Rock Flashback: The Bosstown Sound

Simon Kirke of Free, Joe Walsh of the James Gang, and Jeff Baxter of Ultimate Spinach, 2007. They may have been in some other bands, too. (Getty Images/Ethan Miller)

In 1968, a record producer named Alan Lorber started hyping “the Bosstown Sound” as a marketing concept. Other American cities had their influential scenes — Detroit, Memphis, San Francisco — so why not Boston? The Bosstown Sound is remembered today as a bad hype gone wrong, but the reality is, as reality tends to be, more subtle.

Lorber had signed a group of artists to MGM Records, and he believed Boston was a fertile place to launch their careers because of its heavy concentration of college students. But he ran into trouble after MGM took out trade-paper ads hyping the Bosstown Sound and its first three acts, Orpheus, Ultimate Spinach, and Beacon Street Union. Prominent rock critics promptly accused MGM, Lorber, and their bands of being commercial sellouts. A year or two later, when MGM set about to purge its roster of “drug-oriented” acts, the Bosstown acts were the first to go, although their lack of sales helped usher them out the door.

Lost in the controversy was the music and the bands themselves, some of which found an audience and left a mark. Orpheus opened for a number of top acts during its brief lifespan, including Janis Joplin and Cream. Beacon Street Union, despite being produced by Partridge Family auteur Wes Ferrell, had chops enough to back Chuck Berry in their early days, and eventually went fully psychedelic. Ultimate Spinach, famed for its use of the theremin, counted among its members Jeff Baxter, later to play with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan. Earth Opera was fronted by bluegrass mavens Peter Rowan and David Grisman. In years that followed, many Boston-area artists cited the Bosstown bands of the late ’60s as influences.

The most successful bit of the Bosstown Sound was probably “Can’t Find the Time” by Orpheus, a lovely sunshine-pop song that charted briefly in the fall of 1969. If you don’t know it, get acquainted.

Lorber told the story of the Bosstown Sound in a 1992 Goldmine magazine piece, which features annotations by Erik Gulliksen of Orpheus, and is highly recommended.

Experience more Rock Flashbacks.