Walter Powers, bassist for a sort of "lost" version of The Velvet Underground, that Gearwire spoke to in a recent article had other bands before and after his stint in the Lou Reed-less Velvets. One of these was The Lost.

"The Lost started with five of us at Goddard College in Vermont. Of three guitar players, I was the least accomplished. I hadn't played any rock-and-roll guitar at all; I played acoustic ragtime and blues so the others told me, 'You're the bass player,'" says Powers. "We pooled our money and bought me a lovely Guild Starfire hollow-body bass with a warm, organ-like (well, I thought of it that way) tone and an Ampeg B-18 amp, kind of a curiosity with its 18 inch speaker. I played it loud and boomy because it didn't really punch through otherwise against the other guitar and keyboard amps, and consequently frequently tore the speaker paper, resulting in what I like to think of as the original fuzz bass, before they had fuzzboxes. This was before clubs had mics available to mic the instruments, and mix the band sound through a sound board."

Three members of the band left school and moved to Boston to try to make it in the music biz.

"We regrouped with a new guitarist, Kyle Garrahan, a new drummer, Lee Mason, and me, keyboard player and percussionist and front guy Willie Alexander, and group leader and main songwriter Ted Myers," says Powers. "We did indeed develop a name in Boston, signed with Capitol Records, out some singles that did fairly well in this area and in New York (but not well enough,) toured with labelmates the Beach Boys, and ultimately broke up from a loss of momentum, mainly."

The Lost's recordings were collected and released on two compilation disks on the Arf Arf reissue specialist label. Lots of great bands never "make it." And finding this music can be a chore so be sure to check out the Arf Arf website.

After The Lost, Powers played in several bands--one being The Grass Menagerie with Willie Alexander and Doug Yule on guitar. Later these two would be bandmates of Powers in The Velvet Underground.

He also played with Listening, which released an album on Vanguard. Powers says he thought this record was "rather good." You can see the album cover and not that Powers is still playing the Guild Starfire--although by that time he had a more powerful amp.

Later after the disintegration of the Doug Yule Velvets Powers also toured Europe with Willie Alexander and The Confessions.

"I've stayed friends with Willie from the start. After Willie and the Boom-Booms (Alexander's Boston punk band-ed) broke up, he was doing some independent recording, and asked me to play bass. He wanted to get back to performing, so he formed Willie Alexander and the Confessions, with me and Boston guitar god Matt McKenzie, and ex-Taxi Boy drummer Ricky "Rocket" Rothchild." say Powers.

Alexander was popular overseas--especially in the Gascon region of France where his song Kerouac was beloved. Powers says many names ending in "ac" have their origins in that part of France (de BergerAC, for instance).

"He had a recording contract with French label Red Rose. They underwrote a Willie tour of France, some clubs, some stages in auditoriums, and made a live album of the concert we did in Bourges at a festival there; the album was called Autre Chose," says Powers. "I certainly liked France a lot, the food, the wine, and the people; it was fun to be onstage with the crowd getting into soccer-chant mode, going 'Wee-lee! Wee-lee!'"

At this point Powers was playing a borrowed Fender Mustang through a borrowed Bassman amp. The Fender P he played in the Velvets had been stolen (keep an eye on your gear kids!). These days Powers says he mostly pounds on the piano at home and sings loud.

"Occasionally I am called out to play a little bass or keebs, on friends' indie recordings, or at the MIT Libraries' talent show." says Powers.

MIT Libraries, where Powers works, must have a heck of a talent show.