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From there, comparisons became more numerous, and ridiculous, "Yeah, we have a list of between twenty-five and thirty top bands who we sound just like . . . . everybody from the obvious ones like Queen and Led Zeppelin, down to The Allman Bros., Credence Clearwater . . . Emerson Lake & Palmer . . . there's some pretty bizarre ones, "Tom states with a grin, "We've been compared to practically everybody who exists by now, so I suppose that does have a lot to do with how music is criticized today."

Indeed, some of the bands who have tried to mould a Sound of The Seventies from what went down in The Sixties have received for their efforts the sting of The Whip of Righteous Critical Backlash with its attendant cry of 'Ripoff'-BeBop Deluxe, Queen, Sweet, Aerosmith, Boston . . . the list goes on and on. With 'Boston, it wasn't as much a matter of the material being imitative (the bulk of it being 5-7 years old anyway) as it was the arrangements. A band that plays loud, driving rock lives and dies by the success of its arrangements, giving the piece its holes for solos, the dynamics for volume change; Boston's arrangements were all well-placed and constructed, but usually contained a whiff of deja vu that absolutely convinced you that you'd heard the exact same thing sometime else, even if you couldn't really nail it down.

Fortunately for all concerned, the friendships held up and proved a valuable asset as the band went out on the road. Epic had done their job well, along with the services of Paul Ahern and Charles McKenzie (Boston's managers). Every major media was well informed of the imminent arrival and performance of Boston in their market. The result, naturally enough, was a series of enthusiastic crowds that elevated Boston from support act to headline Act,in a short time. This advance willingness on the part of the crowd to accept the band helped smooth the way for Brad, who handled the lead vocals: "The audiences were extremely receptive, and at least for me, that was a real nice surprise, because the first time you go anywhere you wonder if people even know who you are. . ."

Bost ebony porn on found, as they toured, that they were, in fact, very well known, but as a band, not unique personalities. In this day and age of media saturation on all levels in regard to rock music, lack of individual personalities within a band is somewhat akin to exhibiting an avantgard painting that is so immersed in its own expressionism that it becomes impossible to discern a focal point, something on which to hang your interpretation of that painting. It's the same with rock acts; an audience needs to have at least one member of the group on stage on which to focus its collective definition of that band. Steve Tyler, Roger Daltrey, Mick Jagger, Freddie Mercury, etc., all dominate their respective stages. (A Star is Born every minute, but then so are suckers.)

With Boston, again it's the music that sustains them, the conception of the bank. There haven't been any great individual personalities to merge from the lads. As Brad, who has every right to feel the pressure as front man, says, "I really don't consider myself a front man, either, except that lots of times I have nothing else to do but be a front man, I guess . . . I try to relate more to an audience on a personal level than a big, choreographed thing . . .". If comparisons can be made on both a philosophical and a metaphysical level, Boston more resembles Foghat or Rory Gallagher then, instead of Led Zeppelin.
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