Banger Picks |
Boston"Boston" & "Don't Look Back" Two landmark albums digitally remastered from original tapes by band founder/mastermind Tom Scholz - for the first time! New liner notes by Tom Scholz and Rolling Stone's David Wild reveal secrets of two albums with a lifetime sales of nearly 25 million. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Boston's release, digipaks of both albums are now in stores on Epic/Legacy. Three decades after the Bicentennial summer of 1976 that brought the band and the phenomenon simply titled "Boston," the benchmark 17 million selling debut LP and its 7 million selling 1978 follow up, "Don't Look Back," remain two of the most enigmatic case studies of the modern rock era. Unjustly vilified as exemplars of so called "corporate rock," they were, in fact, essentially the same basement tapes that mastermind Tom Scholz had originally submitted as demos, whose commercial release fooled the company gatekeepers in one of rock's great deceptions. Thirty years later, those master tapes have been digitally remastered, for the first time, by Scholz himself and the mysteries of "Boston" and "Don't Look Back" are laid bare for history to reconsider. Expanded editions of both albums include revelatory liner notes and song by song music credits written by Scholz and Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild. "Boston" was a full blown once in a lifetime event, in the right place at the right time as an alternative to the disco and nascent punk rock movements of 1976. Certified RIAA gold one month after its appearance on the Billboard 200 albums chart and platinum one month later, it spent a solid two and a half years (132 weeks) on the list. Three memorable singles were spun off, "More Than A Feeling" (which reached #5 on the Hot 100), "Long Time" (#22) and "Peace Of Mind" (#38). Nearly two years elapsed until the release of the long awaited second album, "Don't Look Back," for which Scholz did not alter his creative method, as he once again recorded all the tracks in his basement. Scholz, who holds a Masters degree in mechanical engineering from M.I.T., had been employed as a senior product designer at nearby Polaroid. At the same time, he had worked his way through a succession of rock bands in the Boston area before success came his way. But working away in his basement, the "mad scientist/guitar god" (as Wild characterizes his reputation back then) was able to put his musical talent and technological savvy together in the pursuit of his rock and roll muse. "Don't Look Back" isn't a departure from, but a consolidation of, the sound introduced on Boston's dazzling debut album," wrote Ken Emerson in his Rolling Stone review, cited by Wild. "Once again, mastermind Tom Scholz has marshaled a Mormon Tabernacle Choir of guitars, reworking almost imperceptibly his rich weave of ringing acoustic tones, piercing electric notes and low register but high voltage riffs." The 2nd album shipped platinum with one million plus copies out the door, and was somehow certified by the RIAA on August 25th, 1978, even before it debuted on the Billboard chart (issue dated September 2nd.) Two weeks later, it reached the #1 spot where it stayed for two weeks, on its way to a 45 week stay on the chart. Like its predecessor, it spun off three hit singles, "Don't Look Back" (which rose to #4), "A Man I'll Never Be" (#31) and "Feelin' Satisfied" (#46). If the second album did not quite have the impact of the first, Wild surmises, "If some folks at the time were ever so slightly disappointed, it may have been simply because it turns out that you really can't lose your virginity twice." It was not until nearly a decade later, on October 30th, 1986, concurrent with the release of Boston's "Third Stage" album, their first for MCA, that the first two Epic LPs were re-certified by the RIAA, for 9x platinum and 4x platinum, respectively. Since then, the debut was re-certified for 17x platinum and the follow up was re-certified in 1996 for 7x platinum. |