Tuesday, March 02, 2021

1970 Album of the Week, February 26-March 4: Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, by Screaming Lord Sutch

Normally, 1970 Album of the Week appears on Fridays. Last Friday, I forgot. Sorry about that.

One of the cool things about David Edward Sutch, aka the Third Earl of Harrow, aka Screaming Lord Sutch, is that, like me, he founded a political party -- in his case, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, which I think is a much better name than the Boston Tea Party. He also held (and still holds) the record for running in the most UK Parliament elections. Which, to my mind, makes him an honorary member of last week's 1970 Album of the Week Band, Funkadelic.

In terms of performance, he was something of a bridge between Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Alice Cooper -- coffins and other horror props, etc.

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends features a number of prominent guest artists including Jeff Beck, Noel Redding, and at least two members of Led Zeppelin. But apparently the guests thought they were doing demos, or just jamming/messing around, or something of the sort, and were angry when the album was released (exact date unspecified in the Wikipedia article, but some time in February of 1970).

In a 1998 BBC poll, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends prevailed for the title of worst album of all time. I'm not sure that's fair. Then again, as of 1998, Taylor Swift was only nine years old and hadn't recorded anything eligible for consideration. Hell, you decide. Here's "'Cause I Love You" ...


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