The Boston cover reminds me of the theme that was depicted beginning with the band’s debut record and carried along with each subsequent release: The earth is destroyed, but not before various guitar-shaped spacecraft depart, presumably carrying various major cities beneath their transparent domes as evidenced by the large “Boston” logo emblazoning the ship in the foreground. Of course, we never find out what happened to the rest of the space-bound municipalities, but Beantown at least seems to have held together.

I have three aunts who are considerably younger than my mother, their sister. Often when visiting my grandmother’s house I’d walk into the room my aunts shared and peruse their LPs. They had all the Boston records that were then available, as well as discs by ELO, and I thought to myself, “I hope I’m this cool when I’m a teenager.”