I remember the ads in the rock press for the first album, "Boston - The First Bionic Band!" This didn't make me want to listen to them! The songs were good and Brad Delp was an incredible lead singer. Tom Scholz may or may not be the genius that some insist, but he sure doesn't seem to be a good guy. This was a studio band and not really part of the Boston music scene. All things considered though, Boston did give us some rock classics.

I love Boston but they have a lot of material that drags on. Their first album is as good as it gets.

Arena rock band, a tiny bit better than others of their ilk, but still formulaic arena rock- someone once called them a hybrid of Yes and Zeppelin, which seemed pretty accurate. My hometown has its good and bad points, but in terms of quality, it isn't so bad that it deserves a band called this. This group should have been called...Richmond, Indiana instead.

Boston is a solid band. Their first album is a must have for any true rock collection.

They were a fine group with one particularly memorable album. "More Than a Feeling" is a rock song which flirts with perfection.

A very good band, with a trademark sound. Better than 95% of the bands on this list, and had a number of brilliant hits, including the newer Higher Power, Cool the Engines, Livin' For You and the epic borderline-prog Foreplay/Long Time. I also liked their take on the Star-Spangled Banner, as they gave it a fuller and cleaner sound than Hendrix did at Woodstock.

Unmistakable sound-Great Band.

While on a musical level I couldn't care less, it's worth pointing out that here in Boston, Brad Delp's sudden death yesterday (inappropriately enough, in New Hampshire) has opened up tremendous torrents of grief. I feel for the large numbers of distressed fans that are posting their thoughts to discussion groups everywhere. There were a lot of people who identified with Delp's overcoming depression. Musically, meanwhile, Boston deserves no more applause than REO Speedwagon, but they definitely still rank higher than Chicago or Kansas. At least they didn't title their first album "Metro [insert city name here] Transportation Authority," as Chicago did.

Boston is considered one of the poster children bands for 70's arena rock; however, due to the group's sound being dependent on Tom Scholz' overdubbing, the music, and Bradley Delp's layered vocals, Boston's highly distinctive sound could not really be duplicated in a live arena. Nevertheless, one cannot really argue much with success, and no other artist has ever duplicated the band's sound (assuming that there have been attempts). As the group has had relatively few releases, the no brainer start is with their 1976 self-titled release, which was the highest selling debut for many years (until Men at Work). For fans of classic rock, there really is no weak track on this release (save for perhaps "Rock And Roll Band") and should be used to supplement any compilation that doesn't include that album in its entirety. The same can basically be said for the sophomore "Don't Look Back" (1978) which is also solid throughout (save again for the possible lone exception of "Party"). Nevertheless, as Boston was (and remains) a rather one dimensional band (two if you count arena rock fast and arena rock slow) and have had so few releases, when compared to some of the other artists on this list, Boston's rating must suffer.

The best thing about Boston was Brad Delp's voice esp on 'more than a feeling'. For a corporate arena rock band they were better than Kansas, Styx, Journey, REO etc. The debut had several good moments but the other albums are pretty uninspired.

Despite not putting out many albums, the stuff they did record was classic rock at its best. Master musicians, great rock with Tom Scholz's cool guitar sound, and a packed house wherever they tour (including this year) is the reason they rate high.

I'm starting to really like Boston. Their whole debut album is good, but in particular, Long Time is just an incredible song that I think is underrated.

70s excess at its worst. Clangy guitars, overproduced, just too too much! Even the trashy disco music that prevailed around that time was more tolerable than Boston.

I really dislike Boston. As musicians, they are wonderful. As songwriters, they're not too bad. the problem with Boston is that they just do nothing to draw me in as a fan, and their songs have no staying power for me. Lyrically they make me cringe. Maybe they spend too much time smoothing out the rough edges in their songs, killing all the heart and soul. Rush is superior in every way when it comes to "power rock". Boaton is a step up from Journey and a half step down from Foreigner. Radio rock at it's most saccarine.

Fast, fun, feel-good music. Some awesome guitar work, and who could say they don't like tunes like "Piece of Mind" or "More Than a Feeling?" Their only notable flaw is that they deicided to name themselves after a cold, liberal Yank-town; but hey, no band is perfect......except maybe for Skynyrd.

Overblown, soulless, unsophisticated music for unsophisticated listeners. Kid stuff, really. Sounds really dated.

Boston was one of the few bands that were ahead of their time. Listen to anything else back in 76 and you'll see that Boston's sound was untouchable. I guess the people who don't think so, probably don't know much about guitars and music in general. Boston pretty much set the stage for the 80's sound of guitars. Tom Scholz was electrical engineer and made his own distortion box to get that sound tha nobody had back then. I give them a 5 for kick ass.

One of the finest guitar bands ever. Great productions, songs, musicianship and vocals. Too bad all vocals were done by the lead singer. It was difficult for them to reproduce the vocal harmonies in person. And the lead guitar player played in tune.

Arena rock crap. They're a bad band. "More Than a Feeling" is overplayed way too much.

I am middle of the road when it comes to Boston. Like a few of their songs but alot of their work sounds so similiar. Brad Delp has a great voice- perfect for AOR radio.

Could never stand this band. Have never heard a single song that I've liked!

The most unique sounding hard rock band ever. The layered guitar effect in most of their songs is unmistakable.

Ahhhhh.....classic band....I like listening to Boston when I'm lying on the porch with an iced tea :o)

In 1976, Boston burst onto the scene making music that was light years ahead of many of their contemporaries- REO Speedwagon, Heart, Jefferson Starship- it took these other bands years to come up with anything remotely similar. Boston, however, seemed to grind to a halt on the evolutionary path somewhere around 1994... the album WALK ON was practically "THIRD STAGE, PT.2"