Come a day when you’ll be gone

Boston’s lead singer, Brad Delp, died Friday. He was 55.

I’m not going to post anything by Boston. You know it all well enough already.

When “Boston” came out in 1976, I was blown away by it like almost everyone else. I have only the first two albums, and I’ve rarely listened to them since the ’70s. Rather, I most enjoy hearing Boston as I did back then — blasting through the radio in the car, played completely at random.

We saw Boston when they played here three summers ago. I thought I’d never have the chance.

The guy who covered it for our paper reminded me that Delp amiably confessed in their interview that he couldn’t hit all the high notes anymore, and that they had another singer to lend support. Everything I read said Delp was a nice guy. He must have been, to fess up to something like that.

Delp hit enough of the high notes that night. They played all the hits, and I especially remember two things.

Before the show, a guitar tech stood with his back to the crowd, noodling around with the gear. He kept noodling and noodling, and then he turned around. It was Tom Scholz, starting the show.

That, and Delp’s voice, high and clear over an otherwise muddy sound mix.