Taking Sides: Boston's Eponymous Debut VS. Destroyer by Kiss

Speaking of Boston, though. That catalog is due for a remaster. The thing is, Tom will probably insist on doing it himself and taking six years for each one.

Comparing them is god damned offensive.

Pure pop fury with spine tingling vocals and love for life spiraling each note. Boston discovered the sequence of notes that unlocks the primal urge to rock out and gave it to us WITH FUCKING LASER BEAMS AND GUITARS THAT GO INTO OUTER SPACE.

KISS are boredom personified. They rock posture where Boston rocksplode and leave you with rock shrapnel that you talk to your pals at the Veterans hall about, and drink away the post-traumatic stress disorder that Boston shook into your bones.

I disagree vehemently, but this sentence is so fuckin' awesome that I'll let it slide.

In one of my first threads on this board, I asked if Smashing Pumpkins' Pisces Iscariot was the Pet Sounds of the 90s. But, actually, I've never heard Pet Sounds so I don't know if any album is the Pet Sounds of its decade, whether that's a good thing, or even what that would mean. I'm guessing it has something to do with elaborate production, vocal harmonies, falsetto singing, and whitebread sentimentality.

I think "Beth" is the only song on Destroyer I know. My sister used to really love it. It never did that much for me. Was "Detroit Rock City" the one Sonic Youth sampled for "Master=Dik"?

25 years on the answer for me is Boston.

I still dig both albums out on occaision. There is something indefinably great about that Boston record, as vapid and superficial as Sundar so rightly describes it. Those soaring harmonies and crystaline guitars...it's such a well-crafted, finely honed sound.

By grade school standards, though, despite its cool album cover art and funky logo, Boston was absolutely no match for Destroyer (the saccharine scmaltz of "Beth" notwithstanding).

it wouldn't be fair to bring up "presence" or "rocks" so i won't.

Ahah. So very true. For this comment, I will forgive you for taking the side of Destroyer.

"Don't Look Back" absolutely kills. Especially the guitar on the outro.

but "beth" isn't saccharine at all. it's a mean song, a casual defense of selfishness and neglect. at the same time, it's about the all-powerful allure of rock and roll. i looooooove this song. (i'm also a big fan of scrawl's answer song, "charles.")

Depends on whether you want to hear the full album of bombast in one sitting or prefer small doses...

If one were to judge this contest solely on radio airplay, tracks from the Boston record get played much much more. Not that that is necessarily a good thing.

Never heard of this one! More info, please!

I'm gonna go with Boston in this debate, as there's a large chunk of my childhood that was soundtracked by the debut album. Also, Weezer stole their harmonic vocal attack schtick wholesale, and I love Weezer.

Oh pleasey plese. "Beth" is the veritable QUINTESSENCE of saccharine. It's a power ballad without even the slightest semblence of power involved. Moreover, it needn't be so much about selfishness and neglect so much as loyalty, committment, tenacity and vocational obigation. In any event, it's still a soppy dollop of weakitude.

Never heard "Charles". Which Scrawl album is that on?

saccharine = sweeter but fucks you up worse!

jonathan king had a one-off novelty semi-hit by a faux-metal band called sakkharin - he is a nasty man but he knows what time it is!

right, but that loyalty and commitment to the band, and to the sound that they just can't find, comes at the expense of one's girlfriend. she needs him, and he may pretend to care, but he really doesn't. given a choice between the woman who loves him and the elusive "sound," he chooses the sound. call it selfishness or call it tenacity, either way it's an ice-cold, mean-ass love song.

That sound they're looking for will help them sell albums and pay for that house that just ain't a home, though.

Well, since you asked, I tried:

Boston Haikus

I guess it never really caught on, though...

Fair enough. I too admit to loving Boston.....but you'll never shake my undying devotion to Kiss, specifically to Destroyer.

In Praise of.....DESTROYER by Kiss!

fact checking cuz is more right, but still a little off the mark.

Here's the thing about "Beth": dude left the studio hours ago and is banging groupies. He knows commitment to his bros and his "art" is an unassailable alibi. He's a total asshole, but a totally ROCK AND ROLL asshole.

Anyway, prior to discoverng the joys of stoopid heavy metal

Loving Destroyer is prior to this?

I'd argue, for example, that, say, Shout at the Devil by the Crue and/or At War with Satan by Venom are far dumber than Destroyer (though no less awesome).

We need George and Chuck to weigh in on this.

Boston didn't need a soppy uncharacteristic single for the radio to calm the corporates and subsidize the rest of the meat of the act. "More Than a Feeling" went right onto the radio and it's always been exactly what the band was about, music-wise. Plus, it had the good sense to lift from Joe Walsh, something Scholz has always done. "Rock & Roll Band" was boogie and Kiss was never good at boogie. No boogie on Destroyer although a couple points for pointing obscurely at Deborah Frost on "Flaming Youth," although it falls apart pretty fast. "Destroyer" was a Kim Fowley-type of record. Fowley would have thought of something like "Great Expectations." Maybe he did think of it and just didn't act on it quickly enough.

It's a good comedy song, fit for John Valby.

Boston didn't do comedy disguised as hard rock. Boston, the album, fostered a unique heavy pop rock tone everyone else wanted, so much so that Scholz created a small industry around it. Two of the most successful bands in the 80's, ZZ Top and Def Leppard, borrowed huge hunks of it and twisted it into their styles.

Speaking of stupid, it's hard to go beyond the adult stupid of the live side of ZZ Top's pig calling competition in front of Texan power boozers on Fandango. "Tush" is also stupid in a fine boogie manner. There's moments of high and great stupid on BOC's On Your Feet or On Your Knees -- the barking dog chick and "Manny" Bloom singing about how he knew Lucifer so well he called him by his first name, "I said, hey Lou."

Oh boy, we got stupid by the truckload in the early to mid-70's and that's why we loved it. Uriah Heep's Magician's Birthday is a pwner of stupid.

As for Destroyer itself, I enjoy "Detroit Rock City", "King Of The Night Time World" and "Shout It Out Loud", and maybe "God Of Thunder" too, if memory serves (haven't heard it in 15+ yrs.) But I'll still take Hotter Than Hell over anything. And I've always been confused: How does the "Detroit Rock City" news radio announcer report the kid's car accident before it's even happened?)

Is it "people who were introduced to Boston by their presumably cooler older brothers" and "people who were those older brothers"?

b/c that would seem to include Destroyer too...

I took my younger brother to see Kiss on the Destroyer tour. He liked them but wound up being into Sammy Hagar a little more. Hey, "Red, red, I like red!" and "Cruisin' and boozin'!"

True. By the time of Dynasty (`79...I was in eighth grade), I was getting very lonely in the Kiss hallelujah choir.

Not an especially diffficult feat, I'd imagine.

I can't remember and unortunately Tom Scholz failed to anticipate Google when he named his band.

Yeah. I can picture it so clearly it feels like they must have had one.

"Shout It Out Loud" is, however, my favorite Kiss song, to the extent that I have one.