07 | March | 2010

The Lost Souls

Listen – The Lost Souls – Sad Little Girl – MP3

Greetings all.

Welcome to another turn in the interwebs barrel known as Iron Leg.
Not too long ago I hit the Asbury Lanes Garage Sale and Record Show, which, despite it’s small size and informal air, has turned out to be something of a minor goldmine for me. It may have something to do with the sliding scale of diminished expectations, but in the last year I’ve pulled some very nice stuff out of the milk crates and cardboard boxes lined up behind the actual lanes.
This last time, the fix (as they say) was in, since my man Mr Luther was there selling off some of his substantial archive of 45s. In the space of about ten minutes I dropped almost my entire supply of ready cash at his table (the fruits of which will be appearing in this space in the coming months). I got to adopt some excellent 45s, and we got to spend the afternoon catching up with each other (and Mick London, who stopped by as well).
Now, despite the fact that I pulled some gems out of those boxes, my record collector’s Spidey sense wouldn’t allow me to ignore all the other records in the room. Even though I didn’t have much money left, I decided to take a stroll and see what I could turn up.
This turned out to be what Gomez Addams used to refer to as a ‘capital idea!’ (Fester) since the first table I stopped at yielded a long time Latin soul want, and the next table gave up today’s selection.
As soon as I saw a 45 with the group name ‘Lost Souls’, and a Beau Brummel’s cover (Sad Little Girl, with Ron Elliot listed as ‘Roland’), my 60s garage antennae went up. The 45 was only a few buck, so I grabbed it, tossed it in the old messenger bag and took it home.
When I got home and played it what I discovered was a slow, dirgey take on the BBs tune, with that lo-fi vibe I love so much.
As it turns out, the Lost Souls were a North Dakota group that recorded two locally released 45s, one of which ‘Sad Little Girl’ b/w ‘Artificial Rose’ was picked up for national distribution by Liberty Records. Read the whole story here.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back later in the week with a little something for your next swinging cocktail-au-go-go party.