Just Another Band Out of Boston

The story is well known - A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, employed as a product design engineer for the Polaroid Corporation, created an album in a basement studio that he had built himself, using new recording technology that he had invented. He worked mostly alone, obsessing over every detail in the music. And he did this for more than five years before the album was complete.

Tom Scholz was leading a dual life as the mastermind behind the band Boston. All but one track of Boston’s debut album was created in Scholz basement. It’s a classic, landmark album, immaculately crafted and full of great songs. The "Boston sound" combines "big, giant melodic hooks" with "massively heavy, classically-inspired guitar parts." And it was released on this day in 1976.

Kicking off with “More Than A Feeling” a melodic, bittersweet ballad that crescendos into a wave of rock guitars. Scholz wrote the lyrics based on the idea of losing someone close, and on the way in which music can connect a person to memories of the past.

The second track, “Peace of Mind” may be my favorite and it’s not just because of the groovy tambourine at the beginning of the song. The fantastic harmonizing of the band takes center stage. Scholz wrote it specifically about his time at Polaroid and the people who worked there with him. Boston lead singer Brad Delp cited "Peace of Mind" as an example of how Scholz was able to combine the vocal harmonies of the Beach Boys with the heavy guitar sound of Led Zeppelin.

The third and last track on the physical first side of the album (3 songs on one side of an album - amazing!) is the epic “Foreplay/Long Time”. Rolling Stone Magazine described the song as "a perfect marriage of Led Zeppelin and Yes that plays musical chairs with electric and acoustic sounds.

With debut albums, I feel like the later you get into them, the weaker the songs - not so here. Most of these songs are FM-classics and yet, I don’t tire of hearing them. The rockin’ “Smokin’”, the gorgeous “Hitch a Ride” and closing out with the folk-like “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” (the only song written by someone other than Scholz - it was written by lead singer Brad Delp).

On this Throwback Thursday, hitch a ride back to 1976 and enjoy this classic. I’d rank it in the top ten of debut albums of all time.