The critics hated it. The public despised it. Most of the people who played on it disowned it. Lists of the worst albums of all time rank it highly, if not right on top. Most everybody seems to be in agreement: Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends is a terrible album that is a disservice to everyone involved.
Before we can deduce if it really deserves this massive derision, let’s discuss who David Sutch is. He is definitely a colorful character. Claiming to be a legitimate duke, he formed the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in the '80s and holds the record for the most unsuccessful attempts to enter into parliament. In the early 60s he gained a reputation as being one the earliest examples of a “Shock Rocker”. His singles from this period discussed macabre topics about monsters and murderers. His stage shows even involved him dressing up as Jack the Ripper and exiting out of a coffin (as the occult band Coven would do towards the end of the decade) at the start of the set. The BBC even banned his single “Jack the Ripper” from playing on the radio for being too scary. Times were different.
But at the end of the day, David Sutch, or Screaming Lord Sutch as he adopted for his singles, was evidently a novelty act. And very few novelty acts get an album deal, even back in those days. Even so, Atlantic decided to give him a chance at a full LP in 1969. Fearful that he would be unable to carry a whole album by himself, Sutch called up several musicians that he was matey with, including Jimmy Page and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Nicky Hopkins, who had already sustained credibility with his work with The Rolling Stones. With these musicians backing him up, surely their star power alone would launch him into stardom. Which it technically did, but definitely not in the way that he’d intended.
One of the many criticisms thrown at the album is that the musicians really don’t sound like they care about the project and are simply going through the motions to get it over with and take their payment. The main reasoning for this, or so it seems from Jimmy Page’s testimony after the fact, is that most of the players assumed that they were only recording demo quality jams that were done for a laugh, and weren’t going to be released in that state. Thus, they didn’t really bother playing in a polished way. Several players were reportedly appalled to hear their performances on the record, and quickly made sure to wash their hands of the whole business to save face. The album’s packaging certainly didn’t help matters, as it proudly displayed the celebrity guests on the front cover. Sutch was only credited in the title as “Lord Sutch”, and in the credits on the back as his full name. This was evidently a ploy to get more people to buy the record, as most of these star musicians only play on a handful of tracks, and almost never overlap on any of them.
Although the lyrics are often lambasted as well for being simple and overly cheesy, the biggest complaint that pretty much everyone has when they listen to the album is Lord Sutch himself. Simply put, he mostly sings in a hoarse, often off key, yell. This is especially grating on the album’s opener “Wailing Sounds”, and the Jeff Beck-backed number “Gutty Guitar”, which can drive a lot of new listeners off before they’ve heard the rest of the record. Whilst this criticism can be justified, as Sutch definitely had quite a limited vocal range, and was clearly trying for more than what he was capable of, his performance is not too dissimilar to the singing of well respected singers like Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger. This does begs the question, however, of why people seem so hostile to Sutch’s singing when the latter examples are ranked among the best vocalists of all time.
At the end of the day, the most likely reason why the album flopped as hard as it did is because Jimmy Page and John Bonham were on it. In 1969, Led Zeppelin was probably the band that critics hated the most, since their loud sound and penchant for noodling was considered by many reviewers to be indulgent and pretentious. As such, it would make sense that they’d want to lambaste any project that they were even associated with. The Rolling Stone review of the album called it “absolutely terrible” and claimed that the musicians sounded “like a fouled parody of themselves”. This was likely the catalyst that coloured people’s opinion of the record forever, as it caused the album to halt at number 84 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart (the shockingly patriotic Union Jack car on the front cover ,which even gets a song named after it, likely didn’t help matters in the American market). The mess also irreparably destroyed Lord Sutch’s reputation, especially with his musician friends, who most likely cut ties with him. He would return in 1972 with a live album, but only Noel Redding would reappear from the earlier line-up, and Sutch would mostly concentrate on his political career from then on, until his death in 1999.
Now that we’ve discussed what’s wrong with Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends, let’s go over some of its merits. And yes, there are some genuine ones.
For its loose and unpolished sound, there’s no denying that it is a very raw sort of rock & roll. A rock & roll that doesn’t care if it sounds quite right. A rock & roll that is being played purely for the heck of it. The musicians may have hated the record for showing them performing at a level they wouldn’t want people to hear, but it has the advantage of showing them just having some stupid fun with the blues. As Jimmy Page would put it: “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.”
Plus, although several of the tracks toe the line of being a bit too loose and unkempt for their own good, especially in terms of songwriting, it never quite dips to the level of completely unlistenable. The best tracks by far are the ones where Page plays guitar, as he injects some of the tricks that he had already showcased with Led Zeppelin. In fact, there is one jewel in amongst the rough, in the form of “Flashing Lights”, the third song on the record. The guitar work on this track (done by Page, naturally) is among the tightest on the record, with a strong use of the Wah-Wah pedal, which helps it chug along at a consistent pace. Sutch also manages to sing in a considerably more tolerable way than the rest of the record, alternating between different audio effects and panning as he works through the lyrics. It’s easily the most of-its-time sounding song on the LP, whereas a lot of the other songs sound a lot rock from the early 60s, which was mostly passé by 1969. This probably contributed to the album’s dislike to some degree, with “Cause I Love You” being a particularly evident offender of its outdated style to the average music listener.
In short, Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends is definitely flawed, and Sutch clearly didn’t quite have the talent for an entire album. But its role as “Worst Album of All Time” is wholly undeserved, as the talent of the guest musicians is able to just about shine through. Even if it’s buried somewhat by the admittedly unprofessional atmosphere. Still, if you enjoy listening to musicians in a more casual atmosphere, then you’d probably get a kick out of several the selections. Otherwise, feel free to just take “Flashing Lights” and leave the rest.
You can find the album here: https://www.discogs.com/Lord-Sutch-And-Heavy-Friends-Lord-Sutch-And-Heavy-Friends/master/192561
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