Boston (1976)

My summer listening this year is heavily slanted towards 1976, so when I've seen 40-year-old albums in the used CD bins lately, I've been picking them up (expect more in the coming weeks). So while I already owned 5 of these 8 tracks on a Boston compilation disc, here ya go. It's been a blast rolling down the windows in my truck and blasting this music while wearing aviator shades. I'd love to have the wind blowing in my long hair, but that ship sailed long ago as I now need to wear a hat to protect my scalp from the sun. But I digress.

If the term "Corporate Rock" wasn't invented for Boston, the group probably had a hand in it. No matter. Yes, all Boston songs sound pretty much the same, but since I dig said sound, no harm done. The Cars like to joke that they released their greatest hits album as their debut album. Same could easily be said about this album. Tom Scholz usually gets all the Boston press, but Brad Delp had one of the greatest, high-flying voices in rock and roll. It slowly became popular to ridicule the group for its formulaic, arena rock, but contrary to that particular line of revisionist history, many critics originally liked the album.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone: "Boston surfaces from the melting pot as a refreshingly original band."
• Robert Christgau (C): "When informed that someone has achieved an American synthesis of Led Zeppelin and Yes, all I can do is hold my ears and say gosh."
• Record World: "fame will not be localized for long"
• High Fidelity: "we will be hearing more from Boston"
• CashBox: "an extremely impressive debut effort"
• Billboard: "an unusually auspicious debut"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #3
• CashBox: #2
• Billboard Pop CD: #5
• CashBox Top CD: #4

Tracks: All tracks are solid and still in rotation on classic rock stations - yes, all 8. Three hit the Top 40 and if Billboard had a rock chart back then, this album and its songs would have been all over that one, too. My favorite cut is the rockin' boogie Smokin', the b-side to More Than A Feeling with a sweet organ solo, but there's nothing to skip. Like my friend Ron Popeil says, "Set it and forget it!"

Exclusive CD longbox photo courtesy of
Dirk Digglinator of the Hambonian Archives.

This album got the band nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy Award. They famously lost to the Starland Vocal Band.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: (stolen from a previous post): Anytime I hear Boston music, I'm back in Odessa in the '70s: Winwood Mall, UTPB, summers at the country club pool, Permian football games, the Ector movie theater, etc. The picture below is of my childhood home, taken in August 1978, weeks before my family moved from West Texas to the Gulf Coast. That's my mother's 1975 Pontiac Catalina in the carport.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Greatest Hits (1997)
Don't Look Back (1978)