WHO PLAYED WHAT

Goudreau played the awesome lead on "Long Time" and rhythm on "Foreplay," but on the 1st album, he appears on only 1 other cut ("Let Me Take You Home Tonight"). His work on album 2 was limited to short cameo parts on 3 songs; on 2 of these, he and I took turns playing leads. I played all the rhythm tracks and most of the leads, although he played a nice lead at the end of "Don't Look Back." I tried to involve him more - he was a very fast guitarist for the 70's, but I was looking for heart and emotion on the tracks which required feeling and perseverance more than technical speed. I ended up relying on the method that worked for me on the demos: playing the parts one at a time myself, which was long and draining.

Following the release of the ill-fated "Barry Goudreau" album, our working relationship ended surprisingly easily with a simple buy-out. Maybe he thought he was then, or soon would be, a star, and no longer needed me.

Sheehan, also from the North Shore area of Boston, was a longtime friend of Goudreau and Hashian, and the only one of the 3 I honestly thought had a good heart. His playing style was vastly different from mine, and his involvement in BOSTON studio recording was minimal. I felt bad that I could not use him much in the studio, but if I had, the recorded songs would not have sounded like the demos that got us the deal. Fran did play bass on "Let Me Take You Home," "Foreplay," and a couple of notes on "Don't Look Back." I think Fran was a nice guy, but he seemed easy prey for the fast-talking music business slime that quickly surrounded him. I think they convinced him that I was too slow at creating BOSTON music the way I always had, and thus was hampering his career by sticking to my artistic standards and techniques.

Fran, along with Hashian, tried to help CBS's attempt to bankrupt me with their lawsuit and gain control of the name BOSTON, spending hours with CBS lawyers looking for inside information that might help their case, and testifying on their behalf. Speculation that they expected to "take over" BOSTON after CBS got the name out of my hands became more believable when I heard a story circulating about how he and the others celebrated with a bottle of Dom Perignon after their court appearance - on CBS's tab! Celebration of my demise at the hands of this Goliath was, of course, premature.

Hashian played the drum tracks for albums 1 and 2 except "Rock 'n Roll Band," (which was Masdea) and a few small bits I punched in myself. What is not widely known is that the drum arrangements from all 6 songs of the "original demos" were simply replayed by Hashian, copied virtually note-for-note from Masdea's demo performances.

For many tracks on album #2, where there were no existing demos for Hashian to study, I had great difficulty getting tracks I considered useable from his attempts. Finally resorting to unusual editing techniques to make them passable, the song "Don't Look Back" had over 60 splices for drum timing corrections. (I'm now pretty good with a razor blade and tape in the studio!)

This was the reason I eventually began to record drum tracks myself, and part of the reason for reinvolving Masdea on "Third Stage." Having finally extricated myself from the people who wanted Masdea out, I also was determined to give him another chance. Not knowing Hashian at all, I had relied on Goudreau's judgment of his character, since they were longtime friends. I was sadly disappointed as I grew to know him.

As for the rest of the tracks, Brad sang all the vocals, one part at a time. Like me, he was a tireless worker in the studio, singing and resinging till we found the magic combination for those harmonies. All the keyboards were played by me, as were the guitar and bass tracks mentioned above.

The most important point about these old associations is that they are really old; they happened about 25 years ago! No one involved then is the same person today; this is ancient history. The second most important point is that after all this time, Brad and I are still working together in the studio and on stage.