BOSTON: HOW THEY'RE BACK, WHY THEY'RE BACK & OTHER MATTERS OF IMPORT

BOSTON: HOW THEY'RE BACK, WHY THEY'RE BACK & OTHER MATTERS OF IMPORT

Elianne Halbersberg

Maybe rock ’n’ roll audiences aren’t quite as fickle as I thought. Maybe they don’t forget from one week to the next. After all, it’s been eight years since anyone heard from Boston and look what happened: a #1 single, “Amanda.” A #1 album, Third Stage. Platinum upon release, over five million copies sold, the nine-week tour completely sold out. But, then again, this is Boston we’re talking about. A band recognized for superior material, superior album sales (over 20 million with only three discs to their names), superior performances. Maybe it’s not a matter of fickle or not fickle. Maybe the bottom line is that regardless of trends and fashion, at the end of the day, rock ’n’ roll fans still have good taste!

“I honestly haven’t a clue (as to what captured the world’s attention),” confesses vocalist/resident nice guy Brad Delp. “Well, maybe a clue! Part of it had to be the attitude of the music. Tom (Scholz) always wanted to take a positive approach and we have maintained that on all three albums. So I guess there’s a certain vibe that comes through the songs and everyone I talk to mentions to me how much they like the overall sound of the band. The guitars are certainly different from anyone else’s; it’s a unique sound that Tom devised and layered, and there are a lot of textured harmony parts on the vocals. I take credit for singing the notes, but Tom gets rightful credit for the inspiration and arrangements that are so important to a record. It’s real tough to capture a spontaneous feel in as many takes as we do, but he has good, strong instinct as to what works."

Boston as they are today (Delp, Scholz, drummers Jim Masdea and Doug Huffman, bassist David Sikes, guitarist Gary Pihl) certainly had their work cut out for them. Recall if you will that Boston (1976) sold over nine million copies—200,000 in the first month alone—and remains the most successful debut album by a group in history. The follow-up, Don't Look Back (1978), shipped double-platinum and went on to double that figure in the course of a 14-month tour. But album number three was delayed by lawsuits stemming from CBS/Epic’s claim of breach in the group’s 10 year, five album deal. Between frozen assets, countersuits, damage claims and injunctions, any hope for Third Stage was grim at best. Even when MCA signed Boston three years ago, it took an additional 12 months before the band could legally begin session work on any project. By then, fans were hopeful, if somewhat skeptical, of vinyl that was being pushed back on a daily basis. When Third Stage finally became tangible, it seemed that Boston had quite a legend to live up to.

“To be perfectly honest,” Delp candidly states, ‘‘I think Tom was probably more concerned about that than anyone else.

I felt I had the best of both worlds. All I had to do was go in, sing, and that’s it— it was fun for me. Tom and I collaborated and he had a pretty good idea about what he wanted. We’ve been together since 1970 and, when he writes, he knows what I can and cannot do vocally, just like I know what it is he looks for. So he carries the bulk of the problems, and meeting everyone’s expectations was mostly his area.”

Boston’s modus operandi is unconventional at best. Their debut album took a year to record, with some of the material five years old by the time it saw the light of day. Don't Look Back was two years in the making and upon its label-pressured release, Scholz described it as “incomplete.” Third Stage pushed close to the decade mark, with three of its eleven tracks penned before 1982. Strangely enough, though, Boston can lay claim to valid material—this despite the time lapse between creation and production. In itself, it’s quite an accomplishment, and even Delp is taken back by the relevance and timelessness.

“It has always amazed me too," he says. “I’m a major Beatles fan and I remember how they would put out albums every three or four months! Things get updated as they go along. For example, ‘My Destination’—in the solo, Tom wrote these chord changes when we were working on the first or second album. They were intended originally for another song. I always liked them; Tom remembered them because he never throws anything away, so we plugged them into ‘My Destination’ because the preceding chords really worked with them. ‘Amanda’ is also an old song to me when I hear it on vinyl, but it sounds brand new to other people when they hear it.”

To loosely study the Boston philosophy, the untrained eye might see the band as an assembly of players in the Tom Scholz Project. He does write, produce, play the instruments, invent all the equipment on the group’s tour and oversee all the technical aspects. Delp, however, stresses that Boston has always been a partnership—‘‘a band. Everyone’s opinion is respected, we do work as a very close team.” For Delp, that meant grueling hours of studio sessions into the late/early hours, and the constant doing and re-doing of tracks, vocal lines, and lyrical passages.

Isn’t there a risk of taking all of this much too seriously? ‘‘Yeah, there’s always that chance, he concedes, but again, it’s Tom’s ulcer, so I have to be respectful of how he likes to work, his methods, and vice versa. Tom is a workaholic. He was totally absorbed by the album, in his company (Scholz Research & Development-home of Scholz’s overwhelmingly successful invention, The Rockman, 15 ounces of guitar amplifier and signal processor), and a variety of other things. On the other hand, my major concernoutside of my family—is my music, so starting work on a project is no problem, and I have no objections to working until three o’clock in the morning if I’m interested in what I’m doing. The most difficult thing is that I like spontaneity, so it gets... I would be happier when I get the basic idea down, but the hard work comes after that. The trick to any successful album is the arrangements. A good song without detail just isn’t hap: pening. You need a good producer. Whereas some people can utilize every production trick in the world and the result is a record that has all style and no substance. The key is to marry the two. Tom is a perfectionist and he won’t walk away from even a minute of tape until he has crafted it into what he can deem worthy. Even on the road our methods translate into different rituals. Before a show, he spends a couple of hours by himself just practicing and warming up. I tend to be almost superstitious. I will not do a lot of singing before I go onstage. I’m too afraid that I might start singing my heart out and then find myself with no voice. I really need that spontaneity, and basically, we both have valid points of view.”

With the instant success of Third Stage (the album and the tour), both Scholz and Delp have consented to quite a bit of media requests and coverage. After eight years of relative seclusion, giving up one’s privacy can’t be the easiest of sacrifices. ‘‘We’ve never been hesitant to talk with people,” the singer says assuredly. ‘‘I was always ready to do interviews, radio, or anything else. We had an opportunity to do some television, but the only reason that it didn’t happen was that the time factor and scheduling prevented us from ever getting around to it. In a sense, we’ve lived on both sides of the fence. We never suffered from a complete loss of anonymity, nor were people so familiar with our faces that it could create a mob situation if we stepped out in public. Interviews have always been great fun to me—when else does a person get a chance to sit around and yap about themselves to someone who actually wants to listen?! As far as privacy, I live in a small town, so that’s basically a quiet, uninterrupted setting—although I can honestly say that everyone at the local high school has been to my house at one time or another!”

Delp expresses unabashed delight about being on the road again. Taken aback by public demand for Boston on tape and stage, he's remarkably humble about everything the group has accomplished. ‘‘I constantly doubt myself,” he acknowledges. ‘‘I’m really into Woody Allen, and you remember that line in Annie Hall where he says, ‘I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me for a member’? That’s me! It’s easy for me to credit Tom for any accomplishments Boston has made. I realize I have made a contribution to the band, but it's extremely difficult for me to toot my own horn, and I feel very awkward when other people do so. Like many performers, I have a terrible insecurity complex.”

When it is pointed out that his working relationship with Scholz has outlasted that of most groups, or, for that matter, most personal relationships, he laughs. ‘‘Maybe if people spent four or five years away from each other routinely, it would be good for them! Basically, Tom and I have only worked on three long projects around each other. We have entirely different outside interests. I’m a real video junkie; I watch a lot of movies. Tom is into basketball, whereas I'm always tripping all over myself! So what we have in common is our love of music, and when we work together it’s a lot of fun.”

He does stress, however, that Third Stage is entirely the result of Scholz' persistence and dedication. “We certainly didn’t do this for the money,” he concludes, ‘‘because we did very well with the other records. Tom had his company, he developed the Rockman and the Rockman Modules. He had plenty to do. He took time away from all those things to do the record because he had something to say, although it was very difficult at times. The fact is, no matter how much the others wanted it, had it not been for Tom's determination, there would never have been a third album.”