Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends
Studio album by Screaming Lord Sutch
Released February 1970 (U.S.)
May 25, 1970 (U.K.)
Recorded May - September 1969 at Mystic Studios in Hollywood
Genre Rock and roll, psychedelic rock
Length 35:15
Label Cotillion Records
Producer Jimmy Page, Lord Sutch
Screaming Lord Sutch chronology

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends
(1970)		 Hands of Jack the Ripper
(1972)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Rolling Stone (negative)[2]

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends is the debut album of English rock singer Screaming Lord Sutch. Recording began in May 1969 at Mystic Studios in Hollywood and released on Cotillion Records in 1970. The album featured an all-star line-up with contributions from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page (who also produced the album) and John Bonham, guitarist Jeff Beck, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, session guitarist Deniel Edwards and Jimi Hendrix Experience bass-player Noel Redding. Rick Brown and Carlo Little were previously with The Savages. Many of the musicians who sessioned for Sutch on this album had grave misgivings upon its release. They were under the assumption these were demo quality recordings. As a result the artists disowned the project and the album did poorly saleswise. It also seriously damaged Sutch's reputation with the musicians involved. "I just went down to have a laugh, playing some old rock 'n' roll, a bit of a send-up. The whole joke sort of reversed itself and became ugly," Jimmy Page said of the record.[3]

A negative review published in Rolling Stone called Sutch "absolutely terrible" and lamented that under the restrictions of the project, the collection of talented musicians on hand were made to sound "like a fouled parody of themselves".[2]

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends was named in a 1998 BBC poll as the worst album of all time, a status it also held in Colin Larkin's book The Top 1000 Albums of All Time.

This album has also been released under the name "Smoke and Fire". A CD release under the latter name appeared on the Magnum Music Group label sometime in the 1980s, evidently mastered from a vinyl copy of the original album. The cover credits Page, Beck, Bonham, Redding and Hopkins; Sutch only appears on the Personnel list, as David Sutch.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Wailing Sounds" (Jimmy Page, Sutch)– 2:38
  2. "'Cause I Love You" (John Bonham, Daniel Edwards, Jimmy Page, Sutch) – 2:46
  3. "Flashing Lights" (Jimmy Page, Sutch) – 3:14
  4. "Gutty Guitar" (Sutch) – 2:33
  5. "Would You Believe" (Jay Cee) - 3:20
  6. "Smoke and Fire" (Sutch) - 2:38

Side two

  1. "Thumping Beat" (Jimmy Page, Sutch) – 3:07
  2. "Union Jack Car" (Jimmy Page, Sutch) – 3:03
  3. "One for You, Baby" (Sutch) – 2:44
  4. "L-O-N-D-O-N" (Sutch) – 2:56
  5. "Brightest Light" (Jay Cee, Sutch) - 3:57
  6. "Baby, Come Back" (Jimmy Page, Sutch) - 2:31

Personnel

Chart positions

Album

Year Chart Position
1970 Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) 84

Additional information

Catalogue: Atlantic 2400 008 (UK), Cotillion SD 9015 (US)

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Young, J.R. (April 2, 1970). "Lord Sutch and his Heavy Friends". Rolling Stone (Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc.) (54): 66.
  3. ↑ "Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages". Retrieved 2011-01-14.

External links