Released in August 1976, the debut Boston album sent shockwaves through the music industry. It was a true Cinderella story – a band appearing out of nowhere, turning the world upside down and injecting fresh hope into a scene that was fast dying on its feet.
Album itself was recorded in his basement, a miracle for those times.

Scholz himself explained: “I had been working for five years at that point and I took all the money and spent it on recording equipment that was good enough to make the demos which landed the Epic Records deal. I had been bumming around playing in local bands that didn’t have a future. I even started a couple of bands myself, but I knew that it was going nowhere unless I started doing it myself. I quit playing with bands at that point, set up in my basement and went to work. I played all of the instruments and by doing that I could finally get everything that I was imagining and hearing. I was never able to do that when I tried to work with other musicians. That was the turning point. It was the old adage: ‘If you want it done right then do it yourself.’ I knew that if it failed then I would have no one to blame but myself.”


To achieve this ‘overnight’ success, Boston leader Tom Scholz braved rejection, ridicule, near poverty and endless humiliation. He spent roughly six years ignoring his detractors, hidden in a basement tweaking songs, overdubbing and refining parts until the tapes literally began to disintegrate. Some laughed. Some were worried for his sanity. Most felt that he needed to get out a bit more rather than hang on to a crazy dream that was slowly slipping away. Then, one day, things changed.

The album sold 17mil copies in USA and 25mil worldwide.





http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-08-25/how-boston-flew-so-high-and-fell-so-far

 

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One of the albums that got me through high school. Tom Schotz...yea!

 

Thanks for sharing. Just the kind of uplifting story to get me through these days. I've been uninspired to play or practice. I'm stressing over an album I decided to record totally on my own with original songs.

I really appreciate the story, my friend.

 

Boston and Foreigner gave us a new, fresh sound that really changed the music world at the time. Boston's amazing sound turned a lot of heads in somewhat the same way I remember The Beatles did some 12 years earlier. But, the Beatles had their faces on tv, magazines, newspapers, etc. Boston and Foreigner were the 1st in a long line of faceless bands. It didn't stop them from kicking ass tho.

 

6 years of rejection, ridicule, near poverty and endless humiliation means you have finally made it as an artist

 

I'd love to hear those demos. As much as I should hate hearing that first Boston album by now, it's so damn good that I can't resist it, particularly the song "More Than a Feeling." Melodic hard rock never gets old. The success of the band Boston is, statistically, anomalous, or near-impossible. In light of such success stories, it's hard for musicians to keep track of what "success" constitutes. Some people are happy with a weekly gig that enables them to eat better; others won't stop 'til they reach the top. Myself, I'm content to be able to make music that I hear in my head or end up surprising myself in doing, realizing songs, on my own terms – though sometimes I do wonder if I could or should be doing more with it professionally (i.e., lucratively). I was recently dealing with a middle-aged female singer who is constantly harping on the "sexism" of men in the music industry, how women aren't taken seriously as musicians, and so forth, though referring to a few bad apples in the barrel, so to speak. What she's really griping about is her own dissatisfaction with her degree of success (despite that she is, statisically, much more successful than most musicians) while unwilling to admit to herself that her personality disorder might have a lot to do with it. Myself, I have gotten rejection, ridicule, and endless humiliation from my own "friends" in regard to the fact of my making music, since they hate to acknowledge that I'm doing something good. Well, I don't consider them friends anymore. One has to accept the fact that no one might give a shit about what you do, and just do it for the sake of doing it - just getting it made as a worthwhile substitute for "making it."

 

Great post, Von Steyr. That album got so much airplay that it's difficult for me to listen to it objectively. I do recall that the production is a little too highly polished, as was Jeff Lynnes work. But that's a quibble. What Scholz did was staggering. A real magnum opus. To this day it is hard to believe.

 

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Thanks Von_steyr for sharing this with us.

A very interesting and inspiring story (at least for me), much needed in those dark times.

 

Thanks @Von_Steyr. Inspiring thought to start a day +1

 

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I just listened to those demos. Unfortunately the ones I found sound horrible. They claim to be FLAC and another 160kbs(files are 320), but they're weak and phasey and hard to listen to knowing what they really were originally. You can tell it's much or most of what was used in the record.

The story Von_Steyr linked to is fascinating, inspiring, and sad. It's also a story (at least the first half or so) of a music industry long gone. It really was an amazing excitement when the Boston album came out back then.

 

one of my all-time favorite albums. back when it came out, i knew every song by heart and could sing every word and every note that brad delp belted out. but at age 60, i can't quite hit those high notes any more. still love to try though. cool story, vs.

 

yeap... the real deal... musicianship... creativity.. determination.. innovation..and just plain hard work...

whatever happened to these in making music ???

no bitches.. no HO's.. no smog (not in your face anyway), no ass cracks...and crack didn't even exist yet...

no such thing as "toxic masculinity" even if the singer could hit "girl notes"

big FAT sound.... with plenty of balls.. it was good times boys.. good times..

 

Its indeed one of the most interesting stories in the music business. I first heard this story in the late 90s and didnt believe it. I thought its one of those urban myths, overblown and hyped only a lot later to find out (reading it on the internet with legit sources and seeing) its all true.
So basically Scholz invented the idea of an independent home studio based producer/recording artist, 20 years before this idea got popular with the mainstream recording artists.
Today many of us are doing the same, the road is still hard and full of obstacles yet at the same time less expensive and somewhat faster/easier in the digital domain.

 

here is a link to a lengthy letter written by tom scholz to the fans of boston in 2002. if you doubt what vs has said about scholz being the originator of the home studio and the process that many are using today, read this letter and learn. imagine the painstaking process that was involved back then. no daw was available. every overdub was done on tape. every edit had to be done with a razor blade. reading how scholz had to fool cbs by having three guys pretend to be recording on the west coast while he was recording the real album in his studio gives me chills. the guy was way ahead of his time.

http://www.boston.org/officialletter.html

 

not only that.. Scholz had a Master's degree in engineering from MIT...
don't achieve that smoking that sh*t and rolling with skanks in the club every night...

Spoiler: Rocker with a slide rule

http://people.com/archive/a-rocker-...holz-is-the-brains-behind-boston-vol-7-no-10/

ohh different guy.. I think he was from that band called "Cleveland"
they didn't get very far.. and people always seemed to make jokes with them in it..

 

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6 years of rejection, ridicule, near poverty and endless humiliation. You lucky bastards.

 

Great read there. Good to hear it right from Tom. The Boston fan site must have been much more back then, 'cause it ain't much now. But I was shocked to learn that Tom Scholz is 70 years old now, and still touring.

 

As much as I generally detest those things, "sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll" is a slogan much older than Hip-Hop. Take your rose-tinted glasses off.

I know, right? it's been, like, 10 years for me.

 

Technically Les Paul was doing this in the 1940s but yeah, Scholz elevated it to a much higher level.

 

Also what i like about the 70s records including Boston. The sound was polished but still raw and in spirit captured the live performance . Every band had its own signature sound, today every body, even rock bands all sound the same.
No balls, no glory.