Rock and roll concerts in the early days were a bunch of guys showing up to a live music event eager to hear heavy guitar and angry lyrics. Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Cream and Molly Hatchett were all examples of bands targeted primarily to men, and a few women who atypically flew their flags at half-mast. Some bands were savvy enough to expand their repertoire to include ballads with rich love lyrics, changing the tone of rock and roll for future musicians…
The 70s and 80s band ‘Boston’ made it big in what we call the ‘corporate rock’ era, a phase in the industry of overly polished studio songs, blank album covers with no cliff notes or band photos, and systematic structure of album to singles strategy. What Tom Scholz, the lead guitarist and business genius, did was leverage the late Brad Delp’s higher singing voice to drive female sales and concert attendance.
Boston has sold over 80 million records world-wide while helping expand the rock base of fans. “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” the ballad outsold most of the harder songs from their debut album, while “A Man I’ll Never Be” and “Amanda” from the Third Stage album brought the gals to the show.