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Page 5 of 5
"I've been through all the ups and downs of realizing I'm not going to make the perfect album," Scholz continues as we walk downstairs. "The big deal with the delay is just that it took a lot of time to write the songs. And I did spend three months physically building that studio." Pause. "Actually, I have to be honest. I don't think we'll ever do them faster."
Scholz plays two tracks, "Don't Look Back" and "Take a chance on rock & roll" I have been told that the accusations of over commerciality has been driving Scholz to re-write and record much of the Lp with a heavier emphasis. Sure enough, he purposely mixed a guitar sound that, coming out of the "cheap speakers", could crush entire city's. The melodies are strong. I am just about to deliver these and more impressions when....
Tom shuts off the tape. " I can't watch you listening." Says Tom Scholz. " Just remember, we are everywhere."
WHERE ARE WE GOING, PAUL?',' ASKS Barry Goudreau.
Paul Ahern owns the Paradise nightclub tonight. When he swings through the Boston hangout with Barry Goudreau and a writer he introduces as the "NiceGuy journalist,' all his old disc-jockey buddies want to know if they can score the exclusive world premiere of the second Boston album. "I'm re-releasing the first one as Boston's Greatest Hits," Ahern says.
One DJ asks, "How rich are 'you?" "Just got a check for seven figures," he tells them." Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less shit you got to eat."
Well oiled after all the rum, Ahern is on his way back to Swampscott when he pulls a 180 across three lanes of a bridge and heads back toward the city.
"Where are you going, Paul," Goudreau tries again.
Ahern pulls a parking ticket out of his shirt and hands it to Goudreau. "Put this in the glove compartment," he says. Goudreau opens the glove compartment to find it brimming with other tickets.
"Paul" asks Goudreau, "where are we goin?"
"He's gonna get the whole story," Ahern points into the back seat. "We're going to Charlies." "No," says Goudreau. "Not at four in the morning." 'Yes," says Ahern. "Yes at four in the morning"
At four in the morning, Charlie McKenzie is wide awake. Two empty wine bottles and one empty champagne magnum are in front of him. He sits still, smiling serenely and watching his television with the sound off.
"Nice to meet you," he says with urbane charm. Ah, the idle rich.
He has a baby face rimmed with thick, black, wet-looking hair. Eager to help, he offers a hastily assembled quote about how "nice it is we can all sit here as friends "
One can see Ahern get impatient for the real shit. "Oh, don't be Michael the Archangel," he snaps. "Tell him about the settlement we dropped in your lap. You were too untogether."
"Too untogether?" They are a couple of old cockfighters, as hateful and competitive as two old friends who enjoy this kind of company should be. McKenzie turns to "He tell you about the CBS convention in Atlanta last year.
"Tell him," says Ahern , The album had gone to 3 million in sales, and CBS wanted to fly the group and its management in for a platinum record ceremony. There was also the matter of their second royalty check, for $400,000, to be presented.
"Ahern," concludes McKenzie, "left the check rolled up in the Atlanta hotel room. Everybody found out."
"The new rich," laughs Ahern. "We got another one, didn't we?"
Being a nice-guy journalist, I wonder why Ahern is placing his career in my hands. "We'd be nowhere if you guys hadn't heard the tape and got us the contract and everything," Goudreau says to Ahern and McKenzie. "But boy, we hated the name Boston. What right do we have to be called...."
"Hey," says McKenzie, "if the group is successful, it's happening. If it isn't, it's not happening"
After a few more laughs, each one a little less forced, Ahern stumbles to his feet. "I'm taking Highway One' "
"Good," says McKenzie. "The state patrol isn't monitoring it much anymore." He smiles, reaches over to his barrack and plucks three wrinkled shirts. "Here, you left these cheap silk shirts over here last time."
Ahern takes them. "Just thought it was my duty to bring them over here..." Why this produces a genuinely emotional goodbye is unclear, but I can see each strain to let the other know he's still on the street and not idle rich. Goudreau, watching this oddly touching scene, digs his hands into his pockets and turns to the street outside. It's already daylight. " I keep telling myself," he says "just settle in. You've got a long career ahead of you."
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