Friday, March 16, 2007
Friday Pick of the Week
It's been a tough 12 months for rock musicians who left their glory days behind. Crowded House drummer Paul Hester hanged himself from a tree almost exactly a year ago; Grateful Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick slit his throat with a knife last June.
Now Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, has also committed suicide. He locked himself inside his bathroom with two gas grills, apparently on but unlit. A note he left behind read, J'ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul.
Lonely enough to translate, just to make sure whoever read it would know.
Lines from stories about his death are unintentionally poignant.
A lifelong Beatles fan, Delp also played with the tribute band Beatle Juice....
Why is that sad? Because for a while there back in the late '70s, Boston was huge. Founded in the mid-70s by Tom Scholz, an MIT engineering student who worked at Polaroid, the band restored the vitality of arena rock at a time when disco and punk were ascendant and rock icons like the Stones and Led Zeppelin were starting to suck. Their first album, Boston, came out in 1976 and, well, it rocked. (It also sold 17 million copies.) It is humanly impossible not to listen to Foreplay/Long Time without wanting to sing along and wave a lighter over your head. Don't tell me you don't remember.....
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on
You'll forget about me after I've been gone
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
It's just outside of your front door
It's been such a long time....
It's easy to make fun of Boston now; they certainly had their Spinal Tappish qualities. The eponymous first album, cheesy graphics, control freak songwriter, synthesizer intros, prog rock overtones, record company lawsuits, replaced drummer, intra-band fighting.... And the scary thing is, I could go on.
But why make fun? I'd prefer to remember how great it was to hear those opening notes of Long Time, even on an eleven-year-old's clock radio, or the power chords of "More Than a Feeling".... Go back and listen to that first record. It is still surprisingly good, and far better than most of the generic corporate pop the music biz currently churns out.....
Now Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, has also committed suicide. He locked himself inside his bathroom with two gas grills, apparently on but unlit. A note he left behind read, J'ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul.
Lonely enough to translate, just to make sure whoever read it would know.
Lines from stories about his death are unintentionally poignant.
A lifelong Beatles fan, Delp also played with the tribute band Beatle Juice....
Why is that sad? Because for a while there back in the late '70s, Boston was huge. Founded in the mid-70s by Tom Scholz, an MIT engineering student who worked at Polaroid, the band restored the vitality of arena rock at a time when disco and punk were ascendant and rock icons like the Stones and Led Zeppelin were starting to suck. Their first album, Boston, came out in 1976 and, well, it rocked. (It also sold 17 million copies.) It is humanly impossible not to listen to Foreplay/Long Time without wanting to sing along and wave a lighter over your head. Don't tell me you don't remember.....
Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on
You'll forget about me after I've been gone
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
It's just outside of your front door
It's been such a long time....
It's easy to make fun of Boston now; they certainly had their Spinal Tappish qualities. The eponymous first album, cheesy graphics, control freak songwriter, synthesizer intros, prog rock overtones, record company lawsuits, replaced drummer, intra-band fighting.... And the scary thing is, I could go on.
But why make fun? I'd prefer to remember how great it was to hear those opening notes of Long Time, even on an eleven-year-old's clock radio, or the power chords of "More Than a Feeling".... Go back and listen to that first record. It is still surprisingly good, and far better than most of the generic corporate pop the music biz currently churns out.....
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Trivia question: what Boston (Mass)-associated celebrity once sat in with the band, playing drums on the tune "Smokin" at a concert?
Hint: it was someone "full of grace"
Hint: it was someone "full of grace"
One a positive note, Crowded House has decided to reform, having recently announced that Matt Sherrod (formerly having played for Beck's band) will join Neil, Nick, and Mark Hart, taking over behind the kit for Paul (RIP). They play their first official show next week at a small club in Bristol, England, and plan to release a new CD later this year. Johnny Marr will be handling some of the song-writing responsibilities, while also lending some of his guitarwork to the album. The effort's a bit bittersweet, but I'm looking forward to hearing what Neil and the hang can come up with, even if it might not reach the levels of Woodface.
Their problem was they always paled in comparison to Aerosmith, the other Boston band that appeared at the same time. Having said that, no one deserves to end the way Delp did.
Richard --
Check out this gem from today's Crimson:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517767
Presented with the report in an interview with The Crimson, Associate Dean of Advising Programs Monique Rinere asked to see the original document several times, then refused to return it.
FAS spokesman Robert P. Mitchell, who was present at the interview, said at the time that Rinere had the right to keep the document because she said it originally belonged to her.
Check out this gem from today's Crimson:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517767
Presented with the report in an interview with The Crimson, Associate Dean of Advising Programs Monique Rinere asked to see the original document several times, then refused to return it.
FAS spokesman Robert P. Mitchell, who was present at the interview, said at the time that Rinere had the right to keep the document because she said it originally belonged to her.
The Cars, 'til Tuesday, the Pixies, Tribe, O-Positive, Tracy Chapman if you like that sort of thing, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and I'm sure there are more....
I'm unimpressed, except for Del Fuegos, Aerosmith and the Pixies. Boston has produced the least impressive music for any major American city.
Not a bad lineup of bands, but it is important to note there is no Boston "sound" the way there is for Philly, Chicago, NY, LA, San Francisco, New Orleans, etc
The Pixies are great enough to account for the whole decade of the 80's...and the 90's too since grunge couldn't have existed without them.
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