The Lost
The Lost formed at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont in 1965 and, after one semester playing together, everyone in the band dropped out in order to pursue their collective rock ‘n’ roll dreams in Boston. The British Invasion was in full swing and Willie Alexander (vocals, keyboard, percussion), Ted Myers (guitar, vocals), Kyle Garrahan (lead guitar, vocals), Walter Powers III (bass, organ, vocals) and Lee Mason (drums, percussion) wanted to get in on the action. They soon became one of the top bands in the city, playing popular haunts like The Rathskeller and Where It’s At from mid-‘65 through ’66. Their final show in Boston was in early ’67, when they became the debut act at The Boston Tea Party. Myers and Alexander wrote the original songs and the band augmented club gigs with covers of Rolling Stones tunes and R&B staples.
The Lost landed a number on opening spots for major artists coming through Boston, including ones for James Brown, Sonny & Cher, The Supremes, The Shirelles and Jr. Walker & The All Stars. In the spring of 1966, they toured the East Coast with The Beach Boys. In late 1965, the band recorded three singles for Capitol Records: “Maybe More Than You” b/w ”Backdoor Blues,” which charted in Boston and received significant airplay across New England and upstate New York; and two versions of “Violet Gown” the first backed with “Mean Motorcycle” and recalled by Capitol and the second backed with an instrumental version of “No Reason Why.” By mid-1967, the momentum created by their first single and the tour with The Beach Boys tour had died, “Violet Gown” had received little-to-no airplay and Capitol unceremoniously dropped the band from its roster; they broke up later that year.
Alexander and Powers played in the short-lived post-Lou Reed version of The Velvet Underground fronted by Doug Yule (with whom they had played in the Boston-based band The Grass Menagerie), recording 1973’s Squeeze. Alexander went on to become a local legend in Boston, fronting a swath of bands over the years including Willie Loco & The Boom Boom Band, which recorded for MCA in the ‘70s. After that, he did a brief tour of France as Willie Alexander & The Confessions (with The Lost’s Powers on bass). Myers went on to front Chamaeleon Church (with Garrahan and future Saturday Night Live and Hollywood film star Chevy Chase on drums) and the third iteration of Ultimate Spinach (with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on lead guitar).
