LISTENING IN: Boston and 1976 still more than a feeling

By Michael Baginski/ In case you missed it, I regret to inform that 50 years have transpired since 1976 – a fact I myself realized when I read that it’s been half a century since Boston’s classic debut record, but also a year that featured dozens of bands and songs that still resonate today (read on!)

“Boston” was an epic self-titled album fuelled by three massive hits (“More Than Feeling,” “Peace of Mind” and “Foreplay/Long Time”), which helped make it the best-selling rock debut of all time at the time. (It slipped to second when Guns N’ Roses released “Appetite for Destruction” in 1987, where it remains today).

50 years! Frightening, but also a testament to the longevity of Tom Scholz and Brad Delp (banner photo), as well as a long list of classic tunes and albums that help make ’76 one of the consensus best years ever for rock and roll.

1976 was the year of “Hotel California.” Peter Frampton was coming “Alive,” Bob Seger conducting “Night Moves,” Al Stewart living in “The Year of the Cat,” ACDC doing dirty deeds dirt cheap, and Blue Oyster Cult not fearing the Reaper.

KISS was shouting it out loud, Queen seeking “Someone to Love,” Tom Petty came on the scene with the Heartbreakers (“American Girl”) and Fleetwood Mac previewed “Rumours” (in ’77) as the year wound down with the release of “Go Your Own Way.”

In Canada, Rush’s first big album gazed well into a future that is now nearly 15 years behind us (“2012”), Gordon Lightfoot chronicled the tragedy of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and Sweeney Todd topped the charts with “Roxy Roller.”

And if rock wasn’t your thing, Stevie Wonder was feting Duke Elllington (“Sir Duke”), ABBA did “Dancing Queen,” Elton John and Kiki Dee warned one another not to go breaking their hearts, Paul McCartney sang a silly love song, and the Bee Gees proclaimed, “You Should Be Dancing.” And, well, “Disco Duck.”

At the other of the spectrum, 1976 also saw the emergence The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and to a lesser degree Blondie, heralding the beginning of punk.

But back to Boston – an album my son declared, when discovering the era, to be the first for which he loved every single song.

Me, I still remember hearing the first chords of “More Than a Feeling” on the radio when it came out and being blown away. And 50 years later, whenever I find myself lost in that familiar song, I still am.