The group first formed in the mind of Tom Scholz, who had long expressed interest in melodic rock and the fine particulars of recording technology. Even as a child, he tinkered with just about anything mechanical or electronic that he could get his hands on. Prior to his musical career, Scholz received both a bachelor's degree, in 1969, and a master's degree, in 1970, in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then began working for the Polaroid Corporation as a senior product design engineer. Scholz would then reside in Boston.
Creating demos in his own home, inspired by contemporary 70s progressive rock and what came to be known as "album oriented rock" ("aor"), Scholz attracted the interest of Epic Records, who signed Scholz to a recording contract. Vocalist Brad Delp, who was born in Peabody, Massachusetts in 1951 (Scholz is about four years older) to French-Canadian immigrants and was inspired to sing after seeing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, served as a sort of not-so secret weapon for Scholz's project. Delp's "golden voice" has inspired numerous later rock artists to take up the microphone.
Scholz believed that his demos were good enough to be the released album but Epic told him to rerecord them. Most of the guitar, bass, and keyboards were performed by Scholz, although other players were involved sporadically throughout the recording of the album. Epic did not want the album recorded entirely in Scholz's home as Scholz intended (they suggested using a recording studio), but most of what ended up on the album was ultimately recorded by Scholz in his basement.
'Boston' was first released by Epic Records on August 25, 1976. Few industry insiders thought a guitar-heavy rock record could make much of a dent in the charts as disco ruled the airwaves at the time. The album broke out of Cleveland first, and the following week it had been added at 392 stations. Scholz, then 29, still worked at Polaroid during the first few weeks of the record's success and felt wary, changing his mind when the album quickly sold 200,000 copies. Critical praise also came to the band; for example, Rolling Stone wrote that Boston's "affinity for heavy rock & roll provides a sense of dynamics that coheres magnetically with sophisticated progressive structures."
The album was certified gold just two months after its release, and it sold another 500,000 copies within 30 days, going platinum for the first time in November 1976. With songs that became rock anthems such as the evergreen "More Than a Feeling", 'Boston' is the second best-selling debut album of all time in the United States, falling just short of Guns N' Roses' 'Appetite for Destruction'. Many critics have named it as one of the best American albums of all time. Its popularity was not only huge, but also durable: into the 2000s it was believed to be the only 1970s album that still had every single track in regular rotation on classic rock radio.
With a touring unit coming together around the line-up of Barry Goudreau, Tom Scholz, Sib Hashian, Brad Delp, and Fran Sheehan, the band played to a wide variety of crowds big and small, receiving strong fan support. Feeling an essentially unbearable amount of pressure to come up with another commercial mega-hit, Scholz still desired to experiment with his sound and had a growing sense of perfectionism. 'Don't Look Back' came out on August 2, 1978, viewed by Scholz as a hurried effort but picking up widespread success. It's been certified as multi-platinum, and its title track has become a classic rock staple.
Acrimonious fighting with label Epic Records, which soon became a long, drawn-out legal fight, left the future of the band stalled. Their next work, 'Third Stage' , came out in September 23, 1986, quite a while after their sophomore work. Bad luck and ill-will seemed to trail the group, with floods and power failures halting many studio sessions. Still, the album went to #1 on the Billboard 200, where it stayed for four weeks.
In addition, 'Third Stage' was only the second album to ever be certified triple-platinum in its first month of release, in November of 1986. As stated before, the first was Lionel Richie's 'Dancing On The Ceiling', which did it one month earlier. Nonetheless, Boston seemed to have gotten stuck.
On March 9th, 2007, Brad Delp (vocals) committed suicide at his home in Atkinson, New Hampshire. He was 55. Delp sang all the lead and harmony vocals on Boston's first three albums. Though well known for his "golden" voice with soaring vocals and range, Delp was also a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, harmonica and keyboards. Additionally he wrote or co-wrote several songs for Boston and many other artists.
More than 10 years in the making, Boston came out with a new studio album, "Life, Love & Hope" in 2013. Founding member, Tom Scholz stated, "These are songs from the heart, each of them taking many months of effort to write, arrange, perform and record, always up to the demands of Boston's harshest critic, me. They have all been meticulously recorded to analog tape on the same machines and equipment used for Boston's hits for the past 35 years."
The band, with Scholz and a new lineup, toured extensively in 2016-2017.
Boston's web site is at www.bandboston.com
04.Rock and Roll Band
Boston Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On the road to try to make ends meet
Playin' all the bars, sleepin' in our cars
And we practiced right on out in the street
No, we didn't have much money
We barely made enough to survive
But when we got up on stage and got ready to play
People came alive
Rock and roll band
Everybody's waitin'
Gettin' crazy
Anticipating love and music
Play, play, play, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Dancin' in the streets of Hyannis
We were getting pretty good at the game
People stood in line and didn't seem to mind
You know everybody knew our name
Livin' on rock-n-roll music
Never worry 'bout the things we were missing
When we got up on the stage and got ready to play
Everybody'd listen.
Rock and roll band
Everybody's waitin'
Gettin' crazy
Anticipating love and music
Play, play, play, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Playin' for a week in Rhode Island
A man came to the stage one night
He smoked a big cigar
Drove a Cadillac car
And said, boys, I think this bands outta-sight
Sign a record company contract
You know I've got great expectations
When I hear you on the car radio
You're goin' to be a sensation
Rock and roll band
Everybody's waitin'
Gettin' crazy
Anticipating love and music
Play, play, play, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Boston's song "Rock and Roll Band" tells the story of a group of musicians from the city of Boston who were trying to make it big in the music industry. The band was struggling to survive, playing at various bars and practicing on the streets. Despite the lack of money, when the band got on stage, they gave their all and the audience was captivated by their music. The lyrics show the band's love for music and their dedication to it, even if it meant sacrificing everything else they possessed.
The song takes listeners on a journey of the band's rise to fame. In the beginning, they played in the streets of Boston and slowly started getting better at their craft. As they played more shows, they garnered quite a bit of attention, and people started standing in line to see their performances. Finally, an opportunity to sign a record label contract presents itself, and they were determined to be successful. The lyrics demonstrate that making it in the music industry is not an overnight success, and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, we were just another band out of Boston
We were a typical band from Boston trying to make it big.
On the road to try to make ends meet
We toured around to make enough money to survive.
Playin' all the bars, sleepin' in our cars
We performed at various bars and had to sleep in our vehicles.
And we practiced right on out in the street
We rehearsed outside in the open air.
No, we didn't have much money
We had very little money.
We barely made enough to survive
We just had enough to get by.
But when we got up on stage and got ready to play
We shone when we performed live.
People came alive
The audience was energized by our music.
Rock and roll band
Our band played rock and roll music.
Everybody's waitin'
The crowd was eagerly anticipating our performance.
Gettin' crazy
The audience was getting wild and enthusiastic.
Anticipating love and music
They were looking forward to experiencing a great show with love and music.
Play, play, play, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
We played our music with enthusiasm and high energy.
Dancin' in the streets of Hyannis
Our performance was lively and energetic.
We were gettin' pretty good at the game
Our band was improving with experience.
People stood in line and didn't seem to mind
People were willing to wait in line to see our band play and seemed to enjoy it.
You know everybody knew our name
We were becoming recognized and known in the music scene.
Livin' on rock-n-roll music
Our lives revolved around playing rock and roll music.
Never worry 'bout the things we were missing
We didn't worry about the things we didn't have because we were passionate about our music.
When we got up on the stage and got ready to play
We truly shone when we played live.
Everybody'd listen
The audience would pay attention to our music and enjoy it.
Playin' for a week in Rhode Island
We were playing at a venue in Rhode Island for a whole week.
A man came to the stage one night
One evening, a man approached us on stage.
He smoked a big cigar
The man was puffing on a large cigar.
Drove a Cadillac car
He was driving a fancy Cadillac car, so he must have had money.
And said, boys, I think this band's outta sight
The man praised our band, saying we were amazing.
Sign a record company contract
He offered us a contract with a record company.
You know I've got great expectations
He had high hopes for us and believed we could be successful.
When I hear you on the car radio
He envisioned our music being played on the radio.
You're goin' to be a sensation
He was convinced that we were going to become famous.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: DONALD T. SCHOLZ
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
JDE Entertainment
Just shows that were not machines were people and we're only as good as the next time we perform again! They still tore it up
David Hall
They had a great lineup of musicians on that tour. Great to see Brad and Fran singing together.
Guitarwrist
how can a guy like that with that much talent take his own life jeez man his voice has stayed awesome for 40 yrs
Colin Frecknall
hahahaha love the mess up in the intro. Damn brad's got some pipes!
Jake Taylor
Allot of people don't know how hard Boston songs are to sing.
DKDonson
Mr Delp sure was a great singer
Ernie Leblanc: Into the Bass
BASS: Kimberley Dahme
Song - LOVE the Song!
Root-cause for mediocre performance: Studio Band Sponsored by Vanilla Boch.
Andrew Griffith
Put it on x1.25 it sounds much better. Slightly a little too fast but sounds much better
Mark Carpowich
I don't know if this explains the false start at the beginning, but I was at this show, and before the band came on, some guy sitting in the front row jumped on stage and waved to the crowd before security chased him to the back. He re-emerged about 30 seconds later, with people cheering because they thought he'd broken free, then picked up a guitar and started playing the opening chords. It was the guy in the bandana, who was really in the band. Cool prank, but might have thrown them off a bit.
Mark Carpowich
Hi Mike, I have to admit that even though I’ve heard that debut album a million times, I didn’t recognize Tom. I just thought it was a fun moment and wanted to share what happened. Thanks for the info about Tom — I knew he wrote the songs but didn’t know he played almost all the instruments!