by Dawn St John

     Sandwiched between their debut, eponymous album and the infamous Third Stage, Boston released the all but forgotten Don't Look Back.  If you spend a lot of time in used record stores, you've probably seen it buried there in the stacks.  Maybe you picked it up and scanned the track list, only to realize that the Boston songs you recognized were on other albums.  

     Most people know Boston from such hits as "More Than A Feeling," or "Amanda."  I wouldn't even know about Don't Look Back if it hadn't been for reading articles and interviews with Nelson back in the early-90s.  (Yes, I admit it, they were a big favorite during my high school years.) In one such interview, one of the twins cited "A Man I'll Never Be" as an all-time favorite song. My best friend and I ran right out

to the record store and searched through the cassettes to eventually find Don't Look Back.  We bought it without so much as a listen.  (We did the same with Pink Floyd's The Wall because of the same interview, I believe.)

     When we got it home and took our first listen, we both fell in love with the song.  To this day, I can't remember the other songs from the album, but that one has stuck with me.  In preparation to write this piece, I took another listen, also getting the chance to expose Oliver to it.  I made him sit down with the lyrics in front of him, so he could definitely get the full story.  For those not familiar with the song, it's about a relationship built on lies or misunderstandings.  The concept is the guy explaining how he can never be the man of this girl's dreams, and it just breaks your heart to listen.  Or maybe I'm just a sap.  

     Either way, the song seems way ahead of its time.  It fits beautifully in with the power-ballads of the 90s, though Don't Look Back was released in 1978.  The screaming guitar solos and moving (albeit minorly cheesy) vocals are balanced by a soft piano bit in the intro and again in the outro.  The rest of the album is probably similar, but for me "A Man I'll Never Be" was always the stand-out track.  If you happen to see it in a discount bin somewhere, pick it up.  It's worth it.