BOSTON: DON'T LOOK BACK (1978)
1) Don't Look Back; 2) The
Journey; 3) It's Easy; 4) A Man I'll Never Be; 5) Feelin' Satisfied; 6) Party;
7) Used To Bad News; 8) Don't Be Afraid.
A man like Tom Scholz I'll never be, because it
is really hard to understand what all the fuss was about — Scholz lashed out at
Epic Records for pressing him into releasing the next album too soon, way
before he was fully ready to amaze the world for a second time, but listening
to Don't Look Back gives nary a hint
of any idea of how it was supposed to be anything but a slightly inferior carbon copy of Boston. Of course, there is nothing wrong with repeating a winning
formula if it works, but other than some additional feats of technical
ingenuity, most of these songs really sound as if they were written at exactly
the same time as the stuff on Boston,
and left out in the sun to dry, waiting for another day.
Or maybe not, because there is exactly one important
difference: Don't Look Back is an
album produced by accomplished arena-rock superstars. Most of the songs on Boston featured huge, bombastic
arrangements, but at heart they were relatively personal tunes — love serenades
or personal confessions. You were invited to sing along and join in the
emotional turbulence all right, but they weren't really written with the
collective you, our lovely stadium
audience, in mind. By the time it was time to put out a sequel, the band's
status had changed, and now Scholz was making songs «for the people». Again,
there is nothing wrong with this in principle, but a mindset like that can sometimes result in extra
seriousness at the expense of melodicity.
It is hardly coincidental that the record
begins and ends with prohibitive invocations — at the start, we are told not to
look back, and for the finish, we are invited not to be afraid. It is definitely
not coincidental that ʽFeelin'
Satisfiedʼ informs us that "the time has come to get together" and
begs us to "come on, put your hands together" and "take a chance
on rock'n'roll" (as if any Boston concert goer had not already taken a
chance — probably much more than one — on rock'n'roll). Throughout, the
choruses get louder and louder and more repetitive, and even the most introspective
song of them all, ʽA Man I'll Never Beʼ, has its last chorus line specially
singled out so that the entire stadium could brace itself for it.
These are the little details that pick up my
attention. As to the actual musical advances, well, I should say that Scholz's
musical perfectionism refers more to the sphere of subtle overtones and
frequencies than finding new sources of inspiration for his melody-making. Like
Boston, this record, too, features a
brief instrumental interlude (ʽThe Journeyʼ) that merges elements of folk and cosmic
psychedelia, but other than that, Boston's flying saucer shows no signs of
wanting to preserve its outer space identity — being perfectly happy to churn
out one power-pop anthem after another for the earthly entertainment of
Earthlings. Epic Records say — assimilate or perish, oh you strange aliens from
the faraway planet of Boston.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with most of
these power pop anthems. The title track has a cool funky riff (later stolen by
Michael Jackson for ʽBlack And Whiteʼ, as I have only just realized) that
somehow agrees well enough with the song's straightforward 4/4 beat. ʽIt's
Easyʼ, ʽFeelin' Satisfiedʼ, ʽPartyʼ, and ʽUsed To Bad Newsʼ are all catchy and
fun pop-rockers, although rather non-descript in impressionistic terms. And
although I used to seriously dislike the power balladry of ʽA Man I'll Never
Beʼ, I have grown accustomed to its clever trickery of successively piling up
one layer of guitars upon another until, with one triumphant thunderclash, it
turns into something on a truly Gargantuan scale. (And do not miss or misjudge the
piano quote from Paul McCartney's ʽMaybe I'm Amazedʼ, the wise mother of all
such power ballads).
With all these considerations in mind and
impressions in the heart, there is no reason to condemn Don't Look Back — it earns its thumbs up by not letting down our expectations if
we wanted more of the same. If we didn't — if we expected this band to top Boston
and push its musical boundaries further forward — Don't Look Back could only be described as disappointing, as it
neither pushes forward nor takes any «sideward» risks (like, for instance,
Fleetwood Mac did with Tusk around
the same time). But why should we
have expected anything like that? Tom Scholz has his own vision of a perfect brand
of pop-rock, and he is not interested in straying too far away from it. If only
his head weren't so turned with his own and the band's own «bigness», Don't Look Back could probably have
been as much fun as its predecessor. As it is, it is slightly less fun and a
little more stadium-preachy, but only a tad so. And the staidum audiences did
bite, sending the album to the top of the charts and certifying it seven times
platinum. It is, however, rather
telling that ʽDon't Look Backʼ never managed to earn itself such an assured
place on classic rock radio as ʽMore Than A Feelingʼ — no accident, I'd say.
Haven't heard any songs from this album in about seven or eight years. The memory I have is that they were pretty much carbon copies of stuff off the first album, only three times as bombastic and a third as enjoyable. I recall liking the title track, as stupid and overblown as it was, and hating "A Man I'll Never Be" (a title which screams "heart-on-the-sleeve power ballad"). I put a lot of stock in your musical taste and opinions (ours are very similar), so I'll give it another shot. Maybe I'll enjoy and appreciate it more at 23 than I did at 15.
ReplyDeleteI know everybody loves the debut more but cannot understand why. Already alluded in that album's comments this has my favourite Boston songs along with a couple on the first one's 2nd half. Love the sonic improvements, musicianship, taking chances, etc. Better than most albums released that year, in my opinion.
ReplyDelete"Tusk around the same time"
ReplyDeleteThat happens when you grow up with this stuff like I did - in my memory Tusk came eons after Don't Look Back. It was the first album of Boston I bought. My opinion hasn't changed a bit. I am not as negative as you were originally, but not as positive as you are now. The problem begins with the title song and especially the instrumental mid section. It just repeats the two main themes over and over again, which bores me pretty quickly. It's too long with 6 minutes. The two final songs are way too bland. Party is kind of fun, but shows how strong the tendency to superficiality is. The Journey is kind of nice, but just a ditty. I like Feeling Satisfied: a decent riff and a pretty melody, but the fake fade out annoys me. It's easy is better than the inferior stuff on the debut album, but not exactly a classic. So my favourite song is, hold your breath .... the ballad. I dispute it's a power ballad. It lacks an essential element: catharsis, so typical for the ballads of Foreigner and Bon Jovi. The climax is rather a lament. For the same reason Dream On is not a power ballad, even if the title screams "heart-on-the-sleeve". But what's wrong with that?
I refer to Milan Kundera:
“Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass!
The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass!”
In A Man I'll never Be the second tear is absent. The song shamelessly jerks the first tear though.
The title song is excellent... no, brilliant. It ends with the intriguing instrumental 'Journey'... and then the whole album flops into nice, but too calculated, programmed, cliched pop-rock songs. By the end of the side B, it is boring.
ReplyDeleteSo, this is the answer, Dean, why the general public prefers the first album. No matter what playing and producing trickery it employs, it also fascinates with sincerity and emotion.
Wrong: radio play ensures people love those inferior songs whereas Don't Look Back rules without it
DeleteYou know, it actually could just be that people like different things without some massive conspiracy or a strawman made of incorrect assumptions causing those different opinions. But I suppose that's just crazy talk.
Delete"if we expected this band to top Boston and push its musical boundaries further forward"
ReplyDelete...And no further album would do that push. There's no other musician than Scholz, that had an image of tech-magician, to be so stuck in time up to the present times.
I mean, the man admits that the last music he heard from someone else is some 1972 album, be it from Spooky Tooth or Led Zeppelin, cannot remember. What is the name of this syndrome?
Xeroxing degrades the image.
ReplyDelete