The song tells the story of a band’s rough come up in the industry leading to them finally getting offered a record deal.

The irony is that this never happened to the “band” Boston:

Tom Scholz was a Classical music child prodigy who wrote this song in his own basement, on a four track he had built himself. In fact, this is how he wrote and recorded, largely solo, the entire demo tape that got him signed to a record contract as the band “Boston”.

Tom played all of the instruments on the demos, but had a friend (Jim Masdea) who recorded the drum parts, and another who sang. Tom would then send demos of his songs around to record companies. After dozens rejected them, Epic Records finally showed some sense.

Thus Tom and his singer friend Brad Delp went from occasionally hanging out in his basement to record demos, to having a recording contract, without ever having to live in cars or play in bars at all.

In fact, they had to rush out and hire a drummer, bassist, and so on in order to create the “band” Boston for the first time.

The song curiously creates a sort of mythos of this band paying its dues, when it never did so at all. Perhaps the song was actually about Aerosmith.

Aerosmith (right) | Tom Scholz (left)