Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends


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 it was released on Cotillion Records in 1970. The album featured an all-star line-up with contributions from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and John Bonham, guitarist Jeff Beck, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, session guitarist Deniel Edwards and Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding. Rick Brown and Carlo Little were previously with the Savages.
Many of the musicians 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 sold poorly. 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.
A reviewer in Rolling Stone called Sutch "absolutely terrible" and lamented that the celebrated musicians involved were made to sound "like a fouled parody of themselves".
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 All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition.
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's name appears only in the personnel list, as David Sutch.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Wailing Sounds" – 2:38
  2. "'Cause I Love You" – 2:46
  3. "Flashing Lights" – 3:14
  4. "Gutty Guitar" – 2:33
  5. "Would You Believe" – 3:20
  6. "Smoke and Fire" – 2:38

    Side two

  7. "Thumping Beat" – 3:07
  8. "Union Jack Car" – 3:03
  9. "One for You, Baby" – 2:44
  10. "L-O-N-D-O-N" – 2:56
  11. "Brightest Light" – 3:57
  12. "Baby, Come Back" – 2:31

    Personnel

Album

Additional information

Catalogue: Atlantic 2400 008, Cotillion SD 9015