This Is The Lost Generation

The Lost Generation: This Is The Lost Generation and Sure Is Funky
From: Young, Tough & Terrible [Brunswick, 1971]

Time for some social commentary on the state of the nation through music from Seventies soul outfit The Lost Generation.

Starting with a bang, the group’s debut album’s title track, Sly, Slick and Wicked, was the hit record that paid for Brunswick to become an independent label from Decca. However, The Lost Generation’s second album, Young, Tough & Terrible, failed to register any impact on the listening public and they soon went their separate ways, lead singer Lowrell Simon going on to have a major hit with the superb Mellow Mellow Right On in the early eighties.

This Is The Lost Generation has since appeared on a number of funk compilations and as soon as it starts it’s not heard to see why. I love, love, love the intro to this song, the sweetest blend of bass and rumbling drums as Lowrell’s vocals slide in over the top. Although the lightness of the melody may lull you into thinking otherwise, the lyrics are actually deceptively brutal. Lowrell argues that the older generations have failed to follow up on their original push for change, “bleeding for a cause”, as the new generation are losing their way. Unlike many calls for change from the period, The Lost Generation choose to make their statement over the lushest of instrumentation, creating a song that, while powerful, seems embedded with a mournful sadness, as if resigned to failure.

Sure Is Funky is a more regular outing for the group, an uptempo number with more than a hint of The Temptations about it. The tracks storms along with harking trumpets and a decent riff as the tensions build each verse before the group slows it right back down for the horn heavy chorus. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

You can read more about the group on Brunswick’s rather nice website here.
Members of the band are still performing as The New Lost Generation today. You can see more about them at their official website here