Lord Sutch

When this was first released Rolling Stone labelled it as the ‘Worst record ever made’ and ever since it has appeared in polls as exactly that – obviously by people who had either never heard the album or never heard what we now call ‘Garage Rock’. It isn’t the best album ever made but it is also a long way from being bad.

Now, Sutch’s heavy friends were pretty heavy hitters: Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Jeff Beck, Noel Redding, Nicky Hopkins – all of them were part of bands who filled arenas and sold albums in their millions. Screaming Lord Sutch had been around since the late fifties – he played with the Beatles in Hamburg and ex-Savages included Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, Ritchie Blackmore, Nicky Hopkins, Vincent Crane – a huge number of musicians got their start as Savages and were then picked to go on to bigger bands but they never forgot their origins with the so called originator of shock rock.

There is also very little doubt that his crediting some of the musicians on the album is rather ‘questionable’, in fact he suggests that Jimmy Page co-wrote most of the tracks, but he was a charming enough rogue that people allowed him to take liberties and he didn’t rip them off particularly.

So, what is the album actually like? Well the songs are fairly rudimentary but the playing is generally pretty fine and some of the solos are excellent. His voice is not exactly sweet but he was always a shouter rather than a crooner and his history was as a performer from the old rock & roll days so it was all about projection and getting the kids off their arses.

I actually like the album and as a bit of rough and ready rock it is a hell of a lot better than some of the overproduced and bland stuff that was coming out of California at the time.

Worst record ever made? Not even close. Listen with a smile and turn the wick up to eleven and a half – it is a wild ride!