I was always captivated by the guitar sounds and vocals from the band Boston. Those first two albums were absolutely massive with a capital M. By the time they finally returned with Third Stage, I was in college (the first time), and my musical tastes had wandered into punk and alternative territory. I bought the album anyway, of course, but it wasn't quite the same timing for me.
In the long wait between Boston albums, though, I found plenty to keep me occupied. Barry Goudreau's solo LP and Orion the Hunter completely grabbed me. Tom Scholz reportedly wasn't too happy about Barry's records being marketed with references to the "Boston sound," and Goudreau was eventually shown the door by Scholz.
But come on, Tom... they kind of did.
The guitars sounded familiar, Brad Delp was involved, and the whole thing carried that soaring, melodic DNA that made Boston great in the first place. Fran Cosmo, who sang on the Goudreau-related releases, would later end up in Boston anyway, which only made the family resemblance harder to deny.
Orion the Hunter's "So You Ran" climbed to #58 on the charts, and I distinctly remember hearing it on the radio for the first time. For a few seconds I honestly thought, "Wait... is this the new Boston single?" The vocals, the guitars, the overall feel... it was close enough to fool me. it was like hearing Boston through a slightly different telescope.
Looking back, maybe Tom Scholz had a point. But as a fan, it felt like Barry Goudreau was making records for Boston fans while Boston was busy not releasing Boston records, and those records felt less like imitators and more like bonus tracks from an alternate Boston universe. And honestly, that's probably why I loved them.
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