(drum sticks tapping) - [Musician] One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, (bass playing) One, two, three, one, two, three.

(bass playing) Check, check, one, two, check, one, two.

- [Sound Man] Okay.

- [Musician] Fantastic, one, two, check.

(guitar chord playing) (voices chattering) (guitar noodling) (instruments playing) - Yeah.

(rock and roll music playing) ♪ I see you're off again ♪ ♪ You've got a brand new friend ♪ ♪ He'll never be the end ♪ ♪ Once before ♪ ♪ You played this game ♪ ♪ You're just the same ♪ ♪ You'll be back again ♪ - That'll work okay.

Going right from my vision into Dynaflow if you wanna do that.

- My babe, and once before, she's Dynaflow.

- [Bill] My big, we gotta watch the tempo.

- [Barry] I don't know if we're gonna do mine.

(harmonica noodling) (voices chattering) (instruments noodling) And you and I start that.

(bass wahing) (guitar popping) (voices chattering) - This'll work, let's try it.

Let's try to do it.

- We can do the harp.

- Yeah.

(rock and roll music) - Woo!

(hands clapping) (voices chattering) - My name is Ray Paret.

I managed Levon Helm from The Band, Joe Cocker, George McCrae.

You can blame me for disco music.

I was going to school in Boston.

I was at MIT, and I got to know a booking agent up there named John Sedukis who was working with two bands in Boston, one called The Lost and the other The Remains.

I watched their careers, and I watched their careers go down the toilet because they weren't being handled properly.

Whatever internal problems there were could have been surmounted by the proper management.

And that was always a tragic loss to me.

- You know, we go, we go from the digga digga digga digga digga digga right into the pa-poom.

Instead of me doing that, that timing, we go right into the explosion.

Can you get the capo off while you're doing the song?

- [Barry] Maybe I can do it... (guitar strings strumming) Mm, maybe I can get it... - Before.

- Before the slide.

Yeah.

(laughing) - [Ray] They were the best live rock and roll band I'd ever seen, and I'd seen a lot of them.

It's just great to see these guys playing.

I mean, they're playing as good or better than they did before.

And, like I said, if you throw some beer on the floor and close your eyes, you're at The Rathskeller.

- One... (rock and roll music) ♪ Can't buy it over the counter ♪ ♪ Can't get it from the store ♪ ♪ In a catalog or door to door ♪ ♪ Can't keep it once you find it ♪ ♪ Can't get it back when it's gone ♪ ♪ Can't put it in the bank ♪ ♪ Or take out a loan ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ ♪ Yes, it does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ ♪ Really does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps moving on ♪ - I'm Fran Fried.

I live in Fresno, California these days, but for most of my life, I lived in Connecticut.

I wrote about pop music in Connecticut for about 20 years, 11 years at the New Haven Register.

And I still do a radio show at WPKN in Bridgeport when I come home.

The Remains are probably my all-time favorite musical story, if not my favorite.

So, one of the people I interviewed was Barry, and Barry says, "You know, our drummer lives in your back yard."

So, I called Chip, and the first things out of his mouth were, "I don't know why you need to talk to me for this story."

I said, "Look, made this really cool record.

You're on this great historical document that's coming out.

You're in my town and I'd be remiss if I didn't try to call you."

And what Chip echoed was something that a lot of other musicians around the country from the '60s have echoed.

They had, they had no idea that this underground was going on.

You know, they had left their musical career way back in the rear view mirror.

I think both his sons were teenagers at the time, and I don't think they knew that their old man played in this incredible band back in the '60s.

- All right, let's see, a little while ago, we were talking about you guys touring with The Beatles on what amounted to be their last stateside tour.

That was about 40 years ago.

You had that choice gig.

How did you manage to score that?

- Our manager just knew the right people, and he came in the office in New York one day and said, "You guys wanna go on tour with The Beatles?"

(Fran chuckling) I can get you on there if you wanna go."

- [Fran] You guys hadn't done a national tour before, right?"

This was your... - [Chip] When we got on stage, it was the kicking off of the event.

Imagine hanging out with The Beatles for three weeks at the time.

- [Fran] And you did get to hang out.

- [Chip] We did.

- [Fran] So to understand, the last show, the grand finale, and then what happened to The Remains after?

- We weren't the original quartet anymore.

We only had three out of the four of us.

And it just didn't feel the same.

It felt like the, the fire had gone.

- So, what rekindled that flame?

There a little fire, a little match burning inside there, eh?

- We were ready.

We were ready to do it again.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) (rock and roll music) ♪ Say you're sorry for leaving me alone ♪ ♪ Say you're sorry for never coming home ♪ ♪ Say you're never gonna leave me alone again ♪ ♪ And my love will stay the way it's been ♪ ♪ My love will stay the way it's been ♪ ♪ My love will stay the way it's been ♪ (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - Thank you.

How many of you people remember The Remains from the '60s?

- [Vern] Oh, giving away your age.

- [Barry] There are 12 of you.

Wow, you're still around.

- Oh, yes.

(jingle jangle guitar playing) ♪ If you listen to me ♪ ♪ Then you'll know what I mean when I say ♪ ♪ If you listen to me ♪ ♪ I know you'll know what I mean when I say ♪ ♪ I've been meaning to see you ♪ - Wow.

♪ I need to be near you ♪ (voices chattering) - We were huge fans of the group.

They were one of the most powerful bands that we have ever heard.

- I always admired how, how clean and tidy they were with their, with their playing, their arrangements, how they always sounded just like the record.

- I got involved with trying to put a band together for John Lennon.

He was talking about The Remains, and the tour they did.

He had always wished The Beatles could've maintained the energy that The Remains had because, to him, they were a young band.

He said, after playing hundreds and hundreds of shows, they just lost that energy, even though they were still great.

But, he specifically kept bring up The Remains, more than once.

(rock and roll music) - In the '60s, they didn't have like, you know, you couldn't pick out the gauges of strings.

You know, you wanted a set of guitar strings, you bought a set of guitar strings, and put 'em on your guitar.

And they were all, like, medium to heavy gauge.

So, I, in playing The Remains songs, I, I have a certain attack that I was used to playing back then.

Now that we're playing these songs again and the lighter strings and different kinds of strings are available, I'm still using the original setup that I used to have.

It's got a certain sound to it.

♪ Ain't that her ♪ ♪ Walkin' right around the corner now ♪ ♪ Looks so sweet ♪ - [Chip] I used to break 'em here.

I broke the right cymbal here one time, which is... You never break a bell.

- You used those aluminum sticks, didn't you?

- Those aluminum sticks was the one then.

They only lasted one set because they would all compress.

After you play 'em, they'd compress.

And you would spend, like, $20 a pair.

I remember they were ridiculous, but for one set, it was the best-sounding stick ever made.

Man, it was... (engine rumbling) - I drove a lot listening to AM radio.

So, I used to listen to the Top 40.

It'd start at 7:00 am in the morning.

- When The Remains first single came out, called "Why Do I Cry," I remember I was riding with my girlfriend at the time.

And I was driving through the streets of Boston.

It came on the radio.

What a feeling!

Woo!

I was, I pulled over to the side.

(laughing) It was so exciting.

- It was funny.

The Remains have evolved over years.

Our role sorta changed.

In the beginning, The Remains was absolutely Barry's vision of what a rock band should be.

My relation with him in particular was one of simply someone who needs to learn everything.

So, I was like a carte blanche to start out with with Barry.

Like, no pre-conceived idea of what he wanted, and I learned everything.

Billy was very technical.

This band, The Remains has, it's a four-piece band, but it's not just the same old two guitars because I'm a keyboard player, and I must admit, I always wanted to play guitar 'cause I thought the guitar players were pretty cool.

So, when I developed the style for the keyboard, it emulated basically a rhythm, a hard rock, rhythm guitar.

And that stood us in good stead with The Remains because I could do some really hard backup for Barry's guitar and really filled it in.

So, it was, I mean, it worked.

I don't know, it was just one of those things that work.

- What do you think woulda happened with Capitol Records behind us, if we switched to Capitol then when we did that, that demo tape?

- No question.

- We woulda been superstars.

(everyone laughing) - That was, that was the mistake we made.

- Overnight too.

- Sure.

- Overnight, it would have happened.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(bluesy rock music) (engine rumbling) (engine rumbling) - Nice to be playing in LA again.

- Back in LA.

- [Barry] Oh wow, look at that picture.

- What a record to behold.

- Back in my beloved hometown of Boston, this quartet is spoken of with reverence normally reserved for the likes of Ted Williams or Larry Bird.

- Ted Williams?

Wow.

- Larry Bird?

- That is very cool.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- The splendid smoker.

- Well, we were kinda young and athletic.

- Look at that.

I never saw that picture before.

- Prince Valiant's psych rock side project, The Remains, Friday.

- When I first heard that they were gonna come back here, I just did not believe myself, and I thought, you know, they have to play this club 'cause they're The Remains, come on.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) Thank you guys.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) (rock and roll music) ♪ I see you're off again ♪ ♪ You got a brand new friend ♪ ♪ He'll never be the end ♪ ♪ 'Cause once before ♪ ♪ We played this game ♪ ♪ You're just the same ♪ ♪ You'll be back again ♪ ♪ You never compromise with me ♪ ♪ You make it plain for me to see ♪ ♪ That you're foolin' with my mind ♪ ♪ You'll always be unkind ♪ ♪ And you blow it every time ♪ ♪ 'Cause once before ♪ ♪ You played this game ♪ ♪ Just the same ♪ ♪ You'll be back again ♪ ♪ You'll be back again ♪ ♪ You'll be back again ♪ ♪ You'll be back again ♪ (rock and roll music) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) - Thank you.

I've got names of several people in Europe who were interested in garage music, quote-unquote.

So, I wrote a couple o' letters just saying, "Hi, I'm Barry Tashian.

I had the band The Remains in the '60s, and we're thinking of doing some reunion shows.

Just want you to know we may be available."

About two weeks later, my fax machine starts going choo choo choo choo choo choo choo choo.

And I get this seven-page handwritten fax saying, "We have a festival up here in Leon, The Purple Weekend, and we would love to have you people play for us, and you know, what would it take to get you over here.

So, I, that's when I - That's when you called - began calling you guys and saying... - Okay, yeah.

- Can you go to, wanna go to Europe?

And that's how it started.

- [Band Member] Out of the blue.

- [Interviewer] Did anybody say no?

- [Band Member] No, I think I said, "I'll pack now," - [Barry] Oh yes.

(Vern laughing) - One of the kickers, the big kicker for me actually was, when we were on the stage, there were all these people out there who, like the night before, you know, Chip and I were there.

We couldn't really hold a conversation with most of the people there.

I don't speak any Spanish whatsoever.

And I looked out at the audience, and they were all singing all the words to our tunes in English.

- That's the first time - It blew me away.

- I thought we were singing outta tune.

I thought we were singing outta tune.

- It was the audience.

- It was the audience singing the songs.

It's like, we can't be that far off.

- [Vern] No.

- We practiced this stuff.

- We practiced it.

- [Chip] I was very nervous though.

- That really blew me away just to see that.

- I'm glad to hear that.

Before we went on, I was just, I was beside myself.

(Vern laughing) I walked up a level - I think we all were.

- and I went into the restroom.

There was a big student restroom there with a long row of sinks, and I just stood in it, leaned against the sinks, and I just, "Oh God, let this be good."

- [Vern] Yeah, please, please, Lord.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Please, we were all there.

We were all there.

(rock and roll music) ♪ Burnin' down the highway on the interstate ♪ ♪ Wind is blowin' through my hair ♪ ♪ Top down on my custom '58 ♪ ♪ movin' without a care ♪ ♪ Me and my baby we just had a big fight ♪ ♪ 'Bout my addiction to chrome and steel ♪ ♪ I'm gone and I'm headed outta sight ♪ ♪ Me and my automobile ♪ ♪ When I'm rollin' on down the road ♪ ♪ I got rock and roll on the radio ♪ ♪ In my Buick Dynaflow ♪ ♪ One true love I know ♪ ♪ She's a road master ♪ ♪ Nothing gets past her ♪ ♪ My big old Dynaflow ♪ - Barry plays the real thing.

It's not all distorted.

He plays all the right notes, and he's the strongest guy you'll ever see up there on the stage.

(rock and roll music) Vern is one of the best rock and roll bass players you'll ever hear.

His licks don't have a whole lot to do with the bass that you hear on other people's records.

♪ My big old Dynaflow ♪ Chip laid down the bottom, and boy, does he ever.

He's the hardest rockin' drummer I've ever worked with.

♪ My little old Dynaflow ♪ (rock and roll music) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - Thank you.

- Woo!

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) - [Barry] Good to be here in Los Angeles.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering) It's been a while.

It was, you know, that Beatles concert was, what, a few months ago?

(audience laughing) You know, it's great.

Thanks a lot for coming out.

We really appreciate you being here.

(audience cheering) (audience applauding) (rock and roll music) ♪ Love's not a train ♪ ♪ Love will remain ♪ ♪ Who you gonna love till the end of time ♪ ♪ 'Cause all good things ♪ ♪ All good things ♪ ♪ All good things don't have to end ♪ ♪ Woo ♪ (rock and roll music) ♪ 'Cause all good things ♪ ♪ All good things ♪ ♪ All good things don't have to end ♪ ♪ Come on, baby ♪ ♪ Yeah, you're drivin' me crazy ♪ (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - [Barry] The musical was called "All Good Things."

- [Vern] "All Good Things."

- [Barry] Based on a song of Vern's.

- First rock and roll song I ever wrote.

- I came up from Nashville.

I saw two performances.

- [Vern] That's right.

- [Barry] Yeah, after the second one, which was... - [Vern] Yeah, we had to choose, you know, who we were gonna pass along to be auditioned for the acting.

They had to pass the music part first.

And here we are, auditioning people to play us... - That was weird.

- which was pretty bizarre.

- That's bizarre.

- It's bizarre.

- [Barry] Aw, you can't... (everyone laughing) - [Barry] I've gotta say, sitting in the audience watching somebody playing Barry Tashian was unnerving and a bit, you know, surreal.

- [Vern] They were so cooperative to work with.

It's interesting seeing our wives with tears in their eyes there too.

That was kinda nice.

- It was moving.

- That was moving me.

- Yeah, it was very moving.

- One, two, three, four.

(rock and roll music) ♪ Can't buy it over the counter ♪ ♪ Can't get it from the store ♪ ♪ In a catalog or door to door ♪ ♪ Can't keep it once you find it ♪ ♪ Can't get it back when it's gone ♪ ♪ Can't put it in the bank ♪ ♪ Or take out a loan ♪ ♪ Time keeps movin' on ♪ ♪ Yes, it does now ♪ ♪ Times keeps movin' on ♪ ♪ Really does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps movin' on ♪ (guitar soloing) ♪ Time keeps movin' on ♪ ♪ Yes, it does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps movin' on ♪ ♪ Really does now ♪ ♪ Time keeps movin' on ♪ (rock and roll music) (hands clapping) (rock and roll music) One, two, three, four.

(rock and roll music) (audience cheering) (audience applauding) (rock and roll music) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) Thank you.

- [Narrator] The Remains inspired John Landau, currently Bruce Springsteen's manager, to write these immortal words.

- [Barry] It's so much fun to do it today because it's not a question of us trying to, like, make it the way we were when we were 21.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Feelin' all that pressure on a man.

- Yeah, there's no pressure, really.

- But, how old were you at that time when, when this was all going down?

- 20, 19, 20 and 21.

Now, we can just have fun and, and play.

♪ When I find myself ♪ ♪ Thinkin' about your eyes ♪ ♪ No, I can feel where your heart is ♪ ♪ And what you're thinkin' ♪ ♪ I wanna thank you for givin' ♪ ♪ Every kind of lovin' that I know ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ When the evening children sing ♪ ♪ Their midnight songs ♪ ♪ And I find myself ♪ ♪ Thinkin' about your eyes ♪ ♪ I can believe where your heart is ♪ ♪ And what you're thinkin' ♪ ♪ I wanna thank you for givin' ♪ ♪ Every kinda lovin' that I know ♪ - Looking back now, there is no what if, you know.

It had to happen that way.

And everything takes its own course the way it's supposed to.

(warm rock music) ♪ I wanna thank you for givin' ♪ ♪ Every kinda lovin' that I know ♪ ♪ I wanna thank you for givin' ♪ ♪ Every kinda lovin' that I know ♪ (audience applauding) (audience cheering)