Joe Harvard: "There are three Boston acts that figure in the story behind this song: the Del Fuegos, the Real Kids and Asa Brebner. They provided inspiration, location, and the idea for the chorus structure, respectively."

The Del Fuegos would've been hometown heroes even without getting signed to Slash or appearing in the Miller Beer commercial where Dan Zanes slipped in a great little quip that went something like "rock and roll is folk music -- cuz it's music for folks". The Fuegos had already penned some great songs as they matured from an inexperienced, almost casual band into one of the Hub's tightest and most tasteful acts ever.

Joe Harvard recalls "I was out on tour with Lifeboat, not playing but shooting super-8 film, informally stage managing & doing a bit of sound when needed. I liked the Zanes brothers & everyone was wicked proud of the
Fuegos, whose Mitchell Froom-produced LP was one of the few by a Boston act that didn't suffer by comparison to the real article.

Lifeboat was in North Carolina, at the Brewery, which had a dark, vaulted interior highly reminiscent of Liverpool's Cavern Club, I shot it in 4x black & white, grainy and gorgeous. We came in a day early and the Fuegos happened to be headed out -- though in an RV not a disintegrating van. We hung out in the parking lot of the Brewery for a few minutes, not long. But it somehow cemented a growing impression."

Fueled by hometown pride that "growing impression" was of Boston bands crossing the country to bring rock excitement to yet another generation of fans, providing the basic underlying motif of "Major Size Auditorium". Another facet of that impression was growing as well: the Hub's indie and underground acts perpetually struggled to record good, representative product at home [the Fuegos had recorded on Froom's Left Coast turf]. It was an observation, however subjective, that would one day be instrumental in motivating Joe while he participated in the creation of Fort Apache Recording Studios along with c-founders Paul Q. Kolderie, Sean Slade, and Jim Fitting.

Such were the waters that nourished "Major Size", whose seed had been formed back in June '78 when Joe accompanied a rent-a-car and a U-Haul full of Vox amps to Grinnell, Iowa, as a roadie for the Real Kids, As a pair of maniacs -- each named Kevin -- swapped the wheel, using a cinder block on the accelerator, Joe surveyed the long, flat expanses of the Midwest through the non-opening rear window of the doomed rent-a-car.

Joe: "The rental place had attached a governor to the engine of our car, which would limit it's top speed to 55, supposedly. The US was still reeling from the Energy Crisis, so I think it was meant mainly as a fuel-saving device. But the Kevins definitely got that car to go faster than 55, I can tell you ... and with a packed U-Haul full of the band's heavy-ass Super-Beatles in tow! I felt bad for that car. After our cinder-block-propelled round-trip to Iowa the vehicle could barely make it up the little driveway grade into the return lot. I saw a lot of scenery, that became the eventual inspiration for the Midwestern location of 'Major Size Auditorium'."

With regard to Asa Brebner's role in the song's creation Joe aaaaaaaaaaa

"The tongue in cheeky chorus idea I confess was via an Asa Brebner song, a really funny one about taking a summer vacation trip to a place with a compound name ... Indian Mountain Sightseeing Cave and Holiday Amusement Park or something ... by the time the family is packed up and gets past sundry obstacles to arrive at their destination the place is closed and they turn around and go home. Funny. It made an impression."

Asa Brebner, formerly bass player in the incarnation of the Modern Lovers which appears on ML Live, is a highly esteemed and very talented Hub guitarist and songwriter who continues to write influential songs and lead formidable bands. He has also appeared on Dave Knopfler's premier solo LP and numerous other releases.

Harvard continues: "Yeah, I didn't lift it intentionally, but a year or so after recording 'Major Size' I popped in this Asa Brebner cassette tape, for the second time. I'd owned it for a while but I'd only played it all the way through once, when I first got it from Asa, which was maybe 6 months to a year BEFORE writing 'Major Size'. I think I was moving at the time, you know finding stuff and going 'ooh, why haven't I played this yet' to myself. So I find it again and play it again and there's this song, which of course I remember hearing and realize I have cribbed, lifted, pilfered. I had no lyrics for the tune when Bash and Clark and I recorded it. I just said 'here are these chords, let's lay down this arrangement'. Then I wrote lyrics in the studio ... and channeled Asa, inadvertently. Not that I haven't ... uh ... advertently done so as well. Just not in this case. Thanks, Asa!"



in who played a blistering set to well over a thousand dancing attendees who sang along with the songs from the RK's Red Star LP