We were remiss in not covering the untimely death of Brad Delp, singer of ’70s arena-rock heavyweights Boston. This week came the even sadder news that Delp had committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning. Billboard reports that the singer left a series of suicide notes, one paper-clipped to his shirt:
“Mr. Brad Delp. J’ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul. To whoever finds this I have hopefully committed suicide. Plan B was to asphyxiate myself in my car.”“I take complete and sole responsibility for my present situation. I have lost my desire to live. Unfortunately [my fiancee] is totally unaware of what I have done.”
We can’t claim to be the blogosphere’s biggest Boston fans, but “More Than A Feeling” was one of the first songs we learned on guitar, and we’ve never heard a singer hold a candle to original vocal performance on that megahit.
We assume you’ve spun the tune a few times this week, so we’ll spare you the umpteenth MP3 link. Instead, head to Copy, Right? for N*SYNC’s version. A capella. Yes, it’s as bad as you think.
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look guys, enough with this “we” business. you’re not fooling anyone. we know only one person writes a post, dont act like youve got some Stereogum team of monkeys writing this stuff. and lines like “it was one of the first songs we learned to play on guitar” just doesnt make sense…unless of course one of you was holding the neck and while the other one was strumming. then i guess theres also the possibility that you both learned to play More Than A Feeling on the guitar independent of one another. either way i’ve got way too much time on my hands if i’m sitting here criticizing a blog i check every 30 minutes.
More than a feeling was my favorite song ever when I was 8… this is too bad.
p.s. Piddy, I’m sorry that a pronoun is more important than someones death…
Props to a band that recorded one of the biggest selling albums of all time in the songwriter’s basement — and on equipment that he MADE because he couldn’t get the sound quite right.
Yeah, it’s cheez-rock. But sometimes you want filet mignon and sometimes you want cheez-steak. And you can’t really crank filet mignon up to 11, now can you?
d piddy, there ARE multiple people. don’t believe everything you read on idolator.
“A Man I’ll Never Be” off the first Boston album is my favorite, and in light of Delp’s death, very hard to listen to now.
Actually, I agree that the “we” part sounded really stupid. BUT ANYWAY, more importantly, it’s really tragic that it was a suicide. (Assuming it really was. What can I say, I’m a skeptic at heart.) He really had a great voice, and Boston made some fun music. You will be missed, sir. (Well, by ME at least.)
I always liked “Smokin’” myself. Certainly not my favorite band, or even close, but they had a hell of a sound. Their influence can be heard in bands like Smashing Pumpkins.
The guitar player was the ultimate music tech geek.
I love that Boston is dismissed as cheese rock; some sort of laughable diversion in between listens to Ok Computer.
“Man I’ll Never Be” is off the second Boston album.
And this sucks. I love Boston.
I don’t have a problem with the “we” crap but I do with directing people to a sh!t remake by N*Sync. The dude deserves better then that.
J’ai une ame solitaire.
comme si on ne le savait pas.
RIP Brad.
P Diddy: ‘The Royal We’ annoys the shit out of me, too.
Would we have had Nirvana’s first hit without Boston? Here they are doing a bit of More Than A Feeling at Reading Festival: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OY3cnQ_WpSw
I saw Brad Delp play with his Beatles cover band Beatlejuice in Somerville, MA four or five years ago and he blew me away. They did songs by John, George and Paul and he honestly did amazing renditions of of their voices, with each one was better than the next. I have seen a few cover Beatles cover bands, but I haven’t seen anyone invoke and channel the originators like this.
Boston was cheesy, yeah, but the kid had talent.
I saw Beatlejuice many times, and yeah, the kid had talent alright. Also, you could search the world over and a sweeter man you’d never find. Bless you, Brad.
Boston cheesey? You have got to be kidding. The biggest selling debut album of all time was CHEESEY? I will argue that thousands of people believe otherwise. Talent? Uh, yeah. Let’s see…his vocals were dubbed “stratospheric” and “his ability to hit high notes without overpowering the music will never be matched.” Funny how everything that we held dear of an era is later explained away as “cheesey.” To end on a better note, I agree with the post made about Brad’s personality. I met him several times post concert and he, like Boston, doesn’t subscribe to the notoriously rock and roll lifestyle (on second thought, maybe they wouldn’t be “cheesey” if they snorted a little dope and tore up a few hotel rooms). Brad had an uncanny ability to remember past conversations from several years prior and he made his fans feel like they mattered. He was known as “the nicest guy in rock and roll” and there will never be another humble rocker who was as impactive to so many people as he was. In honor of my hero, Melissa Majors of Pensacola, FL
Boston cheesey? You have got to be kidding. The biggest selling debut album of all time was CHEESEY? I will argue that thousands of people believe otherwise. Talent? Uh, yeah. Let’s see…his vocals were dubbed “stratospheric” and “his ability to hit high notes without overpowering the music will never be matched.” Funny how everything that we held dear of an era is later explained away as “cheesey.” To end on a better note, I agree with the post made about Brad’s personality. I met him several times post concert and he, like Boston, doesn’t subscribe to the notoriously rock and roll lifestyle (on second thought, maybe they wouldn’t be “cheesey” if they snorted a little dope and tore up a few hotel rooms). Brad had an uncanny ability to remember past conversations from several years prior and he made his fans feel like they mattered. He was known as “the nicest guy in rock and roll” and there will never be another humble rocker who was as impactive to so many people as he was. In honor of my hero, Melissa Majors of Pensacola, FL
I’m hoping to locate and contact Melissa Majors, who lived in Wichita Falls, TX, and went to Midwestern State University. I saw where a person by that name recently posted a comment to this page, and would be VERY GRATEFUL if you’d forward my contact information to her. I am in very poor health, and would like to tell her that her music made a difference in my life. I’m hoping that she’ll contact me, either by email or phone. The time and date of her posting on your site was May 30, 2007, 10:41 P.M., so I hope she gets this. Thank you so much…. Paul Hatfield, 9901 Scyene Rd. #27106, Dallas, TX 75227, (972)329-1776.
Sorry, this isn’t the Melissa from Kansas. Wish I could help out!! Good luck to you, Melissa from Florida