Sib Hashian is gone.

[Bob Womack]

Sib Hasihian has died. Who the heck was Sib?

It seems that a certain Polaroid engineer wrote, performed, recorded, and shopped some song demos he had made at home under a band name to a bunch of record companies. One of them bit and offered a contract. Then the Polaroid engineer had a problem: the demos weren't up to pro standard so he had to go back into his home studio and replace a bunch of the stuff on them to bring them up to snuff. At the same, time he had to quick throw together a band for three reasons:

a) as far as the band's contract was concerned, there was no "band," only a duet of the Polaroid engineer and a great vocalist.
b) the record company with whom he contracted was a union shop so the album was required to be recorded in a union studio. The Polaroid engineer had cleverly retained control of his material so that wasn't going to happen. However, appearances had to be kept up, so a bunch of stringers need to be sent to the west coast to act like they were "the band."
c) As soon as the album was released they would have to take it on the road with some "band" to play it live.

The Polaroid engineer knew a bunch of other local musicians and chose a few to serve as "the band." Having just lost the fellow who played the drum parts on the demo, he added someone to play "the drummer." He sent the band out to the west coast where they sipped piña coladas by the hotel's poolside like rock stars for a couple of months and just managed to work on one (count 'em, ONE) song that was sent back to be rebuilt to spec at the Polaroid engineer's home studio. Meanwhile, some smart guy at the record company had sent out a famous west coast producer/engineer to teach the Polaroid engineer how to pull it all together. All the drumming was reportedly replaced by a ghost drummer because, well, the original wasn't up to snuff.

The charade lasted for two albums and tours, with the Polaroid engineer performing most of the instrument parts in the studio, producing and, engineering, and replacing the drums with a studio ghost musician. Then one day "the band" revolted and decided they wanted to be THE BAND and take some creative control. Cue the end of "The Band."

Meet "the band."


So, in our mockumentary,
The real Polaroid engineer, producer/engineer/composer as well as guitarist (including acoustic guitar with a borrowed Yamaha 12-string), bassist, pianist, and organist* were all played by Tom Scholz, second from right.
The real vocalista was played by the late Bradly Delp, second from left.
The 'fro in the middle (and, coincidentally, "the drummer") was played by Sib Hashian. He actually did play drums on tour.
The real drums were (reportedly) played by Steve Gadd.
The real west coast producer/engineer who taught Tom Scholz to produce and engineer was played by John Boyland (not in the pic).
"The label" was played by Epic.
"The year" was played by 1976.
"The album" was played by BOSTON.



End of our credits.

The album broke sales records and held those records for years.

Other than Brad who persisted with Tom through many albums, "the band" ever since has mostly consisted of pickup musicians.

Probably as a result of Tom Scholz' acumen and skills, the whole home recording thing took off. It simply didn't exist before Tom hit the scene and invested an ungodly amount of Polaroid engineer money in period state-of-the-art gear.

Poor Sib. And now he has died at the age of 67 on a "Legends of Rock" cruise, and ON STAGE. More HERE.

RIP Sib. I loved the dream while it lasted.

Bob

* And always pointed out on the albums, NO SYNTHESIZERS

[Rodger]

Thanks Bob! I had no idea who he was.

Your post was very entertaining, brought down only by the fact that someone passed away.

[Jim_G]

I was a HS senior the year that album came out. At the time I thought it slick, soul less corporate garbage. I was appalled at the name they chose. Give me some early J Geils funk every day of the week to represent our City. That opinion has never wavered. I'm slowing down a bit, but I can still change the station in 4 notes or less when a song from Boston comes on.

As for Sid, he was most recently known around here as part of local Car Magnate Ernie Bock Jr's vanity band, Ernie and the Mechanics. Also in this band was Barry Goodreau. Sid sounded like a nice guy, as did Delp. So may they rest in peace. Tom Scholz is something else.

[KevWind]

I had know that album was basically one guy in his home studio, but did not the back story. Thanks

[fazool]

The guy on the far left was Fran Sheehan, the bassist
The guy on the far right was Barry Goudreau, a guitarist

Barry made a solo album and had Brad Delp sing on it



Boston was the first band I really got into. I knew much of the story but I didn't every know that the band was a charade.

[PorkPieGuy]

Hate to hear this.

That's one of my favorite records I own.

[dreamincolor]

Great story, Bob. I knew some of that, but you filled in the blanks and I always enjoy your writing.

I saw Boston live a long time ago. There was a singer (Fran Cosmo) who actually sang high harmonies over Brad Delp (that ain't easy). I believe Cosmo was part of Barry Goudreau's "Orion the Hunter" project.

[Richgj3]

Originally Posted by Jim_G

I was a HS senior the year that album came out. At the time I thought it slick, soul less corporate garbage. I was appalled at the name they chose. Give me some early J Geils funk every day of the week to represent our City. That opinion has never wavered. I'm slowing down a bit, but I can still change the station in 4 notes or less when a song from Boston comes on.

As for Sid, he was most recently known around here as part of local Car Magnate Ernie Bock Jr's vanity band, Ernie and the Mechanics. Also in this band was Barry Goodreau. Sid sounded like a nice guy, as did Delp. So may they rest in peace. Tom Scholz is something else.

Jim,
I was at Northeastern U. In 1964. I still remember those Ernie Bock radio spots: "Every car on my lot has 5 brand new tires. If you find a car without 5 brand new tires, it's your car!" Or something like that.

It was there that I met Jay Geils as we were both engineering students with "G" as out last name initial so we were in all classes together and he lived across the hall in the dorm. In the same dorm, Matt Umanov was on the floor above. They both left after freshman year and Jay went to summer school at Worcester Poly Tech where he met Danny Klein and Magic Dick.

I'm still in touch with Jay and the Gibson J-55 I own came from him. I liked their early stuff best, too. "First I Look At The Purse" is a favorite.

Sorry to get off topic, but your post woke some old memories.

Rich G

[Jim_G]

Thanks for that Rich. I should fix something said earlier, RIP *Sib*. I was going to delete that post entirely a few minutes after I posted it, for several reasons. Poor form on my part to be dissing someone else's music anywhere, but especially in a memoriam. Sorry about that Bob.

Jay still lives in the area, out in Groton, and plays out once in a while. Most often over at the Bull Run in Shirley. He's more into his Jazz these days. Peter Wolf is still very active in the small clubs in Cambridge and Somerville. He'll even pop into Passim's once in a great while too.

And Ernie Jr has done a great job continuing on, and even growing his Father's empire. Come on Down!

[HHP]

Wasn't Schotz also credited for the Rockman effects units?

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Jim_G

I was going to delete that post entirely a few minutes after I posted it, for several reasons. Poor form on my part to be dissing someone else's music anywhere, but especially in a memoriam. Sorry about that Bob.

Not a problem, all is well. The memorial was, well, ironic, at best.

I remember BOSTON's premier because the production was so um... complete. When I learned at the time that Tom had basically created the whole thing in his basement, it really changed the course of my life. I got it in my head that if Tom could create music from the ground up and end up with a finished product, so could I. The seeds for my career were sown listening to the first two BOSTON albums. Within a couple of years I was studying recording engineering and music composition and then was hired away to my first job as a recording engineer.

"And now I are one..."

Tom Scholz as the ground-up composer/musician/engineer/producer and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter in the same role, "Poet/producer/reducer," both essentially renaissance men, were two "everyman" inspirations for me. There were other guitarists and engineer/producers as well, but those two were pivotal.

Sib was one of those album credit guys whose name I immediately recognized but who had faded off into the mist of rock history for me so to see his name pop up on Facebook in this regard was a mild jolt.

And yes, Scholz created the Rockman line.

Bob

[KevWind]

Wow I like the diffusers and is that an effects rack I see behind you left side of left display ? If it is, and you get a chance take and post some pictures here or perhaps start a "tour of studio" thread in the Record forum would be interesting

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Wow I like the diffusers and is that an effects rack I see behind you left side of left display ? If it is, and you get a chance take and post some pictures here or perhaps start a "tour of studio" thread in the Record forum would be interesting

Yep, there are six effects racks behind me in the front of the producer's desk, kind of lonely now that we have gone largely inside the box. Back when we were based on an SSL 4000G console, they used to house a Lexicon 480 reverb, several multi-effects units, delays, flanger, a pair of DXB 160s units (one is still there), and the room's high-end preamps. There's still an Eventide H3000B/S with sampler card, a Lexicon multieffects, Dolby Cat. 43, eight BSS direct boxes, Apogee Rosetta 800, Dolby 5.1 encoder and decoder, etc. Beside me is a turret rack with some preamps (Avalon and Neve Portico) for the "money channels." Those are RPG diffusers designed for the room by Dr. Peter D'Antonio. I'll try to gather some pics for you.

Bob

[Side Man]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Sib Hasihian has died. Who the heck was Sib?

The 'fro in the middle (and, coincidentally, "the drummer") was played by Sib Hashian. He actually did play drums on tour.

The real drums were (reportedly) played by Steve Gadd.

Poor Sib. And now he has died at the age of 67 on a "Legends of Rock" cruise, and ON STAGE. More HERE.

RIP Sib. I loved the dream while it lasted.

Bob

* And always pointed out on the albums, NO SYNTHESIZERS

Having known Sib since our high school band days, unlike the rumor that Bernard Purdie was the actual drummer on the original Beatles album, Sib was (with I believe the exception of one song) the drummer on the first Boston album - playing note for note, Jim Masdea's original tracks as recorded on the demos.

However to add insult to injury, poor Sib is listed as "Sid" on the "Legends Of Rock Cruise" website: http://www.hitmakerscruises.com/lege...uise-2017.html

R.I.P. John T. "Sib" Hashian.

[Bob Womack]

I see that Tom has credited him with the first album on the BOSTON site. Perhaps some of the dirty water has passed under the bridge. That would be good.

A photo tour of the studio where I work is up in RECORD for Kev.

Bob