Lost Forty Fives - Faith and Glory

Issue #74                                                                                                                   May '05

So you’re hanging out with a bunch of general acquaintances and in an effort to find something in common you drop a few musical comments, you know to feel these dudes out to see where they’re coming from, because if they’re into music you’ve got a common ground and then you won’t feel so lost in this roomful of people. So ya drop a few general genre/style feelers, fishing around for something – “Have you heard this tune? that tune? into music?” Before you know it, you and three other guys are digging this conversation into the late hours and finishing off a few more brewskis than you realized. Of course, you play guitar, Rick there plays drums…and soon there after you four guys are in the garage jamming out cover tunes of your favorite 45’s (you know the 7” round vinyl that goes onto a turntable, and who can forget those little plastic thingies the went into the middle so that it could fit down on the spindle of the “record player”) long since lost. But ahh, the ones you still have and the ones you can still get down to with the pure adolescence of Rock-n-Roll are the ones that offer the reprieve in life which we all seek at one pivotal time or another (did someone say the crisis of youth? Or was that mid-life crisis?).

Now that tale of the garage band formed amongst the back drop of early British invasion Rock-n-Roll served up along side the exploding laid-back California, beach rolling and rockin’ sound, as influenced by Canada’s finest bunch of import garage rockers, is retold through both sets of eyes. It is the garage rockers that produce the true sound of joy in the music for what it is. Whether they are a small gathering of teenagers rebelling against the conformity of age and society, or a bunch of middle-aged guys searching for the answers they never found, it is fitting to say that the music provides the soundtrack of life as it exposes the roads wandered and lost upon. Regardless of whether lost upon the road of humanity or lost within the road taken by the music.

The Faith and Glory CD gives us it all. Lost Forty Fives is the garage band we were all in at one time or another. The garage band we coulda, shoulda, woulda, joined but it just never was. The garage band that dug an era so intensely that it drives these 12 original tunes right into the annuals of an era where the master pop song covered harmonies, guitar solos, organ/keyboard chords, riffs and runs, and galloping backbeats and rhythms that lay down a wonderfully exciting and refurbishing effect. The garage band that could’ve been formed by a bunch of 17, 24, 32, or 45 year olds (hell we could even say 52 or 60 year olds as well – think about it). And it is the garage band that writes a mean tune full of life scene sentiment and aspirations. Full of the questions only the band can provide the answers to, for even in mid-life the agonizing can be as profound as that of a teen. Thus the results, while maybe a bit more refined and polished, are the same in the context of musical harmony coming together to defeat (if only momentarily) what ails us.

You know when an LP such as Faith and Glory starts with a “1, 2 ah, 1, 2, 3, 4” count off, that what you are going to get is a flowing pop sound. One that harkens back to an era defined by blues fueled guitar solos and chiming, high-strung, rhythm guitar work. Fed through amps that produce an intoxicating “dirty” sound (a la` The Standells), it mixes with a bass and drum backbeat that is just that: a Backbeat. A backbeat so pronounced that it gallops the sound straight through the entire LP and lets us run with the folly of genuine bliss. It’s easy to see that Lost Forty Fives’ record collections contained the 45s of the golden garage era. The influence of Al Anderson’s pre-NRBQ group The Wildweeds is unbelievably present (I’m Ready, A Day Without You), as well as early Brian Jones era Rolling Stones (Walking All Alone Today) and Buddy Holly-esque rave ups (Listen To Me, Faith and Glory). There are also countless reflections both instrumentally and vocally to such greats as The Young Rascals, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Turtles, The Grass Roots, The Guess Who, Buffalo Springfield, The Hollies, Paul Revere and The Raiders and if you wanted to break out the “Nuggets” box set, the list can go on and on.

Whether you are 45 or 17 and Lost, whether you are in your mom & dads basement, or in your own garage - grab the little plastic thingie that goes into the middle of the record and grab Faith and Glory. It offers the reprieve in life that we all seek. Get out those Lost Forty Fives and let’s rock-n-roll down the road of life.

Lost Forty Fives - Faith and Glory
available now for $11.98 + s/h*
$5.98 + s/h*

    View Shopping Cart  /  Checkout
Accepting Credit Cards and PayPal

*Shipping & Handling charges:
USA - $3.00 for the first 2 CDs ordered,
                     Add $1.50 per each CD after.
Canada - $5.00 for the first CD ordered,
                          Add $2.00 per each CD after.
Everywhere else -$7.00 for the first CD ordered,
                                        Add $3.00 per each CD after.