Last week, we lost another great rock and roll voice from the seventies as Brad Delp, lead singer for the band Boston passed away at 55.
Brad passed away at his home in Southern New Hampshire and will long be remembered in this rock and roll band out of Boston. Together with Tom Sholtz, they formed “Boston” one of the most enduring and distinctive rock sounds to come out during the “disco-seventies” and for a decade, no band would have such a distinctive sound.
Delp’s voice was often in the stratosphere for most male vocalists of the time and together with the rich harmonies this band was noted for their recording production techniques and most notably the voice was one-of-a-kind.
Songs like ‘More than a feelin’, Smokin’, Rock and Roll Band and many others were part of my high school years and often played loud on cheap stereos, but these guys were the hip rock act of the time. Most every guitar player I knew would fiddle with their amplifiers to try and emulate the “Boston” sound and even though they often got close with their technical gagdets, when it came down to the voice, you rarely heard anything close.
That may have been one of he downfalls of the band too. I never saw them live, but more often than not, critics and reviews of their performances were often cited commenting they could not produce the rich vocal and audio sounds on stage that they could in the studio.
Brad left the band in 1979-1980 and came back in the mid-eighties. He played on a recording with keyboard eccentric, Keith Emerson and played in Beatles tribute band – Beatlejuice, which he cited as one of his primary influences.
Losing cultural icons like this are a bit like losing old friends. They certainly resurect a lot of old high school memories and everytime, I hear this guy song it immediately takes me back to a place in time at Sullivan Central high school and every rock band I played with that tried to play and sing the music.
Rest in Pace – Brad Delp.
