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Brad Delp, lead singer for the band Boston, was found dead today in his home in southern New Hampshire.
WTF is Boston? And what is the band's cultural relevance?
Well, kids, I can speak from my own deep personal history. The year was 1976. I was a punky eighth grader with gravity-defying blonde afro, skinny-ass legs, and limited appreciation for music when Delp's voice exploded on the scene with Boston's wildly popular debut album, entitled, uhhhh, Boston. They sold like 17 million copies of that album, which had a sweet flying saucer graphic on the cover. It was one of the biggest debut releases ever. Boston's combination of driving guitars, Delp's soaring vocals, and a clean, crunchy, layered studio sound made the band really unique.
At the time, Boston helped save rock 'n roll from the growing popularity of disco. They became one of the first bands I got into as a kid. While I ultimately gravitated toward heavier stuff like Zeppelin, and AC/DC in high school, Boston classics like "More Than a Feeling" and "Rock and Roll Band" can still bring me back -- conjuring up images of gas-guzzling cars, 8 track tapes, radio shack headphones, garage parties, early attempts at drinking and smoking, and the huge crush I had on a girl named Michelle Wassenger.
Now more than 30 years from their heyday, the words Delp sang in one of Boston's biggest hits speak to the cycle of life that will eventually take us all:
"It's been such a long time. I think I should be goin'. And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'..."
Cheers to you, Brad. Thanks for the good times.
WTF is Boston? And what is the band's cultural relevance?
Well, kids, I can speak from my own deep personal history. The year was 1976. I was a punky eighth grader with gravity-defying blonde afro, skinny-ass legs, and limited appreciation for music when Delp's voice exploded on the scene with Boston's wildly popular debut album, entitled, uhhhh, Boston. They sold like 17 million copies of that album, which had a sweet flying saucer graphic on the cover. It was one of the biggest debut releases ever. Boston's combination of driving guitars, Delp's soaring vocals, and a clean, crunchy, layered studio sound made the band really unique.
At the time, Boston helped save rock 'n roll from the growing popularity of disco. They became one of the first bands I got into as a kid. While I ultimately gravitated toward heavier stuff like Zeppelin, and AC/DC in high school, Boston classics like "More Than a Feeling" and "Rock and Roll Band" can still bring me back -- conjuring up images of gas-guzzling cars, 8 track tapes, radio shack headphones, garage parties, early attempts at drinking and smoking, and the huge crush I had on a girl named Michelle Wassenger.
Now more than 30 years from their heyday, the words Delp sang in one of Boston's biggest hits speak to the cycle of life that will eventually take us all:
"It's been such a long time. I think I should be goin'. And time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'..."
Cheers to you, Brad. Thanks for the good times.
The Dixie Chicks had it right. I don't like their music, but I like their integrity. I, too, am ashamed of our president (and our veep, and all their nasty chronies). Sorry if that offends, but it's really how I feel. Feel free to boycott me.
Meanwhile, looks like things are heating up in Latin America, thanks to our boy, W, who is on a little week-long PR mission. I applaud our brothers and sisters in Latin America who are taking to the streets in a widespread showing of opposition to the policies of Bush.
Ok, I know, Hugo Chavez takes things a little too far. And it's a drag that the stature of our country has sunk so low. And I am appalled that so many American troops and innocent people are being killed and maimed thanks to the policies of the current administration. But I am so sick of the lies and deception and the arrogance and sheer stupidity of our so-called leaders.
These jerkfaces are screwing up our country in a zillion ways. It will take many years to correct, and it seems fine citizens here are just getting clued in. So I thank the people in Brazil and around the world who remind us how wrong we have it. Thanks for having the balls to speak truth to power, even when getting sprayed with tear gas, beaten and arrested. Thanks to the Dixie Chicks, who got seriously boycotted for speaking out, and could've killed their career if not for their talent.
So you go, Latin America. Make a big old scene where ever our president goes. Uprisings can be powerful, and can make a difference.
Meanwhile, looks like things are heating up in Latin America, thanks to our boy, W, who is on a little week-long PR mission. I applaud our brothers and sisters in Latin America who are taking to the streets in a widespread showing of opposition to the policies of Bush.
Ok, I know, Hugo Chavez takes things a little too far. And it's a drag that the stature of our country has sunk so low. And I am appalled that so many American troops and innocent people are being killed and maimed thanks to the policies of the current administration. But I am so sick of the lies and deception and the arrogance and sheer stupidity of our so-called leaders.
These jerkfaces are screwing up our country in a zillion ways. It will take many years to correct, and it seems fine citizens here are just getting clued in. So I thank the people in Brazil and around the world who remind us how wrong we have it. Thanks for having the balls to speak truth to power, even when getting sprayed with tear gas, beaten and arrested. Thanks to the Dixie Chicks, who got seriously boycotted for speaking out, and could've killed their career if not for their talent.
So you go, Latin America. Make a big old scene where ever our president goes. Uprisings can be powerful, and can make a difference.
Ever wonder why music has such a powerful hold on humanity? Well, a scientific scholar in Canada and other really smart people are devoting their careers to how music effects our brains. According to a recent Boston Globe article, what they're finding is pretty awesome.
There is an emerging field of study on the science of music and why it has such an intense effect on us. One of the leading figures in the science of music is Daniel Levitin, a cognitive psychologist who runs the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal. Last summer Levitin published "This Is Your Brain on Music," a layperson's guide to the neuroscience of music.
On a recent afternoon in his cluttered studio/lab, Levitin hits a button on his computer keyboard -- and out comes a half-second clip of music. It's just two notes blasted on a raspy electric guitar, but any Stones fan could immediately identify it as the opening lick to "Brown Sugar." Similar experiments with diverse subjects suggest that no matter what our tastes or generation, the sound of our favorite artists deeply resonate in our minds -- and can profoundly impact the way we think and act.
"You hear only one note, and you already know who it is," Levitin said in the Globe article. "How we do this? Why are we so good at recognizing music?" The answer, he says, is that "by the age of 5 we are all musical experts. This stuff is clearly wired really deeply into us."
Hell yeah! Of course freaks like us already knew this. But if bonafide scientific study proves music is more powerful than many people think, maybe artists will get more respect, maybe they can quit their day jobs, or be used as weapons of mass connection to unite the world and stop wars.
Levitin is not your typical egghead. He's one of those total right-brain, left-brain combos. A former punk rocker, record producer, and working artist with nine gold and platiunum albums to his credit, he has serious street cred and is also full of scientific knowledge. For example he says that babies begin life with synesthesia, a trippy confusion that makes people experience sounds as smells or tastes as colors. And that the cerebellum, a part of the brain that helps govern movement, is also wired to the ears and produces some of our emotional responses to music. His experiments also suggest that watching a musician perform affects brain chemistry differently from listening to a recording. Whoa, dude, I guess that explains the whole Deadhead thing.
Ultimately, experts say, studying the impact of music offers a new way to learn how our brains really work: the way memories are triggered, how people with autism think, why our ancestors first picked up instruments and began to play.
We may soon even unlock the age-old mystery of why even the butt ugliest of musicians get laid all the time.
There is an emerging field of study on the science of music and why it has such an intense effect on us. One of the leading figures in the science of music is Daniel Levitin, a cognitive psychologist who runs the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal. Last summer Levitin published "This Is Your Brain on Music," a layperson's guide to the neuroscience of music.
On a recent afternoon in his cluttered studio/lab, Levitin hits a button on his computer keyboard -- and out comes a half-second clip of music. It's just two notes blasted on a raspy electric guitar, but any Stones fan could immediately identify it as the opening lick to "Brown Sugar." Similar experiments with diverse subjects suggest that no matter what our tastes or generation, the sound of our favorite artists deeply resonate in our minds -- and can profoundly impact the way we think and act.
"You hear only one note, and you already know who it is," Levitin said in the Globe article. "How we do this? Why are we so good at recognizing music?" The answer, he says, is that "by the age of 5 we are all musical experts. This stuff is clearly wired really deeply into us."
Hell yeah! Of course freaks like us already knew this. But if bonafide scientific study proves music is more powerful than many people think, maybe artists will get more respect, maybe they can quit their day jobs, or be used as weapons of mass connection to unite the world and stop wars.
Levitin is not your typical egghead. He's one of those total right-brain, left-brain combos. A former punk rocker, record producer, and working artist with nine gold and platiunum albums to his credit, he has serious street cred and is also full of scientific knowledge. For example he says that babies begin life with synesthesia, a trippy confusion that makes people experience sounds as smells or tastes as colors. And that the cerebellum, a part of the brain that helps govern movement, is also wired to the ears and produces some of our emotional responses to music. His experiments also suggest that watching a musician perform affects brain chemistry differently from listening to a recording. Whoa, dude, I guess that explains the whole Deadhead thing.
Ultimately, experts say, studying the impact of music offers a new way to learn how our brains really work: the way memories are triggered, how people with autism think, why our ancestors first picked up instruments and began to play.
We may soon even unlock the age-old mystery of why even the butt ugliest of musicians get laid all the time.