Originally published at: Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time" done as 8-bit arcade-style chip music | Boing Boing
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“Hilarious”? “Tendentiously overwrought”?
it’s a legit masterpiece. i say GOOD DAY to you, sir.
(p.s., this is fantastic)
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I wholeheartedly concur. Additionally, I wouldn’t go around calling things overwrought and hilarious when you are throwing around (and misusing I think) big words like “tendentious”. It comes across as a little pretentious or, dare I say, trepidacious.
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Whac is that supposed to mean?
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… verra nice, although I think it uses more than the 4 voices that most 8 bit hardware systems shipped with.
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That’s what I was thinking. The percussion is a bit outside the 8-bit realm.
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Seriously agree. We have only so much time on this earth to criticise, and the ground for it is far more fertile starting with the third album
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I don’t hear anywhere that uses > 4 voices. It’s possible it does but nothing jumps out right away to me
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while i loved Third Stage at the time, it’s true that not all of it holds up at all. (honestly, it just makes me sad about Brad Delp all over again.) but that first album? solid all the way through. people hold it up as some example of “corporate rock”, not realizing that it might be the most successful indie album of all time, since Tom Sholz recorded it during his off hours from his day job (with Delp joining him for vocals), playing all the instruments and mixing it himself in his basement.
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Yeah it’s funny that a 1-man effort got labelled “corporate”
Probably because he was so good with sound that the recording was almost impossibly “clean” and free of any normal rock and roll “grit” at the same time punk was becoming a thing.
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You say that like it’s a bad thing.
These kinds of “prog”-pop bands like Boston, Journey, Asia, later Yes and Genesis are basically more “rock” versions of ABBA in my opinion. Corny? Sure. Enjoyable? Absolutely.
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Oh that was wonderful. Absolutely translated well to arcade video game style.
But yes, stop being mean to Boston, some of us really love the band.
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One of my running jokes is when I come across a used Boston LP in a record store or thrift shop, I’ll say to someone “You ever heard of these guys? They’re pretty good, I wonder where they’re from.”
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The first time I heard this song, my friend was like “Let’s listen to this Boston song, Foreplay/Longtime.” I said, “okay”. He puts it on and the intro goes on for a little while and he starts to get nervous I’m not that into it. “Do you want to skip the foreplay?”
I say, “No buddy, I think I definitely need the foreplay.”
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Boston’s first album is a work of artistic and technological genius, and I will not hear an unkind word said about it!
That being said, the Foreplay may run on a little longer than absolutely necessary. But better that than ending too soon.
This 8-bit version was epic. Thank you for sharing 
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Yes, I concur… I’m having way ‘more than a feeling’ here
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I’ve loved Boston since my brother bought their first album in the late 1970s. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I had the privilege of seeing my first Boston concert.
As, the crew was clearing away the opening act’s equipment and setting up Boston’s. One roadie seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time setting up Tom Sholz’s microphone stand, effects pedals, guitar stands, etc. It wasn’t the amount of equipment but the constant tweaking of its precise position and orientation.
Once everything finally seemed to be in place, he pulled out a tape measure out of his pocket and measured the height of the microphone, and then made the tiniest adjustment and rechecked the measurement.
And then he pulled an actual plumb bob out of his other pocket, suspended it from the head of the microphone, and then made additional tweaks to the position of the effects pedals relative to the bob.
“Wow,” I said to my wife. “Tom Scholz must be a real diva.”
A minute into the performance, I realized why his “workstation” required such precision: He routinely plays the organ and guitar simultaneously, while singing backing vocals! He can also transition seamlessly between the guitar strapped over his shoulder and a different one on a stand.
He’s an accomplished musician, songwriter, producer, and engineering idol. It was easily the most enjoyable concert I’ve ever seen.
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