If you asked:
“Eric Hersey, what is your favorite genre of music?”
– You
I would respond:
“Classic Rock”
– Eric Hersey
If I also said:
“The band that sounds most like ‘classic rock’ to me is Boston.”
– Eric Hersey
You would then be able to infer that I am a big fan of Boston.
“That makes sense.”
– You
The Backstory of Boston and Me
Besides the fact that I always told people that Boston was my favorite city (no real reason), I have no early memories of the band. I could only imagine my father, William E. Hersey, had their albums on vinyl, but I don’t recall ever hearing them in my early days. There is no doubt that he would have liked their sound and probably rocked out to their self-titled debut album, many, many times.
Photoshop and Tech Prep
Junior year of high school was damn near crucial for my career development. I have often told people that the skills I learned in my 3rd/4th period Tech Prep class is why I can do what I can do today. I finished with three associate degrees in computer related BS and still attribute all of my skills to Mr. Ellis and his Graphic and Web Design class.
After learning CorelDRAW, we moved on to my favorite – Adobe Photoshop. We had several assignments, but most of the time I just tinkered around. At the time, I was really into music and discovered Boston. I took the task of piecing together their second album Don’t Look Back and making the spaceship complete (the sides were missing based on the squareness of the album art). It wasn’t perfect, but it was nice to test out my early skills.
High School Lunch and Ketchup Tossing
During my senior year at Martins Ferry High School, I found myself being rather mischievous. This probably wasn’t much different than my early high school days, but now we had cars.
We had open lunches (we could leave the school) and I would team up with a good friend Chad Becca. He, like myself, liked classic rock and he had Boston’s Greatest Hits on CD. I distinctly remember that being one of our top choices. “Foreplay/Long Time” was the hit. That seven-plus minute song was just long enough for us to make it to the nearest Wendys.
Becca would drive, I would wing and we would have an assorted cast of characters joining us. I remember Nick Levi, Riley Wedge, and Jacob Ford all being part of our regular crew. 99.9% of all trips were to Wendys.
This sounds cruel – and it was – but we found a lot of enjoyment on our trip back to school. See, we would fill up a paper sauce cup up with ketchup every day. We would drive through town and right past my dearest friends house. Yes, my friend, Robert Brandon is in my top five and was then. As any of my top friends know, I am evil. Just because we are friends doesn’t mean I won’t get the most enjoyment of taunting and ‘ribbing‘ you. Just ask Justin Benline!
This cup of ketchup would be launched from the passenger seat all the way across the car onto Rob’s car – nearly every day. For the longest time, he had no clue who was doing this. Finally, he came to realize it was my group of idiots. More often than not, we were probably cranking Boston through the speakers – as the ketchup flew.
Now Rob did get his revenge. He filled a Large cup (for sodas) full of ketchup and launched it at my house. This ketchup smashed my front window and I refused to clean it for some time. He did get his revenge.
Boston Now vs. Boston Rank In 2007
When I went back and saw my ranking, I wasn’t shocked by the placement of Boston. I think their sound is very original and I can’t think of many bands that duplicated that vibe. Their first two albums were amazing. Nearly every song was a strong promoter.
If I were ranking again today, I don’t think they would have that strong placement. After going through Boston’s discography, I was shocked by the lack of albums, the spacing in years between albums, and the lack of hits in the most recent albums.
Since a formula is taking over, there is no doubt that some artist’s will jump ahead of Boston. Ranking fourth will be a difficult task (even though I still like them a lot).
Check out where they rank on my current list.
Boston Metrics
By The Numbers
- Qualified Songs: 54
- Greatest Hits: 6
- Four Star: 25
- Three Star: 22
- Two Star: 1
- One Star: 0
Score
401.85%
That first album really helped Boston with a positive score. Boston has some of the greatest-Greatest Hits, but there are a lot of mediocre songs out there also. They managed to stay away from the dreaded one-star, but maybe had a few too many three-star duds.
A Deep Dive Into the Current Score
When you think of net promoter scores, you realize that it’s either a Greatest Hit or bust. In my altered NPS, I give four-stars a little more weight. Boston still gets hammered with average songs (three and two stars). Twenty-three total don’t exactly plummet their score, but it does leave them vulnerable for other classic artists out there.
Boston Podcasts for Reference
The Great Albums Podcast – Once again, The Great Albums Podcast gets a namedrop. They did an episode on Boston by Boston. Although they get technical in some aspects, I still can follow along as a non-musician.
Boston Rock Talk – There was not a tremendous amount out there for Boston. There was some serious Keyword problems considering you get everything under the sun about the city. I did find an interview with Tom Scholz (who pretty much runs the show) and found it interesting.
Boston Videos for Reference
Umm….normally I would put something here. Turns out, Boston didn’t have a Behind the Music or any documentary. I searched YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the works. I found very little besides concerts.
The Battle of Boston Albums
We had a total of six. I had a very strong favorite and could have predicted the order pretty easily. This was a band that started red hot and slowly cooled the engines through the years.
| Album | Score |
| Boston | 700.00% |
| Don’t Look Back | 87.50% |
| Third Stage | 80.00% |
| Corporate America | 36.36% |
| Walk On | 30.00% |
| Life, Love & Hope | 27.27% |
The Greatest Hit from Boston
Much like the albums, we had six songs to choose from. This actually could be very interesting. I really do love these songs and have no clear favorite. The tournament could be divided in a few ways:
- NFL Style – two teams get a bye.
- Quicky – Two Three-Ways right off the bat.
- Three-Way Final – three matches up first and three-way final
Let’s try them all and see if we get a clear victor.
Previous Greatest Hit
“Something About You”
What an awesome song. This is classic rock. Although a lot of the good songs from Boston have a very similar sound, I can easily see why this was my top choice in 2007.
Tournament Outcome
“Foreplay/Long Time”
Trying out all three methods, “Foreplay/Long Time” won in every battle. Granted, it was extremely close. I could see “Peace of Mind”, “Something About You”, and “More Than a Feeling” winning this honor. But today, the longest song (probably) from Boston gets the victory.
Overview
Boston did earn their high ranking in 2007 and continue to earn a good overall score (using my algorithm). I don’t have many early sentimental value to this group, but do remember Boston being included in the soundtrack that made up my high school years. They went downhill with every album released, so I have more than a feeling that they would slide down a bit if a new album ever comes out.
Amendments
June 23, 2019
I think there a few songs that I listened to the first time around that scored four-stars that might be that bump to five. “Don’t Look Back” seems like that could be a five.