The only constant in the band Boston has been guitarist/songwriter/producer extraordinaire Tom Scholz--and considering his contributions, it's only fitting. Boston began in 1975 in Boston, amazingly enough--though honestly it began years earlier in Scholz' basement, where he'd put in his own studio and mixed and recorded most of the songs that appeared on their debut album, playing all of the instruments himself, as well. Despite being rejected by numerous labels, Scholz kept on keeping on and eventually got a record deal with Epic...which lead to their first album becoming the greatest selling debut album in history (since eclipsed by Guns 'n Roses' Appetite for Destruction--still second, though). Forty-four years down the road, Scholz is the only remaining original member (sadly, lead singer Brad Delp committed suicide in 2007, and drummer Sib Hashian--and what a great rock and roll name that is--passed away in 2017), though the band continues to tour and rumor has it, they will be releasing a new record this year. For their career, Boston has released six studio albums, the first four of which went top ten on the Billboard 200, with two of them reaching #1. Surprisingly, they've only released one compilation album (come on guys, you're not trying!). They've also had four top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, sold over 75 million records, and have been nominated for a Grammy. For whatever reason, they've not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is a real shame, especially considering that lightweights such as Rush, Van Halen, and Abba have been.... The band, though, does have a solid legacy, especially as one of the early purveyors of power pop.
Fun Fact #1: In what I'm pretty sure is a Friday Night Jukebox first, Scholz is a graduate of MIT--of which there is undoubtedly a dearth of in the world of rock and roll.
Fun Fact #2: When I was taking guitar lessons eons ago, my first teacher told me that the majority of hit songs were hit songs because the chord structures in them were very simple and people like simple. Along those lines, the bar chords used in the chorus for this week's tune (which are simple enough for a doofus like me to play) also feature prominently in the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and the Offspring's "Self-Esteem."
"More Than a Feeling" was the first single released from Boston's debut album in 1976, entitled appropriately enough, Boston . The single would reach #5 (with a bullet) on the Billboard singles chart, while the album would reach #3 on their albums chart, on its way to selling 17 million copies. That's a career for a lot of folks, let alone one album.
"More Than a Feeling" is one of those songs (though vastly different than) like "Night Moves" by Bob Seger that the older I get the more I appreciate both the song and it's innate greatness. The song works on so many different levels--for one, it's how Scholz manages to make a lead guitar, a rhythm guitar, a bass guitar, and a set of drums sound almost symphonic. There's a fullness to the music that overwhelms the senses. For two, Scholz lead guitar playing is otherworldly, wielding his guitar like a siren in the night wailing out its presence. He doesn't come up often in conversations about great guitarists, but he should. Third is Brad Delp's vocals--the best falsetto this side of the Bee Gees. Finally, it's the song itself--a song about the power of music and its ability to evoke, in this case, the memory of a lost love, and how it can both ease a memory's pain and sharpen its joy. In the end, its been forty-three years since the song's release and if you turned on any classic rock radio station in America, you'd be hard pressed to go more than a day without hearing it once. It's enduring relevance is a legacy unto itself.
Liner Notes: "When I'm tired and thinking cold/I hide in my music, forget the day/And dream of a girl I used to know/I closed my eyes and she slipped away..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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