Peace of Mind
by Boston
- 127
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 43
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
Tom Scholz wrote "Peace of Mind" in his basement. It was one of six songs, five of which ended up on the album Boston, that he worked on in 1974 and 1975, before the band had a record contract. He finished the demo in 1974. Jim Masdea originally developed the drum parts, though Sib Hashian played drums on the official release, and the album version changed little from the demo beyond louder guitars and a bigger production.
The lyrics draw on Scholz's years at the Polaroid Corporation. They are about the people he worked with there and about his lack of interest in climbing into company management.
Boston had formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1975, with Scholz joined by vocalist Brad Delp, guitarist Barry Goudreau, bassist Fran Sheehan and Masdea. The 1976 debut album carried the song, and it came out the next year as the third and final single from the record. It peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977 and number 33 on the Cash Box Top 100. It got heavy radio airplay for years.
Peace of Mind runs at 127 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.89 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 472 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.