Bradford Pearson

My Case For: Boston (the band)

When I was growing up, my parents tuned in to a steady stream of easy listening and Christian rock stations. My formulative years were spent in our Isuzu Trooper with the two Michaels- Michael Bolton and Michael W. Smith.

So, for better or worse, I wasn’t introduced to the classic rock my parents grew up with until later in life, when in middle school my friends and I started buying our own CDs.

That was when Boston came into my life, like an angel made of multi-tracked guitar harmonies.

Now Boston is not a complicated band, which is why they have been disregarded by most rock critics. They don’t possess the complicated song structure of The Beatles, or the bravado of The Rolling Stones, but they do have one thing neither of those bands does: a catalog full of songs you can just straight up blast at any time.

Okay, the Stones have their fair share, but for simple, singable songs, no one beats Boston.

Everyone knows the opening piano notes from “More Than a Feeling,” and everyone can sing the song’s chorus. The best part about Boston’s self-titled debut, though? It was recorded in guitarist Tom Scholz’s basement, yet went on to sell 18 million albums.

Any way, I stumbled across WXPN’s list of the 885 All-Time Greatest Artists a few weeks ago, and looked for Boston. I expected them to be in the top 200, maybe 250, since WXPN skews more towards indie/blues acts. They clocked in at 535, after such luminaries as Jason Mraz, Garbage, and My Chemical Romance, and only two spots ahead of Collective Soul.

(Shudder)

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Posted by Bradford Pearson at 3:21 PM