This is not the way I wanted to start out my blog, I had a whole post planned on an entirely different subject. But something happened recently that I feel the need to say a few words about.
On March 9th Brad Delp, lead singer for the rock band Boston, committed suicide. Normally I wouldn't pay much attention to such an event. I'm not the kind of person who follows the celebrity news pages.. actually I don't think that sort of content should qualify as news. Perhaps that suggests too callous an attitude towards death, but people die every day, I see no reason to focus so much attention on a celebrity death.. say.. such as has happened for Anna Nicole Smith..
But to me Boston is something special. While they made their reputation with classics such as "More Than a Feelin'", my true introduction to Boston was the album Third Stage. Their latest album, Corporate America, was a new experience for me because of how many different people sang on it. But Third Stage was all about the studio genius of Tom Scholz, who played most of the guitar tracks one at a time and then combined them, and the vocals of Brad Delp. To quote the liner notes, Tom thanks Brad "for singing the way only he can sing. This album would not have sounded the same without him".
Now none may ever sound that way again. I don't know if Brad had already recorded anything for a new album, I've seen speculation that a new one was expected for '07. There's always the hope that there might be a little bit more of his vocals left to come, bit if so it'd make for a bittersweet presence.
This is just my clumsy attempt at a tribute to him, my way of saying I'm sorry to everyone who cared about him and are dealing with the loss.
