Re-Foreplay/Long Time
From: ___________@___________
Subject: from Tom Scholz re BOSTON – Foreplay/LongtimeDear Bob,
I’m glad you enjoyed my song Long Time, even if you didn’t care that much for some of my other tunes. My mantra has always been that music should make us feel better, a viewpoint we seem to share.
Although John Boylan’s participation in the recording of BOSTON was limited, his guidance in mixing and mastering was indispensable. I do have to take exception to some of his memories however, which may have become blurred over 35 years. The recording of BOSTON was the culmination of a six years struggle for me, and remains the most exciting point of my career; as such, I have a vivid recollection of the events surrounding the making of BOSTON.
1. It strikes me as odd that John would describe Barry Goudreau as "the often unmentioned lead guitarist in Boston," which might lead some readers to think that Barry was the lead guitarist for the band, and was not fairly credited as such.
Barry did perform the exceptional lead guitar parts on Long Time and also on Let Me Take You Home Tonight (but not on Foreplay or the segue into Long Time). Lead guitar parts for all other songs on the album, several of which you mentioned, were performed by me.
When Sony records finally allowed me to disclose the detailed musician credits on the remastered version of the album in 2006, Barry’s limited but important contributions were prominently mentioned in glowing terms.
Credits detailing who actually played the instruments on the album were left off of the original album jacket by Epic records. This failing hid the fact that most of the tracks for the album (nearly 90%) were overdubbed by Brad and me, the original two "band" members signed to Epic, and not recorded by an actual band – which I don’t think sat well with their marketing people.
John was not present when these guitar tracks were recorded, since he was on the West coast, while I worked to record the instrument tracks for all but one of the songs on that album in my crude basement studio in Watertown, MA.
2. The hand claps for Long Time were the only non-vocal tracks recorded in LA – all other tracks having been recorded in my basement without the aid of professional recording equipment or engineers – and were in fact attempted in the Men’s room of Capital Records as John described. I remember it being a huge relief that for a moment I did not have to simultaneously be performer, engineer, and producer, and could just relax and clap along with the track while someone else pushed the buttons.
3. Contrary to John’s memory, I remember the edit connecting the Foreplay ending segue to Long Time at the downbeat as pretty easy. I had made the same edit in my basement before coming to LA at the slower 15ips speed of the original 1" master tape, but wanted the final splice to be made on the 30ips 2nd gen 2" master used in LA. The organ track brought to LA on the 2" master was copied at the same level for both the end of the Foreplay segue, and the start of Long Time, so that the final splice (made at 30ips) would be undetectable – masked by a drum kick as John says. There were however numerous splices made in my basement studio (at only 15 ips) to alter the arrangement at other points in the medley that had me sweating bullets.
Far trickier was trying to coax the unearthly sounds in Foreplay and the segue into Long Time from my Les Paul heard just before the edit John mentions.
4. No organ parts for either Foreplay or Long Time were recorded on a Lowrey organ, which I did not own, or any other type of theater organ. Nor were any parts recorded on a Hammond B3 which I also did not own or have access to. I had a minimal budget in my Watertown basement. Two years after moving from that apartment, I did acquire a Conn theater organ for stage use, which lived in my living room when we were not touring.
The organ actually used was an old M3, often referred to as a "baby B3," with several damaged tone generator wheels in the upper register. This and an old 147 Leslie is all I had, and after lots of work tweaking the individual tone generator levels, it sounded great.
The M3 can do something that a B3 cannot: it produces an additional low harmonic on the lower keyboard only, and I used this frequently to get the organ sounds heard on BOSTON.
Nothing was ever recorded in my living room in Watertown, it was all done in two tiny rooms in my basement the size of coat closets. John Boylan’s engineer (and John) refused to work there, which is how I ended up engineering and producing most of the debut BOSTON album by myself, in the basement of an apartment house.
5. I am forever indebted to John for what I learned working with him, and for his willingness to stick his neck out fooling Epic records into believing an album was being recorded "professionally" in LA, while it was actually being made by an amateur somewhere in a Massachusetts basement.
Finally, we all miss Brad, those of us in the band having spent weeks, months, and years traveling and working with him, but why not listen to his successor sing? He happens to be a very nice guy, with a great voice, who admired Brad greatly. John’s comment seems a bit cynical and I don’t think it’s something Brad would have appreciated.
Tom Scholz
