Don’t Scream, but... It’s Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends!
Rarely rising beyond the status of cult figure in the UK and arguably not even earning that high a profile in the States, the man known as Screaming Lord Sutch had one undeniable thing going for him: he never had to offer any excuses for his voice. (When the word “screaming” comes first and foremost in an artist’s name, no one’s going to be coming in expecting a crooner, you know?)
What Sutch also had going for him was a collection of friends who happened to be some of the biggest names in music. As such, when he stepped into the studio to record his first album (all he’d released up to that point were singles) he was in a position to call upon some pretty talented folks to back him up, including Jeff Beck, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and pianist Nicky Hopkins.
Even with such notable contributors on hand, the 1970 self-titled album by Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends – now available as part of Rhino’s digital catalog – was met with profound critical derision when it was first released…like, to the point where Rolling Stone just went ahead and cut to the chase, saying outright that they thought Sutch was “absolutely terrible.” That’s pretty bad, but it gets worse: as recently as 1998, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends was named as the worst album of all time in a BBC poll.
Honestly, though, we’re going to attribute that to the fact that disappointed listeners have long memories, because giving the album a spin in 2014 finds that Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends isn’t nearly as awful as has been reported over the years... or, at the very least, it’s one where your mileage may vary dramatically. (Nick Burton of AllMusic.com probably found the most appropriate critical middle ground when he wrote, “The album is regarded as a kind of Plan 9 from Outer Space of rock LPs: it's bad, but endearingly so, with Sutch's growling vocals providing the laughs.”)
Certainly, if you’re a Led Zeppelin aficionado, there’s no way you won’t want to at least give the record a spin, because the presence of Page and Bonham is highly audible throughout the proceedings. As long as you don’t go in expecting to hear Zeppelin-quality material (which is almost certainly why people who bought Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends on the heels of the first two Led Zeppelin albums came away so severely disappointed), you’ll likely find it to be rather fun, albeit in a raw and sloppy sort of way.
Plus, let’s not forget that Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends came out 44 years ago. Since then, more than a few artists have managed to take raw and sloppy recordings and turn them into platinum-selling albums. It’s just a shame that Lord Sutch – who died in 1999 at the age of 58 – came around too early to be one of them.
In closing, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Rhino has also added Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends’ sophomore effort, Hands of Jack the Ripper, to their digital catalog. There’s no Zeppelin presence on this one, nor did Beck and Hopkins return, but there’s still considerable star power on hand, with Redding returning to play alongside Keith Moon, Ritchie Blackmore, and Matthew Fisher, who’s arguably best known for playing the organ on Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” You likely won’t find as much to love on Hands of Jack the Ripper as you will on the album which preceded it, but at the very least, the title track is a must-hear. If it wasn’t the inspiration for Spinal Tap’s “Saucy Jack,” it certainly could’ve been.
