School St. · Watertown1975–76
The first Boston album was made mostly in a basement next to the furnace, with gear an MIT engineer built himself. This is that basement’s workshop wall. Lift the tools off the board: every outline underneath is a place.
The shadow board · 10 tools · 10 places
Scholz built much of the album’s gear himself, so his places hang here as tools. Lift one off and its painted outline shows where to go.
The tools are our drawings and the pairing is our game. Each place, and what is said about it, comes from the sources one click away.
0 of 10 off the board. Every tool is on its hook. Lift one.
Lift a tool and its place comes out onto the bench here: a photograph, what happened, and how to visit.
Ottawa Hills · Cambridge · Revere · Danvers · 1965–1974
Ottawa Hills, Ohio · 1965
Scholz was born in Toledo and grew up in Ottawa Hills; his father, Don Scholz, designed prefabricated luxury houses.
As a boy he studied classical piano and was always building something: go-karts, model aeroplanes. A top student who played varsity basketball, he graduated from Ottawa Hills High School in 1965.
A working school: see it from Evergreen Road and don’t go in.
Cambridge · 1969–70
Scholz took a bachelor’s degree (1969) and a master’s (1970) in mechanical engineering at MIT.
He first wrote music there; Foreplay, an instrumental, dates from 1969. At MIT he joined a band called Freehold and met the guitarist Barry Goudreau and the drummer Jim Masdea.
Walk in from Massachusetts Avenue to Killian Court and the Great Dome. Buildings in use are for students and staff.
Barry Goudreau, who met Scholz in Freehold and later played lead guitar in Mother’s Milk.
Revere Beach
Hearing that Mother’s Milk needed a singer, Brad Delp drove to Revere Beach, where the three-piece was playing a club called Jojo’s.
He won the job at the audition, and Mother’s Milk became an early version of Boston.
Revere Beach opened in 1896 as the first public beach in the United States, about five miles north of downtown Boston.
A public beach and promenade on the Blue Line. Jojo’s is not there now and its address is not known, so the beach is marked, not the club.
Danvers
Brad Delp was born in Peabody on 12 June 1951 and grew up in Danvers.
Before Boston he worked at a Danvers company that made electric coils, and sang in cover bands at weekends. Barry Goudreau brought him to Scholz around 1969–70.
A town on the North Shore. The Town Hall is a public building; the coil factory is not named, so it is not marked.
Foxglove · School St. · Watertown · 1975–76
The album was recorded mainly at Scholz’s own Foxglove Studios: the basement of his apartment house on School Street, Watertown. He described it as a tiny space next to the furnace in a pine-panelled basement that flooded from time to time.
A Hammond organ and a Leslie speaker sat in a corner beside the drums; to record organ, the drums came down and the Leslie came out.
The band’s own site calls him an MIT graduate who was an engineer at Polaroid by day and recorded at night in his apartment house basement.
To pay for a used Scully 12-track recorder, Scholz spent the money he had saved to put down on a house.
In spring 1976 John Boylan hired a remote truck from Providence; it ran a cable through the basement window and moved the tracks onto a 3M 24-track machine.
School Street · named, not mapped
A residential street of private homes: the house is not named or mapped here. The photograph is Watertown Square, about a mile west, not the street.
Epic wanted the record made in a professional studio in Los Angeles. Scholz and the producer John Boylan let the label think so. Sort the parts.
Six parts of the album. Where was each one really done?
1750 Vine St. · Hollywood · 1976
Everything on the album was done in the basement except Delp’s vocals, which were cut in Studio C at Capitol with Warren Dewey engineering.
Boylan took the rest of the band west to record Let Me Take You Home Tonight. Scholz later called it a decoy.
At the mix Scholz handled the guitars, Boylan the drums and Dewey the vocals.
Capitol Studios opened in 1956 inside the Capitol Records Building.
A working studio with no public tours: look at the round tower from Vine Street.
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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Compare toursScholz Research & Development · Woburn
Scholz founded Scholz Research & Development in 1980; in the 1980s it manufactured in Woburn.
The Power Soak. Its first product, the Power Soak, sat between amplifier and speaker to bring the volume down and keep the overdriven sound. It cost $89.95 at the end of 1980.
In 1982 came the Rockman: a headphone guitar amplifier for practising quietly through headphones or a home stereo.
In 1995 Scholz sold the Rockman line to Dunlop, which closed SR&D’s Massachusetts offices.
A city north of Boston. The building SR&D used is not identified, so Woburn Common marks the city.
For Brad Delp · 19 August 2007
Brad Delp died on 9 March 2007, aged 55. Come Together: A Tribute to Brad Delp was held here on 19 August 2007, when it was the Bank of America Pavilion.
His children organised it and invited Boston. Extreme, Godsmack, RTZ, Beatlejuice and others played, and Boston closed the night.
With Fran Cosmo’s voice injured, Scholz brought in guest singers, among them Michael Sweet and Tommy DeCarlo, a longtime fan who went on to sing with the band.
Life, Love & Hope (2013) carries Delp’s voice: Scholz dates their work on Sail Away to 2003, with changes in 2005.
2006 · Doug Flutie Day
The band’s own timeline lists a 2006 show at Symphony Hall, on Doug Flutie Day.
The Harvard physicist Wallace Clement Sabine advised on its acoustics, making it one of the first halls designed on scientific acoustic principles.
Hear a concert, or see the front from the corner of Massachusetts and Huntington avenues.
500 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston · See the site
A hotel at 500 Commonwealth Avenue, Kenmore Square, a walk from Symphony Hall and across the river from MIT. Its page shows no nightly rates. Pictured: Symphony Hall.
See rooms
2007 · the waterfront
290 Northern Avenue, Seaport, Boston (the Bank of America Pavilion in 2007).
An open-air tent on the harbour with about 5,000 seats, used for concerts from May to October. The Harborwalk passes it.
2013 · Boston Strong
On 30 May 2013 Boston played Boston Strong: An Evening of Support and Celebration at TD Garden, with Aerosmith, James Taylor, the J. Geils Band, Carole King and others.
The concert followed the Boston Marathon bombing that April.
The arena above North Station: go in with a ticket for a game or a concert.
Boston, Massachusetts
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Compare toursWhere it is now
Watertown, MIT, Symphony Hall, TD Garden and the Seaport pavilion are all inside Greater Boston; Revere Beach is on the Blue Line; Danvers and Woburn are a drive north. Hollywood and Ottawa Hills are trips of their own.
9 places you can visit, from MIT to Vine Street. The basement on School Street is in a private house, so the street is named, not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Walk in from Massachusetts Avenue to Killian Court and the Great Dome. Buildings in use are for students and staff.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Hear a concert, or see the front from the corner of Massachusetts and Huntington avenues.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The arena above North Station: go in with a ticket for a game or a concert.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open-air tent on the harbour with about 5,000 seats, used for concerts from May to October. The Harborwalk passes it.
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (Killian Court)
Scholz took a bachelor’s degree (1969) and a master’s (1970) in mechanical engineering at MIT.
Walk in from Massachusetts Avenue to Killian Court and the Great Dome. Buildings in use are for students and staff.
301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston
The band’s own timeline lists a 2006 show at Symphony Hall, on Doug Flutie Day.
Hear a concert, or see the front from the corner of Massachusetts and Huntington avenues.
100 Legends Way, Boston (above North Station)
On 30 May 2013 Boston played Boston Strong: An Evening of Support and Celebration at TD Garden, with Aerosmith, James Taylor, the J. Geils Band, Carole King and others.
The arena above North Station: go in with a ticket for a game or a concert.
290 Northern Avenue, Seaport, Boston (the Bank of America Pavilion in 2007)
Brad Delp died on 9 March 2007, aged 55.
An open-air tent on the harbour with about 5,000 seats, used for concerts from May to October. The Harborwalk passes it.
Stay
A hotel a walk from Symphony Hall.
500 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston · See the site
A hotel at 500 Commonwealth Avenue, Kenmore Square, a walk from Symphony Hall and across the river from MIT. Its page shows no nightly rates. Pictured: Symphony Hall.
See roomsGo there
Boston, and Hollywood past the Capitol tower.
Boston, Massachusetts
Live marketplace results for walking tours of Boston, from the North End to the waterfront. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
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Live marketplace results for Hollywood walks that pass Vine Street and the Capitol Records Tower. Check each itinerary.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
The band’s own tour list showed no upcoming dates when we checked.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
Boston (1976) and Don’t Look Back (1978), on Epic.
Boston · LP, Epic, 1976
The debut, released in August 1976 and made mostly in a Watertown basement.
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Find a copyBoston · LP, Epic, 1978
The second album, from 1978.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 15 of 15 Moments
School Street, Watertown, Massachusetts (the apartment house is private and not identified)
An engineer at Polaroid by day, Scholz records at night in his apartment house basement.
A six-song demo goes to every label the Scholzes can find; RCA, Capitol, Atlantic, Elektra and Epic all say no.
Epic wants the album made in a professional studio; Scholz and Boylan let it think so while Scholz re-records it at home.
A remote truck from Providence runs a cable through the basement window and moves the tracks to 24-track.
Epic releases Boston; Scholz first hears More Than a Feeling on someone else’s radio at Polaroid.
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (Killian Court)
At MIT Scholz writes his first music, the instrumental Foreplay, and meets Goudreau and Masdea in Freehold.
Revere Beach Boulevard, Revere (Jojo’s club has gone)
Delp drives to Revere Beach to audition for Mother’s Milk at Jojo’s and gets the job.
Danvers, Massachusetts (marked at the Town Hall, 1 Sylvan Street)
Delp, raised in Danvers, works at a coil company there and sings in cover bands at weekends.
1750 Vine Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Delp sings the album’s vocals at Capitol Studios; the band cuts Let Me Take You Home Tonight in Los Angeles.
Woburn, Massachusetts (the SR&D works is not identified; marked at Woburn Common)
SR&D, founded in 1980 and manufacturing in Woburn, brings out the Power Soak and then the Rockman headphone amp.
301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston
Boston plays Symphony Hall on Doug Flutie Day.
100 Legends Way, Boston (above North Station)
Boston plays the Boston Strong benefit at TD Garden.
290 Northern Avenue, Seaport, Boston (the Bank of America Pavilion in 2007)
Delp’s children organise a tribute concert on the waterfront; Boston closes it with guest singers.
Life, Love & Hope comes out carrying vocals Delp recorded with Scholz in 2003.
2532 Evergreen Road, Ottawa Hills, Ohio (near Toledo)
Scholz grows up building things in Ottawa Hills and graduates from the high school.
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