Boston’s self-titled first album was their most popular album they released, having sold seventeen million copies to date. This album was probably the most successful because songwriter Tom Scholz spent the most time on this album. The albums after the debut were all on a time limit and Scholz felt rushed. He got to take his time with these songs and it obviously paid off, as the album’s success speaks for itself. The album itself is just over thirty minutes long, but cool guitar solos and stellar vocals are encapsulated in that short amount of time.
The album cover really captures the feelings that come from this album. The cover shows three guitar shaped spaceships fleeing Earth, which looks to be exploding. This guitar ship concept also showed up on later Boston albums. On the top of the spaceships, you can see a city, which I’m assuming is Boston, enclosed in a huge glass dome. The colors on the album cover were very bright and vibrant, reflecting the decade this album is from – the 70s. Along with being a reflection of the decade, the cover gives a visual picture to what the listeners might feel while they listened to the music. The sound of the music is so unique that one might feel like they’re in another dimension. Just as the cover shows Earth exploding, Tom did a great job of breaking the boundaries and finding unique sounds for this album.
Tom Scholz is the mastermind who wrote and produced a majority of the tracks on the album. He had a makeshift studio in his basement where he played all the instruments in the songs, except for percussion. With the help of Brad Delp and his amazing voice, the duo worked tirelessly to produce arguably one of the best albums of the decade. There are many sounds heard in the background of the music that is hard to pinpoint what exactly it is. Tom went to school to become an engineer, which ended up helping him with his musical career because he was able to create certain sounds that he wanted in the music without anyone else’s help. Because he came up with these sounds himself, Boston has a very unique and distinct sound to their music, which is clearly showcased in this album.
Boston is an embodiment of the era it was made in. Drugs were obviously a big thing back in the 70s, so it is no surprise that Boston wrote a song about drugs, infamously called “Smokin’”. People were also big into rock and roll music at the time, and their song “Rock & Roll Band” gives some insight to how rough it can be to start off as a band. On the flip side, the song also highlights the positives of the music business and becoming successful in the career. Being Boston’s first album, Bostonis just comprised of Tom’s best songs so far and I don’t believe there’s any bigger picture for this album. Obviously, the songs are easy to dance to and fun to sing along with, but they have no correlation with one another. There are many songs about love, so I can assume that Tom might have been going through something with a woman, as about half of the songs on the album reference a love and having difficulty telling that special person how you are feeling. Along with this, is possible to assume that the spotlight negatively affected Tom, as “Hitch A Ride” talks about suicide and wanting to leave this world, which is something that many people can relate to, celebrities included. The spotlight can be a bit much to handle sometimes, as seen in the untimely deaths of many celebrities such as Robin Williams, Chester Bennington, and even Boston’s lead vocalist, Brad Delp. This song can resonate with many people because anyone can go through tough times and think negative thoughts. Boston does a great job at layering the vocals and instruments so there are many harmonies being heard. This in itself sounds amazing, in addition to the unique sounds and instruments that Tom masterfully engineered himself.
The album cover really captures the feelings that come from this album. The cover shows three guitar shaped spaceships fleeing Earth, which looks to be exploding. This guitar ship concept also showed up on later Boston albums. On the top of the spaceships, you can see a city, which I’m assuming is Boston, enclosed in a huge glass dome. The colors on the album cover were very bright and vibrant, reflecting the decade this album is from – the 70s. Along with being a reflection of the decade, the cover gives a visual picture to what the listeners might feel while they listened to the music. The sound of the music is so unique that one might feel like they’re in another dimension. Just as the cover shows Earth exploding, Tom did a great job of breaking the boundaries and finding unique sounds for this album.
Tom Scholz is the mastermind who wrote and produced a majority of the tracks on the album. He had a makeshift studio in his basement where he played all the instruments in the songs, except for percussion. With the help of Brad Delp and his amazing voice, the duo worked tirelessly to produce arguably one of the best albums of the decade. There are many sounds heard in the background of the music that is hard to pinpoint what exactly it is. Tom went to school to become an engineer, which ended up helping him with his musical career because he was able to create certain sounds that he wanted in the music without anyone else’s help. Because he came up with these sounds himself, Boston has a very unique and distinct sound to their music, which is clearly showcased in this album.
Boston is an embodiment of the era it was made in. Drugs were obviously a big thing back in the 70s, so it is no surprise that Boston wrote a song about drugs, infamously called “Smokin’”. People were also big into rock and roll music at the time, and their song “Rock & Roll Band” gives some insight to how rough it can be to start off as a band. On the flip side, the song also highlights the positives of the music business and becoming successful in the career. Being Boston’s first album, Bostonis just comprised of Tom’s best songs so far and I don’t believe there’s any bigger picture for this album. Obviously, the songs are easy to dance to and fun to sing along with, but they have no correlation with one another. There are many songs about love, so I can assume that Tom might have been going through something with a woman, as about half of the songs on the album reference a love and having difficulty telling that special person how you are feeling. Along with this, is possible to assume that the spotlight negatively affected Tom, as “Hitch A Ride” talks about suicide and wanting to leave this world, which is something that many people can relate to, celebrities included. The spotlight can be a bit much to handle sometimes, as seen in the untimely deaths of many celebrities such as Robin Williams, Chester Bennington, and even Boston’s lead vocalist, Brad Delp. This song can resonate with many people because anyone can go through tough times and think negative thoughts. Boston does a great job at layering the vocals and instruments so there are many harmonies being heard. This in itself sounds amazing, in addition to the unique sounds and instruments that Tom masterfully engineered himself.
This album overall is very easy to jam out to and perfect to listen to in your car with the windows down. Boston’s sound is very unique and they were definitely stepping out of the boundaries for the era they were in. The album took a lot of hard work and ended up working out for them, as this album shot the band to stardom and gave them the opportunity to produce more music for their fans.
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