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Subject: [ourplace] sid hashian, 67, drummer for seminal boston albums
Sib Hashian, 67, drummer for seminal Boston albums . By Bryan Marquard Globe
Staff . Anyone who listened to FM rock radio at the end of 1976 couldn't
help but air drum along with Sib Hashian during a classic percussion moment:
two drumbeats with both sticks and a quick cymbal crash that threw open the
door to the soaring guitar solo in Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time. Those three
beats fall not quite two and half minutes into a song that stretches for
more than seven and a half minutes on the band's self-titled first album,
which sold some 17 million copies in the United States alone, becoming one
of the most successful debuts in history. That brief indelible passage for
Mr. Hashian â" who was just as unforgettable visually in those days because
of his expansive Afro â" was also a memorable moment for the classic rock
genre. "He was a legend, and I don't think there's a day that goes by today
that I don't hear his drumming on the radio," said car magnate Ernie Boch, a
longtime friend who played alongside Mr. Hashian for several years,
beginning in 2004, in the band Ernie and the Automatics. "I listen to
classic rock all the time, and if you listen to classic rock, you hear Sibby
Hashian play every day. Mr. Hashian, who went from playing in North Shore
bands to touring the world while drumming for Boston's first two albums,
collapsed and died Wednesday night as he performed on the Legends of Rock
Caribbean cruise. He was 67 and lived in Lynnfield. His son, Adam,told Fox
News that although a cause of death has not been determined, "we think it
might be a heart attack. In a statement issued Thursday, Mr. Hashian's wife
of 38 years, Suzanne, announced his death "with deep and profound sadness,"
and said he died at 11 p.m. while performing on the cruise. She added that
funeral and service arrangements will be announced. Also on the cruise was
Barry Goudreau, a guitarist who was part of Boston's debut album lineup with
Mr. Hashian. "It's with a very heavy heart that I have to announce that my
musical partner of 50 years, Sib Hashian, collapsed during our set on the
Rock Legends Cruise last night," Goudreau said in a Facebook posting.
"Despite efforts to revive him, he did not survive. Sib was one in a
million, never to be replaced. The two had played in bands together as
teenagers and through music they met their future Boston bandmates:
guitarist and songwriter Tom Scholz, bassist Fran Sheehan, and singer Brad
Delp, who took his life in March 2007. According to the Legends of Rock
website, the cruise departed from Miami Saturday. The ship stopped in St.
Maarten Tuesday, in Puerto Rico Wednesday, and was scheduled to be at sea en
route to the Bahamas Wednesday night when Mr. Hashian died. The ship is due
to arrive in Nassau at noon Friday. John Thomas Hashian was born Aug. 17,
1949, according to funeral information posted on legacy.com. He grew up on
the North Shore and for a time played with Sheehan in a lounge act. "I got
Sib in the band for a little while," Sheehan said in an interview with
Michael Hill that is posted on www.thirdstage.ca. "He goes, 'I'll join you
for a little while because you're making so much money. We'll make a bunch
of cake, we'll buy ourselves some great equipment, and we'll do a band. So
we did that for a while. Eventually, the five band members â" Delp,
Goudreau, Scholz, Sheehan, and Mr. Hashian â" came together for a debut
album whose sales success they would never match. Before parting ways with
Boston, Mr. Hashian played on the band's second album, "Don't Look Back,"
which was released in 1978 and sold several million copies. He also played
on Goudreau's self-titled 1980 album, to which Delp contributed vocals. "I
started playing with Sib back in Lynn English High School, and he's one of
the only drummers I've worked with," Goudreau told the Globe in 1980,
explaining why he turned to his Boston bandmates while preparing a solo
outing. From about 2004 to 2011, Mr. Hashian played with Ernie and the
Automatics, and he also had owned a record shop and tanning parlor
businesses in Greater Boston. For a time, he was a host for the TV show
"Scorch's PFG. The members of Ernie and the Automatics included Boch,
Goudreau, and Michael "Tunes" Antunes of John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown
Band. The band performed in venues that ranged from "tiny little bars that
you could barely fit a drum set in to massive stages," Boch recalled, and
Mr. Hashian was always a cheerful presence. "No matter if we were playing in
a chicken coop or a giant theater, he was always positive," Boch said.
"Sibby did it for the love of playing. When we first started out, we were
playing these absolutely small stage dives, and he would be so excited about
it. Backstage, Mr. Hashian might share stories about performing for crowds
of 60,000 fans, "and we'd walk out and there would be 12 people," Boch said
with a chuckle. "It did not matter if it was two or 20,000 â" he had a
professionalism about him that was inspiring. We called him the engine room
because he was like an engine. He never skipped a beat. His timing was
impeccable. In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Hashian's survivors include
his daughters Aja and Lauren, who has a daughter with actor Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson. In a late-1970s profile of Boston for Rolling Stone magazine,
writer and film director Cameron Crowe captured Mr. Hashian in unguarded
moments that included racking up some 28,000 points on a pinball machine.
"It's all about the extra ball, my friend," he told Crowe. Mr. Hashian also
joked about what it's like to go from playing in North Shore bands to
performing worldwide. "I am the same man today, even after the success" Mr.
Hashian told Crowe for that profile, which is posted on theuncool.com. "And,
as Joe Namath says," he added, invoking the former New York Jets
quarterback, "I can't wait till tomorrow cause I get better looking every
day. Marquard can be reached at bryan.marquard@xxxxxxxxx.
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