Why It Matters

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By

James Stafford

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From The Stacks: Boston, ‘We Found It In the Trashcan, Honest!’ (Bootleg)

Boston’s demo tapes might be one of the most famous bootlegs in existence. That’s due in part to the lasting popularity of the band’s 1976 debut album, and also to the rags to riches story of the little band whose demo was rejected by label after label only to eventually become bajillion selling recording artists.…

Boston’s demo tapes might be one of the most famous bootlegs in existence.

That’s due in part to the lasting popularity of the band’s 1976 debut album, and also to the rags to riches story of the little band whose demo was rejected by label after label only to eventually become bajillion selling recording artists.

But more than anything it’s the quality of these recordings. Tom Scholz owned a basement full of professional grade studio gear, so his demo recordings sound better than most fully produced albums. These tapes must have been a bootlegger’s dream.

There are several versions of the Boston demo tapes floating around. This one will run you 20-40 bucks, but of course you can also hear it online for free. Happy hunting.

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Responses to “From The Stacks: Boston, ‘We Found It In the Trashcan, Honest!’ (Bootleg)”

  1. Anonymous

    I was a big fan of Boston way back in 1976 and after I got deployed to Exmouth, Western Australia, I took a trip to Perth where I found a record store that had The Boston Demo Tapes LP for sale. I bought it and never listened to it, but I had friends in the base radio and TV station (AFRTS) who made a tape for me, with a DJ friend of mine doing the introductions to each song. I returned to the ‘States in 1980 and sat on the album for the next 40 years. I sent it to a guy in California who gave me the album in an AIFF file and I dissected each track into MP3, then put the album up for sale on Mercari (EBay wouldn’t take it, they considered it a fake album). I got $40 for it and I still have the MP3s.

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  2. James Stafford

    Dan that’s good stuff.

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  3. Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

    Man, I always forget that when I was 14, a lovely woman/mother figure/friend (I left home at 13 years old to live with her and her husband, my father paid them $140 a month for me, a story for another day) named Christine Jacobs – she and her husband Dave bought Boston’s debut album, and it swung on their turntable along with Barbie Benton, John Denver, and Barry Manilow (we rocked hard in Mar Vista, Ca. in the ’70’s) and I was so nutty for Boston that Chris finally gave me the cassette as a gift so I could sit in my room and rock out under headphones on my weird little all-in-one mini stationary boombox.

    Which I did for hours, and any song off of that album immediately transports me back to living with that young couple for almost two years, I felt like Christine’s kid/baby sister, and it was great for a long time until it wasn’t, again, a story for another day – but “More Than A Feelin’” ?

    Man, just plop me down in my little bedroom in the small 1920’s Spanish bungalow in Mar Vista. There is nowhere else any of the songs on that album take me. Even talking about or reading about it cannons me back in time, as you can see from this rambling comment.
    I am 14 years old, I have my own little bedroom, no one is being mean to me, and for the first time in my life, I feel quietly loved and I feel like I belong.

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