On Al Jarreau and Boston: How Beautiful Music Explained a Beautiful Country

On Al Jarreau and Boston

Different Sounds, the Same America

From bootleg cassettes in Nigeria to a Houston highway.

A personal essay on discovering Boston before the internet, music as national memory, and how a two-minute song captured the enduring beauty of America.

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Al Jarreau First

Al Jarreau – Your Sweet Love.
Classic music. Listen for yourself:

https://youtu.be/1uz7uhBatCQ?si=AvzXglToitzGwGS2

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Boston, the Mystery Band

Now Boston.
That was a mystery band.

Who remembers those bootlegged “Cosmos” cassettes? Properly packaged, complete with the real album sleeves reproduced inside. They were ₦3, about two dollars at the time. Quite affordable, I must say.

That was how I was introduced to Boston, the rock band.

Their music was just great. More Than a Feeling, A Man I’ll Never Be, on and on.

This was before the Information Age, so almost nothing was known about them. Just two albums, and that was it. Someone even said they were all MIT PhDs. Wow.

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London, Two Decades Later

Fast-forward about two decades, in London, with Uwa, who also loved Boston. Perhaps he introduced them to me, or re-introduced them.

So there we were. He was showing me around London, and then he put on a song.

“That’s Boston!” I exclaimed.

“Yep,” he confirmed. “You cannot miss the sound of that guitar.”

So I finally asked, who the hell were these guys?

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Digression: FGC Warri and Rock Music

FGC Warri boys were rock music connoisseurs, true aficionados. They knew rock the way most of us knew reggae. Eugene Ikpo (RIP) introduced me to Styx, The Best of Times and other great songs.

And yes, Uwa was an FGC Warri boy.

End of digression.

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Houston, Richmond Avenue

Years later, with the iPhone and Apple Music now invented, I downloaded every Boston song I could find. And this is the point of the whole story.

Living in Houston, driving along Richmond Avenue in the direction of the Galleria, just before Chuck E. Cheese, the Boston song Destination came on.

There was a used car lot, I think, one of those with prices written in bright colours across the windshields. Planted in its premises was the tallest flagpole I had ever seen, and possibly the largest American flag legally permitted to be flown. And there it was, fluttering with abandon in the wind.

For some reason, this thought came to me:

What kind of nation inspires men to feel and write songs like this?

Destination is a very short song, barely two minutes long, but in those two minutes it sealed my love for America and filled me with awe for that country.

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Why Al Jarreau?

Why post a song by Al Jarreau, yet speak entirely about Boston?

Because this song by Al Jarreau fits into the same category.

Being a musician myself 😜, and a writer too, I listen behind songs. I try to see behind the facade. Great songs are facades of sorts, great facades. Someone once said the map is not the territory. Words are not the thing itself. Lyrics work the same way.

Al Jarreau sings:

“Your sweet love makes me realize
That heaven is right here in your arms.”

Come on.

But you get my point.

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Final Thought

Enjoy this great song, and remember this:

America is, and will always be, a beautiful country.

This raging protuberance will disappear. It will leave a scar, no doubt, no different from chickenpox scars. But just as catching chickenpox once immunizes you, America will be immunized against fascism after this dark night of its soul.

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Don Kenobi
Writer. Bassist.

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Tags

#MusicAndMemory #ClassicRock #BostonBand #AmericanCulture #ArtAndNation #RockHistory #DiasporaVoices #DonKenobi