In spite of recent misleading ads claiming BOSTON appearances and even reunions of original members, BOSTON is not touring or performing this year. While we're off this summer, several of our members are involved with other projects that are worth catching if you can:
Kimberley Dahme is releasing her new CD "You Make Me Believe" this month and has many solo appearances scheduled. Gary Pihl contributed writing, performing and production help to her effort, and Jeff Neal and I also did a little playing on the album. Gary will be joining Kimberley at several of her performances ... check out her tour page: http://www.kdsongs.com/
Michael Sweet is touring with Stryper this fall in support of Stryper's new album "Murder by Pride." The tour marks their 25th Anniversary. Gary Pihl and I hope to catch up with them to sit in at some point. http://www.michaelsweet.com/
Also, Gary Pihl is compiling a series of good quality video clips from live shows soon to be available here on bandboston.com, watch for it!
We are hoping to embark on another major BOSTON tour next year. Meanwhile, I am finally back working to complete the next BOSTON studio album with some help from the gang, and I think you are really going to like it!
But I'm telling you it's not BOSTON...
As many of you know, numerous dates have been announced for the band Cosmo, but have been promoted using the name, logo, or even the recorded music of BOSTON, which may have confused some as to whether BOSTON would be performing.
Fran Cosmo has explained that he was unaware that BOSTON's name, logo, or music were being used by his agent to promote Cosmo as BOSTON. While most of it has stopped, there are still some problems with unauthorized use of the name BOSTON in connection with some scheduled Cosmo performances.
Cosmo's extensive covers of older BOSTON songs recorded prior to Fran's involvement raised some eyebrows, but as long as these shows are not promoted in a misleading way using BOSTON, we see no problem with their performance of a few BOSTON songs, and wish them luck with their summer tour.
25 Year Reunion???
Unrelated, there have been extensive promotions for a band called Ernie and the Automatics fueled by the heir to the Boch car dealer fortune, Ernie Boch Jr., claiming a 25 year reunion of former original members of BOSTON.Oddly, the two musicians referred to in the ad campaign have appeared together repeatedly over many years, so the 25 year reunion claim is a bit strange. While they did indeed play live with BOSTON about thirty years ago, the claim that they were "original members" is questionable.
There were only two performers signed to make the debut album in the original Epic Records agreements, Brad and myself. Possibly because we wrote all the music for the album, recorded the six demo songs that landed the deal, produced them in my basement, and funded all of it from my Polaroid salary.
Between the two of us, Brad and I went on to physically record nearly 90% of the actual studio tracks for the BOSTON album. On most of the songs, once the drum track was laid down, all the instruments and vocals you hear were recorded by just the two of us, painstakingly overdubbing each part to create the recorded "band" that so many have become familiar with.
The only other person who helped make those demos for the resulting album was drummer Jim Masdea. Masdea, forced out by the management Brad and I had signed with in 1975, was in fact the drummer for every demo I sent to record companies back in the 70's. The same manager who vetoed Masdea was also responsible for the back cover of the debut album, with the famous pic of five musicians, which by some coincidence, also omitted Masdea's performance credit from the initial pressing run.
These ads almost seem to imply that including two musicians from our 70's tours on an unrelated CD somehow make it a BOSTON reunion. After this much time, is it really necessary to resort to something like this to get attention?
Mother's Milk goes sour...
On the subject of misleading promotions, a few months ago Wikipedia reported some outlandish claims purportedly made by Barry Goudreau based on a fancifully twisted version of Mother's Milk as the origin of BOSTON, and cited Goudreau's website. While I apologize for dwelling on ancient history, this has gained some traction in the music press and finally warrants a response. Elements of the story have also persisted on other Wiki pages.
According to the Wikipedia post, "The way Goudreau tells it, when he was a student at Boston University, he led a band called "Mother's Milk". One day, a musician named Tom Scholz joined after answering an ad in a local weekly newspaper. Scholz was a recent MIT engineering graduate who worked at Polaroid who was primarily a keyboard player, but who rapidly developed as a guitar player after joining Goudreau's band. After years of practice in Scholz's home studio with singer Brad Delp and other local musicians, Mother's Milk evolved into what we know as Boston, and Scholz took over the leadership of the band. In 1976, after years of having their demo tapes rejected, the band got signed to Epic Records after (in Goudreau's words) Scholz "refine[d] the songs and recordings to a point where they could no longer be denied."
This would be true except for a few minor details: Mother's Milk was never led by Goudreau, he wasn't a student at BU when Mother's Milk existed, I didn't meet Goudreau in Mother's Milk, there was never a newspaper ad for a keyboard or guitar player for Mother's Milk, I didn't join Mother's Milk, Mother's Milk did not practice in my home studio, it did not evolve into the band BOSTON, it was not signed to Epic Records, and most of the songs on the eventual demo that Epic liked had never been shopped to a record label before, because most of them hadn't been written yet. Other than that, totally accurate.
The Wikipedia blurb went on to say "According to Goudreau's story, he was the founder of the band Boston and he, Delp and Scholz were more or less equal contributors to the band's emergence."
Realistically, since Barry Goudreau wrote no music for the BOSTON albums or demos, played on only two cuts of the entire debut album, did not play at all on the six demos leading to the Epic Records contract, did not contribute financially to recording the demos, and was not even mentioned in the contracts for the original Epic Records deal, these claims would seem to be a bit of a stretch. (For more on this check the BOSTON Remaster and Greatest Hits Remaster CD booklets.) Of the many musicians who have toured with BOSTON, Goudreau's run as a member of the band was the shortest.
Wikipedia just won't go quietly...
We corrected the Wikipedia BOSTON history page, only to have it once again deleted by someone, and replaced with another bogus story involving Mother's Milk. This replacement story was nearly as inaccurate as the first one, but I have to give them credit for coming up with a new set of fairy tales.
For instance:
Wikipedia claimed "More Than a Feeling," "Peace of Mind," and "Rock and Roll Band" were recorded in my early demo sessions (that would have been 1971), but a simple check of the copyright records would show the songs weren't written till years later. I really enjoyed playing with Fran Sheehan in BOSTON, but Fran never played bass for Mother's Milk as Wiki claimed. Contrary to other Wiki warped factoids: Epic never insisted that the demo tapes be rerecorded with a full band for the debut album (in fact, they weren't), only that producer John Boylan be involved, and there were no "other local musicians" working with me to record the Epic demo ebony porn besides Jim Masdea and Brad Delp.
I'm beginning to think you shouldn't believe what you read on Wikipedia.
Goudreau's website now has no reference to Mother's Milk, but attempts to link him with the founding of BOSTON along another twisted path... read on.
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