September 21st, 2007A look back at an era when Boston rocked
If a BU student steps out of her dorm room and walks a couple of blocks into Kenmore Square, she won’t wind up at the Rat. The beloved music dive, home away from home for a generation of local bands and fans for more than two decades, closed 10 years ago. And lately, traces of the neighborhood’s illustrious rock heritage have been all but erased in the rush to gentrification.
‘‘A single drink at that new restaurant [Eastern Standard] will cost you more than the night that changed your life,’’ says music writer Brett Milano, and that’s one of the reasons he decided to write ‘‘The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock & Roll’’ (Commonwealth Editions).
Milano, a former Globe contributor who writes for the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Herald, surveys 50 years of local popular music in his new book. Tomorrow night, a slew of Boston musicians vintage and contemporary will gather downstairs at the Middle East to celebrate. The very idea that an era-spanning show was possible convinced Milano that this was the moment to document Boston rock.
‘‘All of the old guard is still around. The G-Clefs, [Bos ton’s] first doo-wop group, are in good performing shape, and meanwhile you have something of a healthy scene,’’ he says. ‘‘A college kid can see Willie Alexander on the same weekend they see Bang Camaro. We’re talking about generations converging.’’
Milano, a native of upstate New York, moved to Boston in 1980 to study at BU, where he received a master’s degree in journalism. He wasted no time immersing himself in the local rock scene, which at that time was ‘‘a whirlwind,’’ Milano says, with labels, studios, record stores, bands, and clubs proliferating. The ’80s were the author’s epoch, when the Rat was going strong and important underground bands like the Pixies and Throwing Muses were coming up, but Milano sketches a half century of the city’s musical evolution with academic curiosity as well as a fan’s enthusiasm.
The book is divided into thematically grouped periods such as ‘‘The Tea Party and the Bosstown Sound (1967-1970),’’ ‘‘Dawn of the Superstars (1970-1976),’’ and ‘‘The Underground Goes Above Ground (1990-1999).’’ And while anyone with passing knowledge of pop music knows that there’s no such thing as a ‘‘Boston sound,’’ Milano notes a couple of themes that seem to link the eras.
‘‘I think there’s a certain intellectualism,’’ he says. ‘‘In the ’60s, it was this high-level depression, with bands like Ultimate Spinach and Dry Ice, and then you got this scholarly reverence for the blues, which gave you J. Geils and to some extent Aerosmith. Even a lot of the punk bands who were anti-intellectual, like Lyres and Unnatural Axe, had this smart, wise-ass humor.’’
