Posted on 03/09/2007 9:02:49 PM PST by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
What a beautiful poem, as well as a song.
If you want a good account of the legal issues Scholz was involved in get the book "Hitmen" by Fredric Dannen, which is a great read anyway. Scholz turned the music business on its ear because he was smart enough to legally hold CBS to an internal audit for royalties, in which they were screwing him out of millions.
CBS didn't care because they thought they had him by the balls so they just withheld royalties to prevent him from being able to afford a good lawyer, so Scholz started SRD to fund his legal fight, selling mostly guitar based effects. I bought the SRD 'PowerSoak' when it first came out and that thing ROCKED, in fact it STILL rocks, I use it all the time as an amp attenuater (it was WAY ahead of its time).
CBS got so pissed off at him because he was taking forever to finish "Don't Look Back" (because of his neurotic perfectionism and his legal fight with CBS) that they actually came in to the studio they were working and STOLE the master tapes and pressed the album. Side B of "Don't Look Back" is completely unfinished btw.
Scholz got so mad over this and the legal issues he gave the master tapes to the third album to the head of MCA, who was the head of CBS record's biggest rival (they HATED each other) and MCA released the album even though Boston was under contract to CBS. The ensuing legal fight led to the downfall of CBS records and is the stuff of legend. As crazy as Scholz is I laud him for his perserverance, because these record company execs were some of the most crooked people on this planet and he got the best of them.
SRD made some great products, a lot of people here mentioned the Rockman, of which I still have 2 working ones, and they had a HUGE influence on '80's music, you can hear it on hundreds of songs from that era..and it led the way to all of these direct recording effects you see today.
They also made these really cool Rockman rack mounted guitar processors that sounded incredible, I still have mine and use it every now and then for that larger than life sound. The 'stereo echo' unit is especially good because it has a unique sound.
The first album was done in Scholz's basement, and he played most of the instruments, but their were other musicians involved on certain songs.
RIP Brad. Your first 2 albums were huge influences in my life, and I spent countless hours learning all of the guitar parts and marvelling over those incredible high notes you could hit. Your vocal layering is still probably the best I've ever heard in rock music.
"We're getting old guys" I liked CSN when it was CSN&Y. We'll have to talk tunes one day. Freegards, the printhead.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 12 - I heard foreplay/longtime (imagine today a radio station playing a song for 10 minutes)on WBCN and was completely blown away. Still am. I can't hear that or Peace of Mind without it evoking strong memories and feelings. I had a chance to see them at the House of Blues in Harvard Square in the late 90s and I blew it. What was a small regret is no a very big one...
Bono's bouncing around town today... Mixing with the regular folks...
reminds me of this...
Dancin in the streets of hyannis
We were getting pretty good at the game
People stood in line and didnt seem to mind
You know everybody knew our name
Livin on rock-n-roll music
Never worry bout the things we were missing
When we got up on the stage and got ready to play
Everybodyd listen.
Rock and roll band
Everybodys waitin
Gettin crazy
Anticipating love and music
Play, play, play, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Not really. When I'm pissed I listen to:
The Anti Nowhere League - 'Let's Break The Law' - Live in Yugoslavia
I saw those English pigs play in Madrid. That's real punk.
What does it take to be a man? What does it take to see,
It's a heart and soul, a gentle hand.
So easy to want, but so hard to give.
How can you be a man till you see beyond the life you live?
Oh, what does it take to be a man?
We can be blind, but a man tries to see.
It takes tenderness, for a man to be what he can be.
And what does it mean, if you're weak or strong?
A gentle feeling that can make it right, or make it wrong.
What does it take to be a man?
The will to give and not receive.
The strength to say what you believe.
The heart to feel what others feel inside,
To see what they can see.
I know that's what a man can be.
RIP BRAD DELP
But having one guy play all the instruments in the studio sure makes for one incredibly tight sound, if you can maintain the quality during overdub. I've heard accounts this happened with the Beatles a lot too, even seen pictures of Paul McCartney playing drums and guitar in the recording sessions.
My memory is a bit foggy here... but I believe Tom S. eventually developed some guitar synthesizers... he liked to call them "effects"...hehehehehe called "rock-man" or something (operated by foot pedals)... that would allow a guitar player to obtain those sounds on the road.
I think you got it exactly right, I couldn't remember those details myself but you clearly rang some bells with your post. One of my best friends is a professional guitar player, and I was constantly bothering him about different effects, I'm pretty sure he even had the "Rock Man" himself. I really dig the effects, my favorites at it are Alex Lifeson, Neil Schon, and The Edge from U2. My friend said Lifeson's sound was basically "every effect known to man, all turned on at the same time". Just a joke of course, but a hard sound to duplicate.
too bad about Delp... he had a great voice.
One of the best if not best. High pitched vocals were real popular then, like Steve Perry from Journey. I've got all Boston's albums, even Delp singing for "Return to Zero" and some other band I think. RIP BD, your music will forever live on.
Great post!
I have their vinyl albums. So I went to the music newsgroups to find them and put them on a hard drive. Download, combine, decode and burn to a CD, or just keep them on a computer. I have Sound Forge with all the good plug-ins to enhance it the way I want it to sound for me. You can also find Boston on FTP sites.
I think they gave the impression they were scruffy guys working in their garage, but their production was silk slick, such as the awesome sound effects and even the spaceship. Man they need to release a video of some of this stuff for those of us that never saw it live. Boston came around here about 3 years ago, it was the "Corporate America" set, I didn't go, it was $100+ a ticket reserved sitting in a theater, but do know someone who did.
The band Boston took over two years to release their second album ("Don't Look Back") which was unheard of back in those days when top rock stars were expected to produce an album every year...They would have probably put out a lot more music if Thomas Scholz wasn't such an ass. Scholz also went off the rails with his politics and I think his last album had an anti-capitalist theme which is kind of ironic considering all the cash he pulled in with Boston's music.
No doubt about it, great post by the way. Tom Scholtz is a mad genius along the lines of Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Van Halen just checked into Rehab too. Incredible talent, just uncontrollable temper and therefore nearly impossible to get along with.
Anyway, three near-perfect albums is a legacy that most rock bands cannot lay claim too. Even decades later, most of the tracks from those first three albums still sound fresh today.
I like their fourth album "Walk On" too, and the RTZ project Delp did.
Apparently Boston has recently recorded new music with Brad Delp. Hopefully they will see fit to release it one of these days.
Amen brother, Amen.
I'm admittedly one of the few that prefer's the 80's Rush sound with all the effects, "A Show Of Hands" is one of my favorite DVD's and one of the tours I saw in person.
As a totally hack keyboardist... I took Tom S. slam against "synthesizers" kinda personal back then.... LOL.
Hey man it was serious issue back then, remember the fallout from EVH using the ivories on Jump? LOL a near crisis at Guitar mag.
It's real musicians like Scholz who pushed the record companies into their current model of carbon cut boybands and girl dancers. I'd like to see a indie label resurgence of real music put out by guys like Scholz who are still out there but not getting the contracts.
RIP Brad. Your first 2 albums were huge influences in my life, and I spent countless hours learning all of the guitar parts and marvelling over those incredible high notes you could hit. Your vocal layering is still probably the best I've ever heard in rock music.
Third Stage is one of the very few albums on this earth that can make my neck tingle if not bring a dampness to the eye. Prayers of everlasting peace to Delp and his family.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
RIP Brad
We won't forget about you now that are your gone.
Their whole first album is a Greatest Hits compilation. It's unelievable. Every song on the album recieved air play on the "classic rock" stations over the last 20 years here in Philly, with the exception of Smokin'. To which Smokin' only found favor years later when the classic rock stations went to a younger (weed smokin') demographic!
Guys...
The Rockman is NOT a synthesizer of any sort. It is a portable headphone guitar amp with a distortion circuit designed by Tom Scholz to replicate the tone he got from all his vintage gear. They were hugely popular during the 80s. David Gilmour even used one on his solo album in 1984.
Amen. Yeah, it was a distortion unit, not a synth, and for the record, when I saw them in 1979, they sounded almost exactly like their records.
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