Boston is one of those bands that has never released an actual live recording. There is one floating around out there that is worth the catch if you come across it recorded live in Worcester Massachusetts at the Worcester Centrum during a 9 night stand in which Boston played to 12,000 people per night back in August of 1987!
Boston was out promoting their latest opus Third Stage and for myself it was a mixed bag of music as I couldn’t believe when you have the guitar firepower of Boston leader Tom Scholz you open your long-awaited new album with a ballad!(Amanda).
Gripes aside this is the closest thing to an actual Boston live album you will ever hear as it features the late great Brad Delp. The sound on this live show is brilliant. It blows me away why these guys never pounced and put this album out officially. Actually this is one of the best ever non officially released live albums I have ever heard! Play the tracks posted included below! Soooooo Goooooood!
25 Boston classics including of course More Than A Feeling/Rock N Roll Band/Piece of Mind/Don’t Look Back/Feelin Satisfied are featured. What’s even more cool is that after a 13 minute version of More Than A Feeling(which considering its length is quite good) which is the 6th track of the show Delp announces to the crowd that Boston is going to play Third Stage in its entirety! Who the hell was doing this back in 1987?
Imagine for a second if back in 1987 Motley Crue played the entire Girls/Girls/Girls album front to back!! HAHAHA…there would be a mass exodus to the exits when Vince Neil would begin singing Your All I Need!
Anyways back to the task at hand….
Lots of artists are doing front to back albums but give Tommy and Delp credit. The Third Stage songs cut through a lot better live than the studio versions. Man you gotta love Scholz’s playing as the dude never gets his due but along with Gary Pihl they ramp up at certain times with dual leads and Tom even at times does that wacky sound effect with his guitar that makes it sound like a spaceship is landing!
This is a great unofficial live album that by the sound of it is official as an live album you will hear from Boston!
Friday it was Sam’s 1984 big breakthrough album V.O.A that was reviewed but let’s rewind a few year’s back to 1980 in the recording’s of Sammy…
Yup..
After being blown away by Hagar’s Live show in the fall of 1984 as soon as my feet landed back in Thunder Bay it was off to the record shop and purchase anything live Hagar….
It was Kings Stereo that I purchased Live 1980 a live Sam album from well ….1980! Recorded at the infamous Hammersmith Odeon in London England.
The Tunes…
“Trans Am (Highway Wonderland)” (Sammy Hagar) – 5:15
“Love or Money” (Hagar) – 3:57
“Plain Jane” (Hagar) – 2:26
“20th Century Man” (Hagar, Gary Pihl) – 3:59
“This Planet’s on Fire (Burn in Hell)” (Hagar) – 5:14
“In the Night (Entering the Danger Zone)” (Hagar) – 1:26
“The Danger Zone” (Hagar) – 5:00
“Space Station #5” (Hagar, Ronnie Montrose) – 4:28
The Dude’s who don’t look like Ladies…
Sammy Hagar – lead vocals, lead guitar
Gary Pihl – rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Bill Church – bass guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Ruff – drums, backing vocals
This album blew me away for one thing you can see pre 1981 Sam was all old school hard guitar rock! No keyboards except for some dabbling In The Night/Danger Zone.
Ok so when I spun this the very first time the thing struck me right off the hop was the intro to the first song of the show and thats Trans Am. Great opening number with the intro(you can hear a Motor revving) and some dude on the mic introducing the “Red Rocker Sammy Hagar” and bam the curly-haired dude is singing about his Car?! Hahaha…whatever yanks the crank I suppose! But still a great live number listen below…
So as soon as Sam gets off the Highway Wonderland it’s into another Gem of a tune called Love Or Money. “I may be crazy but I ain’t no fool!” Sammy hollers and boom were off. Nice shuffle of the drums by Ruff as well as backing vocals. Sammy 1980 is a serious Hard Rocker!
Plain Jane has a real cool vibe not an all out rocker but Plain Jane still packs a real good oomph! Super cool verse’s with a real cool bass line that follows the lead vocal!
Big rock riff’s lead the way and that song is called 20th Century Man No radio fodder her on this tune as Sam and Gary weave the guitars in and out while flexing some serious muscle live. Another standout track that no one ever talks about! Even Hagar himself!
Side 2 begins with one of my favourite Hagar tracks and that’s This World Is On Fire. Boogie woggie riff a roo and this was even Sam’s opener when I seen the show in 84. It’s basically a tune about selling your soul to the music business…lyrics below…
‘Cancelled flights, limousines
Hustle bustles, crazy scenes
First you’re here, then you’re there
Pretty soon man, you been everywhere
Ooh, this planet’s on fire
Oh, Satan’s desire
We’ve seen the rise, we’ll see the fall
He’s here to see us all
Burn in hell…’
Even better I’m going to post a live clip of a young Sam from 1978 blasting this tune live. People tend to forget what a great Lead/Rhythm Picker Sam is …..watch it man its Rock Gold!
Form there it gets trippy with a short interlude awash with keys called In The Night which goes right into The Danger Zone which is more spacey and crazy with the album ending with the Montrose classic Space Station Number 5 which is a rip snorting rock attack as the band is on an all out rock attack! More huge guitars and this is Hard Rock done to perfection with a chorus that is gold!
As with the end of every Sam show he introduces the Boys in the band something he still does to this day! Props all around!
This is a quick snap shot audio assault from Sam and he’s a rocking beast as is his band. The performance on here is top-notch and Sam as he entered the 80’s shifted his musical chops somewhat with a more commercial hard rock sound. Fair enough as you gotta make cash!
Circus Magazine was the first time I had seen the name Sammy Hagar and that was back in 1982 for an advertisement for his current album at the time Three Lock Box.
It wasn’t until the summer of 1984 when I had first seen Sam’s video for I Can’t Drive 55 on MuchMusic and I was sold. The song featured a crunchy guitar not overtaken by the keyboards and the video was fun as well with Sam blasting around in his Ferrari/Eluding the Cops/Being tossed in the Slammer and then busting out and there’s Sam in the cool car while the boys in his band follow him a truck! You know who’s cutting the cheque’s!
I was 16 and Sam was badass in a Hard Rock kind of way as it seems Sammy wasn’t taking his shit too serious by making a cool goofy video!
Off to fetch my first Hagar record and that was Voice Of America or V.O.A for short!
Sammy already had a slew of solo albums under his belt as well as two Montrose albums so he had been in the game for a while!
Sam’s career by 84 was picking up steam and as well just a few months later in Oct 1984 I caught Hagar headlining in Ladano’s favourite city Duluth Minnesota with Krokus opening. Sammy delivered an exceptional live show to this day I still recall fondly..
Hagar Tunes…
“I Can’t Drive 55” (Sammy Hagar) – 4:12
“Swept Away” (Hagar) – 5:36
“Rock Is in My Blood” (Hagar) – 4:29
“Two Sides of Love” (Hagar) – 3:41
“Dick in the Dirt” (Hagar) – 4:19
“VOA” (Hagar) – 4:29
“Don’t Make Me Wait” (Hagar, Jesse Harms) – 4:06
“Burnin’ Down the City” (Hagar) – 5:32
There ya have it. 8 Hard Rockers with Don’t Make Me Wait being the bona-fide token Power Ballad but other wise a pretty kick ass album.
Sam nicked Ted Templeman for this album and Ted of course produced the 6 Roth Halen albums and just a short year later Wham Bam Ol Thank You Mam! Sam I Am becomes the new VH singer after Dave Roth gets the boot/quits ..yada yada…
Hagar’s Honcho’s…
Sammy Hagar – lead vocals, lead guitar
Gary Pihl – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Jesse Harms – keyboards, backing vocals
Bill Church – bass guitar, backing vocals
David Lauser – drums, backing vocals
The great thing when I started buying Sam’s albums was that these guys were his backing band for many years. Sam remained loyal to them and it wasn’t like the Dave CoverdaleWhitesnake switch aroo member changes from album to album tour to tour it seemed which I got so sick and tired of.
V.O.A like I had mentioned blasts of with I Can’t Drive 55 and once Lauser rolls that snare intro it takes you the listener all of 5 seconds to know that the Production is going to be top-notch as well as the performances! Love this tune as 55 is just plain old fun Rawk! No Frills’s as Sam is smart as he buy’s into the don’t bore us get to the chorus philosophy and I’m ok with that as my attention span is short to begin with…
Swept Away is a Gem! Sam nails one out of the park with this track. Love the big power chord that begin’s the song and it shifts into a decent balance of keyboards and acoustic before Sam ramps it up on the chorus. Check out the Live 1984 audio clip I posted to hear it for your self….
Rock Is In My Blood lyrically is kinda silly but the music is slow with a bit of hard rock thrown in to keep the music somewhat raunchy. It’s a decent track musically but after Swept Away Sam can be forgiven for writing some Dumbo Like Lyrics…. Sam must have found some of Gene Simmons leftover Animalize lyrics lying around!
Sam and the boys deliver a real decent hard rock single written all over it track called Two Sides Of Love. Driven by keyboards and drums along with some ripping guitar Two Sides is a great fun summer time hard rock track. Love the pre chorus that segues right into the catchy happy chorus. Great tune….Another video posted below…
Dick In The Dirt wins funniest song title in 1984.. Sam sings about a down on his luck dude named Richard so come chorus time the lyrics go “She Knocked Dick In The Dirt” hahaha,,,that silly ol Red Rocker. The music is good as well and when I caught the VOA show this was the second track played that night….
The title track V.O.A is Sam rolling up with Rock Troops and they will kick anyones ass that is in the way! Sam even name drops the USSR as well and I remember reading back than interviews asking him about being political etc which was kinda funny because these lyrics are kinda just goofy words like Triumph wrote with there Allied Forces lyrics. No harm no foul right? But by Sam name dropping a country I guess he stirred someones coffee the wrong way…than again as with a lot of music back than it was probably a calculated move. I bought into it!
Don’t Make Me Wait is the big power slobbery tune on this album and it’s not a bad track actually! Everyone was doing this back than and so it falls into that heap of song’s I can’t handle but some I can. Today I can’t though…
Burnin Down The City was a tune I kinda neglected as I would pick up the needle after the tune V.O.A and would move onto something else. Having said that it’s not a knock as this tune is a mid tempo end of the album rocker. Features Sammy yammering on about some-crazed ass dude Burning Down The City…Case in point… Here’s some lyrics ….
Every night he rocks this place
He burns the best, but never shows his face, oh, no.
Burns the walls, burns a truck,
Burns a trian, don’t give a fuck, no, no.
Aren’t those lyrics classic? HAHAHA….
Still though a great revisit and you have to hand it to solo Sam as he was basically putting out album after album followed by tour after tour and building up the fan base. Plus writing all the tunes and such the dude no matter what you think of Sam he has a great work ethic even though at times he get’s a little sloppy with the lyrics! But who cares I love Big Dumbo Rock look at KISS’s 80’s output especially that Asylum album…haha….
My next post will be the second ever album of Hagar’s I purchased on Monday Folk’s …A Double Sam Shot….
Ok! Lets think about this for a sec! 1986 and I’m 19,I purchase everything music,I do love me the hard rock! So when it’s announced that Boston is releasing a new studio album there first in 8 friggin years were pumped I mean it was only a year earlier(1985) at our high school that me and some guys over the course of our lunch break were yakking its up all things music and someone brought up the fact that Def Leppard had been taking there time releasing there new record (Hysteria) which wouldn’t be released for another 2 years (1987) soooooo…someone Sez now keep in mind this is 1985 ‘what about Boston? Ahhhh the Leppard topic was dropped and everyone was like yeah WTF and I knew that by reading Circus Magazine that Boston or more importantly Tom Scholz was battling his record company over something so there was a delay but come Sept 1986 here comes the concept album Third Stage and ummmm well….
COOL YOUR ENGINES DEKE!
AMANDA-ok so we wait mega years for a Boston album and Third Stage is dropped and they lead it off with a ….Geez are you serious Mr Scholz a ballad?? Let’s take a lookie here for a second at some other albums I bought in 1986 that had super duper kick Ya in the nut sack openers that would draw your attention and and just keep Ya Rockin! Sammy Halen had Good Enough as the opening track on 5150! David Lee Roth had Yankee Rose as the opener on Eat Em & Smile! The Mighty Iron Maiden had Caught Somewhere In Time from Somewhere In Time, ACDC had Who Made Who as a opener on the soundtrack by the same name,Triumph had Tears in the Rain..Ummm ok now I’m pushing it but you get my drift …Songs that would rock me as a 19 year old and as I write this now as year 47 old I can ask Boston this. What The Fuck were you doing opening your long awaited album with a sap track?? Ahh man this is gonna be painful! I know a lot of people dig this track and hey Arena Rock salutes you…..but as a opener you wanna say BUZZ KILLER! I do So Buzz Killer Amanda is!
WERE READY- big guitars and a so so tempo and this is a improvement on Amanda. Having said that Brad Delp(RIP) saves this album just with his voice. Man that cat could sing! While we’re at it is Sib the drummer with the cool Afro even on this record? These drums sound like electronic,programmed up the ying yang with a million guitars layered over the top, like icing on your birthday cake!
THE LAUNCH-is a 3 parter(Countdown/Ignition/Third Stage Separation)musical guitar/effects smorgasbord with a real big Sonic Boom(ha) blast off! Hey even in the notes Boston tells us that no synths are used on this record! Just a million other gadgets whatever that crazy Professor Scholz had cooking in his lab!
COOL THE ENGINES- sounds like a throwback to the first two Boston albums and wow we’re finally rocking in Boston! Brad Delp delivers a great vocal but than again he always delivered! What a loss his death was to the Arena Rock Community! But yeah this one has a snap happy chorus and more big time guitar action! Welcome back to 1986 and some loud (kinda) Rockin !
MY DESTINATION- Wowzers another Boston ballad? We were just a Cranking up the engines and now we are definitely Cooling The Engines here! Think Amanda again but with a big loud ass organ shoved up your backside!
A NEW WORLD- a little 40 second music intro that is credited to Jim Masdea! Hahaha…Scholz lets go of the controls and let’s the new drummer guy get a writing credit even if it’s for 40 seconds!
TO BE A MAN- yeah another slower almost filler kinda tune. This is AOR Boston bigtime I mean were they bunking in with REO Speedwagon here? Dunno but it sounds like it to me! I can hear it now a triple mix of Can’t Fight This Feeling/To Be A Man / Keep On Loving You….where’s the barf bag?
I THINK I LIKE IT-Boston ups the tempo here a little and pushes the pedal to the gas a little more but they almost stall the engines! This song has Scholz and new guitar guy (Gary Pihl x of Sam Hagars band) playing solos and the song is ok! Delp saves this man he’s the MVP of Third Stage!
CAN’TCHA SAY- Yep Delp delivers a superb smooth as silk vocal delivery and this has radio written all over it! Catchy chorus and more big sound! Those sounds that Scholz plays you got to hand it to him as you know it’s him and well good on Tom! The bugger could play a good 6 string!
HOLLYANN- hey why don’t we Sandwhich At the start of Third Stage a big ballad and stuff some melodic rockers in between and close Third Stage out with a another ballad! Sheeeeeit man you kidding me? Yep Boston goes where a lot of bands wouldn’t go near and drive the AOR rocket ship into space with more melodic rock! I will say this one has some good guitar in it….
IN CONCLUISON- Boston drops the long awaited album and I’m puzzled! Too many AOR chill tracks but too be honest I actually had this listed as 3/4’s Filler but man lead singer Brad Delp saves the day! He soars here vocally and takes it to a whole level by himself! He’s the deal here folks,taking some songs and by his singing saving them from the scrap heap! Tom Scholz cans Sib and his Fro and the other original dudes and brings in some new blood and he must have as well borrowed ZZ Tops Afterburner drum machine(guess it was the 1986 thing to do) and well say what you wanna I tossed a Sonic Waves Mulligan here folks!
In Other Words…..
1986- Deke banished Third Stage to the 3/4’s Filler Pile ….
2015-Deke says Brad Delp saves Third Stage ….just barely does Third Stage scrape into Sonic Waves Territory….
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