Best thing out of Boston in 1976?

[Mithrandir]

Boston

[Stormtron]

Rocks.

[JohnRogers]

Aerosmith is one of my 3 desert island bands, along with the Doors and the Scorpions.

 

By desert island I mean that I would like to see them stranded on it. And then the military uses it as a weapons testing site.

 

Nuclear weapons.

[Rick N. Backer]

Bahston.

 

It would actually be "Bawston" if you're from Boston. "Bahston" is how people from Western Massachusetts pronounce it.

[stoopid]

Kinda thought this would be closer. Where are all the Aerosmith fans?

 

I like Aerosmith from that era, but the Boston album is one of the best rock albums ever made, any era.

[Lorraine]

Kinda thought this would be closer. Where are all the Aerosmith fans?

Stiff competition. That Boston debut doesn't have a note out of place.

Too true

[J2112YYZ]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

Guess the 70s had a better vocabulary than the 80s. :P

[Rick N. Backer]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

Guess the 70s had a better vocabulary than the 80s. :P

 

I think it's more that people from Boston are smarter than people from New Jersey. ;)

[Texas King]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

I meant musically it is Bon Jovi of the 70's.

[grep]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

Guess the 70s had a better vocabulary than the 80s. :P

 

I think it's more that people from Boston are smarter than people from New Jersey. ;)

 

In the 70's, UNIX, the C programming language, and bunch of other technology was invented at Bell Labs in NJ, by NJ residents. Some of the code they wrote exists in some form or is used to create the software or firmware in just about every device you use today - anything that resembles a computer, or has some kind of logic circuit.

 

That's New Jersey.

 

I'm not going to say that computing started there. But a hell of a lot of the foundation of modern software development and tools did.

Edited May 24, 2019 by grep

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

I meant musically it is Bon Jovi of the 70's.

 

Aw, it's just a joke, Tex.

[Rick N. Backer]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

Guess the 70s had a better vocabulary than the 80s. :P

 

I think it's more that people from Boston are smarter than people from New Jersey. ;)

 

In the 70's, UNIX, the C programming language, and bunch of other technology was invented at Bell Labs in NJ, by NJ residents. Some of the code they wrote exists in some form or is used to create the software or firmware in just about every device you use today - anything that resembles a computer, or has some kind of logic circuit.

 

That's New Jersey.

 

I'm not going to say that computing started there. But a hell of a lot of the foundation of modern software development and tools did.

 

That's great. Here's a list of some relatively important medical advances that occurred here.

 

https://news.aamc.org/research/article/10-discoveries-medical-advancement-boston/

 

We have Harvard. And MIT.

[Three Eyes]

Bahston.

 

It would actually be "Bawston" if you're from Boston. "Bahston" is how people from Western Massachusetts pronounce it.

 

So Bostonians say pawk the caw, not pahk the cah?

[Three Eyes]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

I meant musically it is Bon Jovi of the 70's.

 

Not even that. Bon Jovi's '80s sound was a derivative blend of hard rock and hair metal. In 1976, no one had ever heard anything like Boston's debut. In the world of hard rock, it's really never been equaled. Not even by Tom Scholz. While it's not particularly deep lyrically, its universal themes hit home perfectly with that incredibly big, pristine, earnest sound. Guitars never sounded like they'd come straight from outer space before then, as if recorded with alien technology. That sound had an instantly brandable, polished quality to it which was a strength for the band in the mid to late '70s but ultimately a curse beyond that. Hard rock/metal got meaner, darker and dirtier and Boston started to look like the nice guys trying to fit in with the cool kids (like Aerosmith) at the high school dance. Another reason that sound ultimately hurt Scholz is that there was really nowhere else to go with something that felt that finished. I think that's why subsequent Boston albums pale in comparison to the debut. Heaven is finished and unchangeable and any repetition of it seems redundant not to mention too much of it inevitably starts to feel oppressive.

 

But '70s Aerosmith was no slouch either. The playing and writing was just so nasty and funky how could you not love and respect it? They're one of the most influential hard rock bands ever (much more influential than Boston) and not the least of that influence is the crotch-rock element of their songs. What hyper-sexualized '80s hair metal band wasn't influenced by Aerosmith?

Edited May 25, 2019 by Three Eyes

[invisible airwave]

Aerosmith’s best album

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

I meant musically it is Bon Jovi of the 70's.

 

Not even that. Bon Jovi's '80s sound was a derivative blend of hard rock and hair metal. In 1976, no one had ever heard anything like Boston's debut. In the world of hard rock, it's really never been equaled. Not even by Tom Scholz. While it's not particularly deep lyrically, its universal themes hit home perfectly with that incredibly big, pristine, earnest sound. Guitars never sounded like they'd come straight from outer space before then, as if recorded with alien technology. That sound had an instantly brandable, polished quality to it which was a strength for the band in the mid to late '70s but ultimately a curse beyond that. Hard rock/metal got meaner, darker and dirtier and Boston started to look like the nice guys trying to fit in with the cool kids (like Aerosmith) at the high school dance. Another reason that sound ultimately hurt Scholz is that there was really nowhere else to go with something that felt that finished. I think that's why subsequent Boston albums pale in comparison to the debut. Heaven is finished and unchangeable and any repetition of it seems redundant not to mention too much of it inevitably starts to feel oppressive.

 

But '70s Aerosmith was no slouch either. The playing and writing was just so nasty and funky how could you not love and respect it? They're one of the most influential hard rock bands ever (much more influential than Boston) and not the least of that influence is the crotch-rock element of their songs. What hyper-sexualized '80s hair metal band wasn't influenced by Aerosmith?

 

....erm. I disagree with a few points here.

 

First, Boston was extremely influential on the AOR bands that started taking over the radio. Journey, Styx, Kansas, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Toto..every one of those bands owes part of their commercial success to Boston. Not just for defining the AOR sound (a decidedly pop rock style rooted in prog and hard rock, but groomed and streamlined for radio), but for proving how successful that sound could be. Notice how none of the bands I mentioned saw much commercial success before 1976, the year of Boston. Beyond their immediate influence on the AOR scene, but I dare say that debut upped production standards on rock music across the board, and certainly anything that made it to radio, including the hair metal that would take over during the early 80s. And believe it for not, I've read Kurt Cobain cites More Than A Feeling (and Boston's debut in general) as a major influence, and that style of chordal riffing part of the inspiration behind Smells Like Teen Spirit.

 

Second, but related to the first, The hair metal bands aren't what wiped out Boston's later career. Tom Sholz did that himself. His perfectionism was what lead to the brilliance of that debut, but was also the reason Don't Look Back didn't live up to it. The label forced a second record out of the band before he was finished with it, and the results show this. On the third album (which I haven't heard btw) he was allowed to take all the time he needed, leading him not to release in until 86, long after AOR had passed its prime, and a new Boston record wasn't a very big deal in the public eye. Three albums in 10 years might be fine by today's standards, but it was no recipe for increased success in the 70s and 80s. Aside from Boston, though, AOR thrived well into the 80s. I Want To Know What Love Is from Foreigner, Mr. Roboto from Styx, Separate Ways from Journey, Africa from Toto, and Can't Fight This Feeling from REO Speedwagon soundtracked the first half of the decade for many, right alongside early hair metal records like Shout At The Devil and Pyromania. To my understanding, these same bands would have likely seen greater success in the late 80s if not for most of them splintering apart. Ultimately, AOR didn't get overtaken by hair metal for sounding too "innocent," but mostly its lead artists found themselves incapable of surviving the 80s intact enough to score more hits.

 

I do agree that Aerosmith were on fire in the 70s though, and that they were incredibly influential on rock music for decades to come. I'm not sure they were more influential than Boston, though. To me they're probably equally as important to the development of rock.

[Rick N. Backer]

Bahston.

 

It would actually be "Bawston" if you're from Boston. "Bahston" is how people from Western Massachusetts pronounce it.

 

So Bostonians say pawk the caw, not pahk the cah?

 

No. “AR” is pronounced “AH.” People from Bawston probably prefer the album Rawks. See?

[Three Eyes]

Bahston.

 

It would actually be "Bawston" if you're from Boston. "Bahston" is how people from Western Massachusetts pronounce it.

 

So Bostonians say pawk the caw, not pahk the cah?

 

No. “AR” is pronounced “AH.” People from Bawston probably prefer the album Rawks. See?

 

So the people of Boston say park the car and this whole pahk the cah thing is just a myth?

[Chicken hawk]

Boston

Their songs still play on the radio daily !

[Texas King]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

I meant musically it is Bon Jovi of the 70's.

 

Aw, it's just a joke, Tex.

 

Nope, it's not. Boston was very influential on Bon Jovi. And Peace of Mind is a very poppy and polished hard rock song on the Boston debut and Bon Jovi took that music formula for most of their popular 80's tunes. Anyway, Peace of Mind is better than any Bon Jovi song.

[Three Eyes]

Rocks wins. But Smokin' is probably my favorite song from either record (great keyboard section is heavily influenced by Deep Purple or Jon Lord).

Peace of Mind is 'Bon Jovi' of the 70's though.

 

Woah! Wait a minute. Bon Jovi would never use big words like indecision or competition in their songs.

 

I meant musically it is Bon Jovi of the 70's.

 

Not even that. Bon Jovi's '80s sound was a derivative blend of hard rock and hair metal. In 1976, no one had ever heard anything like Boston's debut. In the world of hard rock, it's really never been equaled. Not even by Tom Scholz. While it's not particularly deep lyrically, its universal themes hit home perfectly with that incredibly big, pristine, earnest sound. Guitars never sounded like they'd come straight from outer space before then, as if recorded with alien technology. That sound had an instantly brandable, polished quality to it which was a strength for the band in the mid to late '70s but ultimately a curse beyond that. Hard rock/metal got meaner, darker and dirtier and Boston started to look like the nice guys trying to fit in with the cool kids (like Aerosmith) at the high school dance. Another reason that sound ultimately hurt Scholz is that there was really nowhere else to go with something that felt that finished. I think that's why subsequent Boston albums pale in comparison to the debut. Heaven is finished and unchangeable and any repetition of it seems redundant not to mention too much of it inevitably starts to feel oppressive.

 

But '70s Aerosmith was no slouch either. The playing and writing was just so nasty and funky how could you not love and respect it? They're one of the most influential hard rock bands ever (much more influential than Boston) and not the least of that influence is the crotch-rock element of their songs. What hyper-sexualized '80s hair metal band wasn't influenced by Aerosmith?

 

....erm. I disagree with a few points here.

 

First, Boston was extremely influential on the AOR bands that started taking over the radio. Journey, Styx, Kansas, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Toto..every one of those bands owes part of their commercial success to Boston. Not just for defining the AOR sound (a decidedly pop rock style rooted in prog and hard rock, but groomed and streamlined for radio), but for proving how successful that sound could be. Notice how none of the bands I mentioned saw much commercial success before 1976, the year of Boston. Beyond their immediate influence on the AOR scene, but I dare say that debut upped production standards on rock music across the board, and certainly anything that made it to radio, including the hair metal that would take over during the early 80s. And believe it for not, I've read Kurt Cobain cites More Than A Feeling (and Boston's debut in general) as a major influence, and that style of chordal riffing part of the inspiration behind Smells Like Teen Spirit.

 

Second, but related to the first, The hair metal bands aren't what wiped out Boston's later career. Tom Sholz did that himself. His perfectionism was what lead to the brilliance of that debut, but was also the reason Don't Look Back didn't live up to it. The label forced a second record out of the band before he was finished with it, and the results show this. On the third album (which I haven't heard btw) he was allowed to take all the time he needed, leading him not to release in until 86, long after AOR had passed its prime, and a new Boston record wasn't a very big deal in the public eye. Three albums in 10 years might be fine by today's standards, but it was no recipe for increased success in the 70s and 80s. Aside from Boston, though, AOR thrived well into the 80s. I Want To Know What Love Is from Foreigner, Mr. Roboto from Styx, Separate Ways from Journey, Africa from Toto, and Can't Fight This Feeling from REO Speedwagon soundtracked the first half of the decade for many, right alongside early hair metal records like Shout At The Devil and Pyromania. To my understanding, these same bands would have likely seen greater success in the late 80s if not for most of them splintering apart. Ultimately, AOR didn't get overtaken by hair metal for sounding too "innocent," but mostly its lead artists found themselves incapable of surviving the 80s intact enough to score more hits.

 

I do agree that Aerosmith were on fire in the 70s though, and that they were incredibly influential on rock music for decades to come. I'm not sure they were more influential than Boston, though. To me they're probably equally as important to the development of rock.

 

Arena rock, as with any musical trend back then, died out because labels saturated the airwaves with it so much that the public got burned out on it and stopped buying the records. Sure some of the really big bands still had legs after its expiration date but new bands in that style stopped being signed because it had already begun to be taken over by newer musical trends. That's how this stuff works. But sometimes elements of earlier musical styles go on live in newer trends and genres.

 

I'd drop the AOR term because it casts too wide a net for the type of music we're talking about. What Boston, Styx, Journey, Foreigner, et al., did can be more specifically termed arena rock or stadium rock, or pejoratively as corporate rock (or hilariously as dad-rock). As you know, it was a highly produced, highly commercialized anthemic form of watered down hard rock with quasi-prog elements that featured lots of big, harmonized choruses, crunchy power ballads and a grandiose pre-fab sound designed for nothing smaller than an arena sized audience. I imagine seeing a Styx tribute band in a club these days might prove a bit disorienting.

 

I'm not saying Boston wasn't influential (I'm also not saying they weren't a great band). I agree with you that their blockbuster debut kicked off arena rock's successful run but let's not forget that run only lasted about 7 years if that (actually a decent run). I'll also posit that the genre was arguably already creatively spent by 1980 but that's just my opinion.

 

For what it's worth, I tend to prefer Boston and other arena rock bands over Arosmith. All I'm saying here is that Aerosmith's raunchy, edgy brand of bluesy hard rock has proved more versatile and longer lasting than Boston's big, positive arena rock sound. 70s Aerosmith's sardonic, gritty attitude coupled with Perry's street level toolkit are much more blendable with punk, hip hop, grunge, metal, even pop, than arena rock ever was. Where did arena rock's influence end up? Probably the purgatory of today's modern country.

 

But arena rock was actually pretty square from the get-go as it was mainly marketed to mass audiences for its radio friendly feel-good songs. There was no sense of danger to it. That's never cool. With this built-in squareness...damn...arena rock arguably had more in common with broadway musicals than gritty rock and roll. I mean, Brad Delp sounds as if the best singer in the high school glee club decided to try out this rock 'n' roll thing.

 

I'd like to see the source where Cobain cites Boston as an influence. The beginnings of Smells Like Teen Spirit went down like this according to Kurt:

 

 

When Kurt Cobain first came up with the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” riff, he didn’t think he had anything that special. “It was such a cliched riff,” he said. “It was so close to a Boston riff or ‘Louie Louie.’ When I came up with the guitar part, Krist [Novoselic] looked at me and said, ‘That is so ridiculous.'”

 

After the song became an enormous hit, many others pointed out that the main riff did indeed sound like Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” even though they’re in different keys. They probably weren’t similar enough for Boston’s Tom Scholz to file any sort of legal action, but he said he didn’t mind at all.

 

Source

 

 

Not exactly a ringing endorsement. And neither is this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=66&v=R3XIGon2RjY

 

On the other hand, he states a real appreciation for Aerosmith in this interview while generally dismissing most other arena rock bands:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SalY3kgGz_M

 

Cobain would never dream of writing a song in the early 90s that had a pronounced influence of a band as uncool as Boston (whether he liked the band or not. Btw, Smells Like Teen Spirit does not sound like Boston). His band mates would have laughed him right out of Nirvana had he tried to squeeze a "guilty pleasure" like that by them. This is because when you go off-script with your hipster peers and the presiding hipsterati of the day, you tank your career before it even begins, especially in those days when labels were still trying to capitalize on emerging new scenes and styles. But that's only if you decide buy into what hipsters (and eventually A&R men) expect of you. When you do that, you self-censor your musical wrong-think.

[Rick N. Backer]

Bahston.

 

It would actually be "Bawston" if you're from Boston. "Bahston" is how people from Western Massachusetts pronounce it.

 

So Bostonians say pawk the caw, not pahk the cah?

 

No. “AR” is pronounced “AH.” People from Bawston probably prefer the album Rawks. See?

 

So the people of Boston say park the car and this whole pahk the cah thing is just a myth?

 

Why would Boston be pronounced like park?

 

You pahk yuh cah in Bawston.

 

Rawks is still a better album.

[HemiBeers]

every boston song sounds the same. bland aor corporate fm rock. rocks had some major influence:

Many musicians have cited Rocks as one of their favorite albums:

• Slash says that Rocks was the album that inspired him to learn guitar.^[27]
  
• Rocks was one of Kurt Cobain's favorite albums, as he listed in his Journals.^[28]
  
• In 2003, the album was ranked number 176 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[29]
  
• Mötley Crüe songwriter and bassist Nikki Sixx refers to Aerosmith frequently in his book The Heroin Diaries.^[30]
  
• Metallica leader James Hetfield has identified Rocks, as well as Aerosmith, to have been important influences in his music, stating that Aerosmith was the reason why he wanted to learn guitar.^[31][32]tha
  

[Mithrandir]

every boston song sounds the same. bland aor corporate fm rock. rocks had some major influence:

 

Many musicians have cited Rocks as one of their favorite albums:

• Slash says that Rocks was the album that inspired him to learn guitar.^[27]
  
• Rocks was one of Kurt Cobain's favorite albums, as he listed in his Journals.^[28]
  
• In 2003, the album was ranked number 176 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[29]
  
• Mötley Crüe songwriter and bassist Nikki Sixx refers to Aerosmith frequently in his book The Heroin Diaries.^[30]
  
• Metallica leader James Hetfield has identified Rocks, as well as Aerosmith, to have been important influences in his music, stating that Aerosmith was the reason why he wanted to learn guitar.^[31][32]tha
  

While that may be true, that sound is unique and quite awesome!