I should have posted this last week ..... Brad Delp, whose soaring tenor on songs such as "More Than Feeling" gave voice to the best-selling rock band Boston, has died at the age of 55. Here is the obituary that ran at the time, in the pages of the Boston Globe. It was later revealed that Delp had committed suicide, leaving behind a note in which he described himself as "a lonely soul." More on that, from Billboard Magazine.Not reaching the audiences enjoyed by either of those publications, I was writing for a pair of Albuquerque, New Mexico-based periodicals - Albuquerque Music Scene, and Record Review - when Boston made the leap from regional favorite to national sensation. Record Review paid its writers with the thrill of seeing their byline in print, and you got to keep the record you reviewed. I still have that copy of "Boston," their breakthrough album, and I still listen to it from time to time.
Biographers of the 70s note that Delp's interest in music started with the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, and contributed to a spike in guitar sales following that landmark television broadcast. He was working in a New England factory when he met Todd Scholtz, and auditioned for the band that would become Boston. Fame and fortune would come - and go - in the years following that meeting.
I'll close with lyrics from "More Than a Feeling," composed by Scholtz, and given life by the voice - now-stilled - of Brad Delp.
"I looked out this morning and the sun was gone,
Turned on some music to start my day,
I lost myself in a familiar song,
I closed my eyes and I slipped away ..."
2 comments:
I was unaware -- until reading your post -- that his death was a suicide. Thanks for the great post and links.
cherrypicker, thanks for stopping in, and for the kind words about my post.
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