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A band so good they named a whole city after them


Square Wheels

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13 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

Pressure.  Tom was a control freak perfectionist.  Their label didn't care.  Gimme more records.

I loved Boston.  Brad killing himself was so sad.

I didn;t realize they are still around.  Coulda; fooled me!  In fact, they did!

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I think the Boston cassette was one of the required items on a teens automotive checklist who grew up in the '70s. I had a 100 watt sound system in my MGB roadster. It had huge speakers in a homemade box that barely fit behind the seats. The speaker box could be pulled out to stand oot on the trunk lid and aimed in any direction. Usually our secret teenage bond fire parties came to a end when one of the girls found my Boston tape and turned the volume up to eleven. It would take the local law enforcement aboot a half an hour, (aboot the time when 'Something About You' would be blasting) to come and shew us all away. :) Great times.

This has to be on the list of top ten '70s power rock love ballads. Turn it up to eleven, you'll have aboot a half an hour before someone will be knocking at your door. ;) 

 

 

 

 

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Why are so many first albums a band’s best? Because they had a lifetime to write, edit and filter their first 10 songs. If it’s successful, they are expected to tour and are pressured to get another album out while touring before the fickle public forgets them. You get the “sophomore jinx”. A lot of bands don’t survive that second album. 
And yeah, that was a great album. They were talking about the new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees on a syndicated radio show. One of the cast asked why Boston wasn’t inducted. A very young member asked why. In his opinion they only had 1 album (to his knowledge) that was also their greatest hits. He wasn’t totally wrong. 

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1 minute ago, groupw said:

Why are so many first albums a band’s best? Because they had a lifetime to write, edit and filter their first 10 songs. If it’s successful, they are expected to tour and are pressured to get another album out while touring before the fickle public forgets them. You get the “sophomore jinx”. A lot of bands don’t survive that second album. 
And yeah, that was a great album. They were talking about the new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees on a syndicated radio show. One of the cast asked why Boston wasn’t inducted. A very young member asked why. In his opinion they only had 1 album (to his knowledge) that was also their greatest hits. He wasn’t totally wrong. 

Agreed, first album was amazing.  Second album was pretty good.

There are bands that are magical and crank out many good albums.  The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd...

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45 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

Agreed, first album was amazing.  Second album was pretty good.

There are bands that are magical and crank out many good albums.  The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd...

They were allowed to grow and develop. The Beatles landmark albums all came after they stopped touring. Jimmy Page had already been in the Yardbirds prior to Led Zeppelin. The record label was willing to indulge Pink Floyd and they were able to develop their sound. 
But for every band like this, there are 10 Webb Wilders. He got critical acclaim in the early 80s. “It Came from Nashville” was a moderate commercial success on an indie label. He eventually got signed to one of the Warner labels and “Hybrid Vigor” even had a modest hit with the song Human Cannonball. Sales were good. Yet they gave nothing for support of “Doo Dad” which was a superior album. 
I was working at the record store at the time. We were a small store, but we were a good indicator of trends. We were getting a call every couple weeks from people at WEA to see what was happening. We were promoting Doo Dad with in store play and it was selling enough that we shared that with them. The lady calling said Who? She had to look through a few pages of her sheets before she found him. The label had no interest in him. He dropped off the label and didn’t record for several years even though he has an avid live following. 
He performed at the Zoo Bar in Lincoln a few times. We got to chat a few times on breaks or after shows. Very gracious man. I shared this story with him and he just gave me a knowing nod. He would not speak I’ll of the label, but it was obvious he felt betrayed. 

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22 hours ago, groupw said:

Why are so many first albums a band’s best? Because they had a lifetime to write, edit and filter their first 10 songs. If it’s successful, they are expected to tour and are pressured to get another album out while touring before the fickle public forgets them. You get the “sophomore jinx”. A lot of bands don’t survive that second album. 
And yeah, that was a great album. They were talking about the new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees on a syndicated radio show. One of the cast asked why Boston wasn’t inducted. A very young member asked why. In his opinion they only had 1 album (to his knowledge) that was also their greatest hits. He wasn’t totally wrong. 

Thanks. This sounds like a great answer to my question aboot why they seemed to disappear about as fast as they surfaced. 

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