes in Scholz’s basement, with Delp laying down both the lead vocals and harmonies over Scholz’s guitar, bass and keyboards tracks.
By 1974, however, with few paying gigs and still no label interest, Scholz had all but given up his dream of being a full-time musician. In what became a life-changing act of desperation, he bought a soon-to-be obsolete 12-track tape recorder – 24-track was becoming the de facto standard – and planned to record new demos, send them to major labels, then sell all of his recording equipment if he was rejected again. Playing every instrument except for drums, again played by Masdea, Scholz overdubbed parts using his next-level multi-tracking skills before Delp added the vocals.
MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT, REVISED LINEUP
In September 1975, Scholz mailed the six-song demo to Capitol, Atlantic, Elektra, RCA and Epic. Having resigned himself to spending his next years at Polaroid, he was ecstatic when three labels showed interest and when Paul Ahern, an LA-based promo man for Geffen, and his associate Charlie McKenzie, a Warner Bros.’ promo rep for New England, assured him that they could get Scholz an audition in front of Epic’s key decision makers on three conditions: first, he and Delp had to sign a management contract with Ahern and McKenzie; second, Scholz needed a full band; and third, he had to replace Masdea with a different drummer.
Scholz was extremely skeptical – Epic had already rejected the demo with a terse letter saying it “offered nothing new” – but, seeing no other options, he and Delp signed a management agreement with McKenzie and Ahern and assembled the rest of the original lineup: Goudreau on guitar, Fran Sheehan of Swampscott on bass and Dave Currier of Melrose on drums; Currier played at the Epic audition but left the band before they signed with the label, replaced with Boston native Sib Hashian.
EPIC AUDITION, SIGNING, SECRET RECORDING ARRANGEMENT
In mid-November 1975, the band performed for Epic executives in a Boston warehouse that Aerosmith used for rehearsals, then heard nothing from the label until late December. Thunder struck in the form of Epic’s Director of East Coast A&R, Lennie Petze , a Weymouth native with enormous influence at the label who was not at the November audition, who took one listen to the demo and signed the band immediately. “They had been passed on by Epic before but as soon as I heard this demo tape, I said it was the biggest band in the world,” he said in 2022. The deal was for 10 albums over six years, with Scholz and Delp being the only band members named on the contract.
Epic insisted that the demo tracks be re-recorded in a professional studio, but Scholz was convinced that he could only achieve “his” sound by working in his basement studio and – under a secret arrangement with producer John Boylan – Scholz ended up recording all the tracks there, sharing a producer credit with Boylan on the album. As a result, though Boston’s debut was mixed in Los Angeles, it was recorded in a basement in the Boston suburb of Watertown; the press immediately labeled Scholz “rock’s mad scientist” for his engineering genius.
DEBUT ALBUM, FIRST TOUR, DON’T LOOK BACK, EPIC LEGAL DISPUTE
On August 25, 1976, the band’s first LP, Boston, hit the shelves and became the fastest-selling debut album for any American group, going platinum within three months. It remained in the Billboard 200 for 132 weeks, peaking at #3, and three singles became top-40 hits. Hitting the road, the band opened for Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult and Foghat before headlining a tour, becoming unquestionably the hottest group out of Boston since The J. Geils Band and Aerosmith. They won a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and in April 1977 became the first band to make their New York City debut at Madison Square Garden.
In 1978, the band recorded its second album, Don’t Look Back, which reached #4 in the Billboard 200, with the title track becoming a top-five hit and two other singles reaching the top 50. The album sold four million copies within one month and Boston hit the road again, this time paired with major-venue acts including AC/DC, Sammy Hagar, the Doobie Brothers and Van Halen.
Don’t Look Back’s release was also the start of an 11-year legal dispute between Scholz and Epic, initiated when the label filed a $60 million suit against Scholz alleging breach of contract for not delivering Don’t Look Back on time. Scholz said the label had pressured him to release the album before it was ready – calling the record “ridiculously short” because “it needed another song” – and in 1990 a judge ruled in Scholz’s favor.
THIRD STAGE, DELP’S DEPARTURE, WALK ON, DELP’S RETURN
In 1986, eight years after Don’t Look Back, MCA issued Boston’s third LP, Third Stage, with Scholz and Delp being the only original band members playing on the album. The record sold four million and reached #1 in the Billboard 200 while the soaring power ballad “Amanda” became Boston’s highest-charting single, holding at #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 for two consecutive weeks, the band’s only Billboard #1. While touring to support the album, in August 1987 the band held an unprecedented nine-show run at the Centrum in Worcester (now DCU Center).
Delp left the group in 1990, making Scholz the only original remaining band member. He replaced Delp with Fran Cosmo, who had been lead vocalist for Barry Goudreau’s band Orion the Hunter, and Delp joined Goudreau’s new band, RTZ. In 1994 – another eight years in the waiting – MCA released Boston’s fourth album, Walk On, which went to #7 in the Billboard 200 and produced the hit “I Need Your Love,” which reached #4 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Later that year, Delp returned to the group and Scholz and Delp made their first reunited appearance at the House of Blues in Cambridge. The group toured in 1995 with Cosmo and Delp sharing vocals.
CORPORATE AMERICA, LIFE, LOVE & HOPE, DELP, HASHIAN DEATHS
In 1997, Epic/Legacy issued Boston: Greatest Hits, featuring songs originally released on both Epic and MCA, plus three previously unreleased tracks; the LP sold over two million copies. In 1998, Scholz began working on Boston’s fifth album, Corporate America, recorded with four new members joining Scholz, Delp and Cosmo, which independent label Artemis released in 2002. Tragedy struck in 2007 when 55-year-old Delp died by suicide.
In 2013, Frontiers Records released Boston’s sixth album, Life, Love & Hope, begun in 2002, and the group toured North America and Japan, followed in 2015 by another tour and original drummer Sib Hashian’s death in 2017 at age 67. Asked in 2018 if he had any plans to record a seventh Boston album at some point, the ever meticulous but equally affable Scholz made it clear that doing so wasn’t out of the question. “Who knows? I’m only 70. I figure I’ve got 30 years,” he said.
(by D.S. Monahan)
