Whenever I have someone visit, especially someone musically-inclined, I ask what they might like to hear on my system in my audio room. My uncle, who was a pretty good rock guitarist back in the day, is coming at the end of this month. Here’s how I put it in a text:
“So I have this amazing sound room and system - honestly on a scale of 1 to 10 of amazing sound rooms/systems, it’s probably a solid 6, but it sure is fun. So tell me at some point in advance what tracks you might like to hear in this environment. I can promise you that I will have my hands full boring you to tears with my selections, so it works out a lot better for you if YOU have things you’d like to hear. Better yet, if they are recordings you know well BECAUSE you thought they were high-level recordings - you know, like Pink Floyd or Steely Dan.”
He came back with the Moody Blues album “Days of Future Passed” - not surprised - but then he said Boston. OK, I was never a huge Boston fan, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard them brought up in audiophile discussions. I hope I’m wrong, for my uncle’s sake.
Do you have any favorite Boston cuts from a creative audio standpoint? if not, I can hold my nose for a few cuts, but it would sure be better to have some audio-focused examples.
I can’t say “creative standpoint”, but there is a story with the song “Amanda” from their album Third Stage. Years ago, Boston had made 2 albums, did a little more creating of music, then stopped. There was no 3rd album, and there wasn’t going to be. A rock station that I listened to was going off the air and would be changing music formats and station name. They had a demo song from Boston that was going to never be released, that song was called Amanda. Figuring they had nothing to lose, they played the demo song on air. The station received many positive calls from listeners that they added the song into rotation before the station went off the air.
Thanks Scotte the First. Yeah, no accounting for taste, and it’s not like I consider Boston “pablum,” it just hasn’t put a big enough bleep on my radar for whatever reason. I did do a little more research on “audiophile Boston” and apparently there are people who consider their eponymous first album to be of high quality from a recording standpoint. I also read, though, that their producer did an “end-around” to record and mix it in his home studio to sound more “like the demo.” Not sure how true all that is, or whether I have it right, but it sounds to me that similar to many other musicians, like Bruce Springsteen, a rougher-hewn / less “audio-perfect” sound identifies better with the audience they want to appeal most to.
More Than a Feeling is an impressive recording iirc, though i haven’t listened to it for years.
Tom Scholz was big into electronics and production etc.
I guess I’m learning that I need to go back and listen to a bit of Boston! Part of my problem is that I was one of the few in my childhood who actually LIKED and respected what my parents listened to. I was already a big jazz and classical music fan during my earliest years. I was a latecomer to rock, so it’s never been my “go to” genre. But like a lot of my friends, when I did choose to listen to rock, I cared about a certain level of musical quality - not just what was popular. So for many groups throughout rock, my listening to them is a new experience, to where I frequently shout, “OMG - so it’s them that did that song!”
I love stories like that. But am I understanding correctly that their song “Amanda” was never released? I just found it on YouTube, but I think I’ve actually heard that song before, so I must be missing something here.
I love the B3. Back in my recording days, we had the privilege of recording one of Atlanta’s best black church choirs. They brought their own Hammond B3 and our engineer put its Leslie speaker out in the hall so he could isolate the sound. What fun to record!
I don’t think anyone ever wrought more Rock out of a B3.
When listening, you tend to fall into the music and the riffing and it does not seem like its coming from an organ at all – its down-right guitar like at times.
At that time (around 1984/1985) it appeared as if a 3rd album would never be released. The song Amanda was to be on a 3rd album. As of 1984/1985 they had 2 albums, released in 1976 & 1978, and appeared that no new music would ever be released again, until a suprise album release in 1986. The version from the radio and the version on the 3rd album sounded identical.
I can’t think of a more impactful band from the 70’s that got so much mileage out just two studio releases. (Third Stage is kind of fun, but it always seemed like it was pulled together under less than, let me just say, “earnest” circumstances.)
