The nice thing about these music blogs is that soon after a famed musician passes away people can write their thoughts and post some songs from the deceased person's career. In the time I've been doing this I haven't had the need to do one of those tribute posts. But, the time arose, and I was on vacation so I couldn't do it until now.
As many of you probably know, last week Brad Delp, lead singer of the famed rock band Boston, still constantly heard on the classic rock stations, was found dead. A few days later, word got out that he committed suicide, and the matter which he did so, carbon monoxide poisoning, wasn't so strange. It's not uncommon to people to turn their car on in the garage and sit in the vehicle, but the way he did it had to be a first in the history of humankind. He lit two charcoal grills in his bathroom and that's how he received the carbon monoxide. My God, how do you come up with that kind of idea? But, I don't mean to sound flippant about his death. It's always disappointing when you hear that someone developed the feeling of they would be better off leaving mortality and going into the afterlife rather than dealing with their life.
To pay tribute to him I'll post two songs where he was the lead singer. The first is from Boston's debut album from 1976. While most people are familiar with "Foreplay/Long Time" or "More Than A Feeling" from said album, I actually like "Something About You" the most. The opening is fucking awesome, there's no better way to put it. It certainly sets you in the mood for the rest of the song, which is as catchy as you can get and also does a nice job of displaying Delp's vocals.
The second tune is actually from an album that is not by Boston, but rather, "Boston-lite", as many people referred to it as. It was a 1980 album by Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau, and in essence everyone else in the band besides their grand poobah, Tom Scholz; it was done as they didn't want to wait forever for him to finish work on their next album. At least it took Tom less time than it's taken Axl Rose. I think the Cubs will win the World Series before Chinese Democracy is released to the public! I listened to a few songs off the album and while it without doubt has the Boston sound, it's missing that extra something to make it special, which probably proves the importance of Scholz to the mix. But, I decided to post the song "Mean Woman Blues" just for the novelty of a "Boston sound" being sprinkled with some blues, although it won't exactly make you forget Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters here. Still, if you like Boston, then you might as well give it a try just to see what you think of it.
Boston-"Something About You" (5.23 MB, 192Kbits/second)
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/zDLQmvX245769/Boston%20-%20Something%20About%20You.MP3.htmlBarry Goudreau-"Mean Woman Blues" (3.64 MB, 128Kbits/second)
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ea1uJV245762/BARRY%20GOUDREAU%20AND%20BRAD%20DELP%20-%20MEAN%20WOMAN%20BLUES.MP3.html
I'll be back on either Thursday or Friday with my next tune.