This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will be featuring a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1976. 1976 was one of the top Years in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from. After 52 Weeks of featuring so many of the great albums that debuted in 1975, next Sunday we will be moving on to another amazing year of ALBUM ROCK EXCELLENCE, 1976.
We hope you’ll tune in at 8:00 PM, Next Sunday, May 17th for “Boston”, the debut studio album by Boston, released on August 25, 1976, by Epic Records.
It was produced by band guitarist Tom Scholz and John Boylan. A multi-instrumentalist and engineer who had been involved in the Boston music scene since the late 1960s, Scholz started to write and record demos in his apartment basement with singer Brad Delp but received numerous rejections from major record labels. The demo tape fell into the hands of CBS-owned Epic, which signed the band in 1975. The album is characterized for its unique blend of electronic effects, the Hammond organ, heavy guitar riffs, and early rock and roll to create what Scholz referred to as the "Boston sound".
Defying Epic Records's insistence on recording the album professionally in Los Angeles, Scholz and Boylan deceived label executives into believing the band was recording on the West Coast, when in reality, the bulk was being tracked solely by Scholz in his Massachusetts home. The album's contents are a complete recreation of the band's demo tape, and contain songs written and composed many years prior. The album's style was developed through Scholz's love for classical music, melodic hooks and early guitar-heavy rock groups such as the Kinks and the Yardbirds, as well as a number of analogue electronic effects developed by Scholz in his home studio. Besides Scholz, who played most of the instruments on nearly all of the tracks, and Delp, other musicians appear on the album, such as drummers Jim Masdea and Sib Hashian, guitarist Barry Goudreau and bassist Fran Sheehan. All except Masdea became full-time band members.
The album was released by Epic in August 1976 and broke sales records, becoming the best-selling debut LP in the US at the time, and winning the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Century Award for the best-selling debut album. The album's singles, "More Than a Feeling", "Peace of Mind" and "Foreplay/Long Time", were major hits, and nearly the entire album receives consistent airplay on album rock radio. The album is often regarded as a staple of 1970s rock and has been included on most lists of essential albums. It has sold at least 17 million copies in the United States alone and at least 20 million worldwide, making it one of the best-selling debut albums of all time.
Boston is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and deservedly so. Because of the rise of disco and punk, FM rock radio seemed all but dead until the rise of acts like Boston, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen. Nearly every song on Boston's debut album could still be heard on album rock radio decades later due to the strong vocals of Brad Delp and unique guitar sound of Tom Scholz. Tom Scholz, who wrote most of the songs, was a studio wizard and used self-designed equipment such as 12-track recording devices to come up with an anthemic "arena rock" sound before the term was even coined. The sound was hard rock, but the layered melodies and harmonics reveal the work of a master craftsman. While much has been written about the sound of the album, the lyrics are often overlooked. There are songs about their rise from a bar band ("Rock and Roll Band") as well as fond remembrances of summers gone by ("More Than a Feeling"). Boston is essential for any fan of album rock, and the album marks the re-emergence of the genre in the 1970s.
Sometimes art transcends reality and this is one of those times. "Normal" people could not have produced a masterpiece such as this. These guys were in another world. The mix of perfect production, soaring vocals, incredible guitar work, and a slight tug at the heart strings place this as one of the greatest rock albums ever.
Tune In and Turn On Sunday evening, May 17th, and every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff”.
