LORD SUTCH & HIS HEAVY FRIENDS (ATLANTIC 2400) - 1970

· Release Date: 1970
· Genre & Styles: Rock & Roll, Hard Rock
· Label: Atlantic
· Ref. # Cat: Atl 2400
· Recording Date: 1969
· 12 Tracks
· Total Time: 35:15


12 Tracks
1. Wailing Sounds (Jimmy Page, Dave Sutch) (2:38)
2. 'Cause I Love You (Jimmy Page , John Bonham, Dave Sutch) (2:46)
3. Flashing Lights (Jimmy Page, Dave Sutch) (3:14)
4. Gutty Guitar (Dave Sutch) (2:33)
5. Would You Believe (Jay Cee) (3:20)
6. Smoke & Fire (Dave Sutch) (2:38)
7. Thumping Beat (Jimmy Page, Dave Sutch) (3:07)
8. Union Jack Car (Jimmy Page, Dave Sutch) (3:03)
9. One for You, Baby (Dave Sutch) (2:44)
10. L-O-N-D-O-N (Dave Sutch) (2:56)
11. Brightest Light (Dave Sutch , Jay Cee) (3:57)
12. Baby, Come Back (Jimmy Page, Dave Sutch) (2:31)

Credits
· Screaming Lord Sutch (Main Performer as Vocalist),
· Jimmy Page (Producer, Guitar) on Tracks #1-2-3-7-8-12
· Jeff Beck (Guitar) on Tracks #4-5-11
· Kent Henrey (Guitar) on Tracks #6-9-10
· Daniel Edwards (Guitar, Bass) on Tracks #1-2-3-6-7-8
· Noel Redding (Bass) on Tracks #8-9-10
· Martin Kohl (Bass) on Tracks #6-8-9-10
· Rick Brown (Bass) on Tracks #4
· Nicky Hopkins (Keyboards) on Tracks #4
· Carlo Little (Drums) on Tracks #4
· Bob Metke (Drums) on Tracks #6-9-10
· John Bonham (Drums) on Tracks #1-2-3-7-8-12
· Thom Caccetta (Engineer)



"Screaming" Lord Sutch first released his debut album in America in February 1970, where it sold 70,000 copies in one month; then in the U.K. in May.
The sleeve shows Dave Sutch posing on his Union Jack painted Rolls Royce drivin'.
In this is album he assembled a plethora of great rock musicians like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, John Bonham, Noel Redding, Nicky Hopkins... his "Heaviest Friends".

It was recorded during his 2nd stay in America from early 1968 to late 1969.
At that time, Dave Sutch traveled across America with his colorful Rolls Royce, playing at The Scene, The Cheetah, The Hullababaloo (Clubs in New-York, New England), and appearing on various TV shows such as Johnny Carson or Dick Clarke & Merv Griffin, backed up by The Beautiful Quality, including Ron Kellerman, who was the vice president of the Jerry Lee Lewis fan club.

Late October 1968, Sutch and Kellerman were in New York to see Led Zeppelin who were touring America too.
2 weeks later, on 10 November 1968 - the day of his 28th birthday - Dave Sutch started to write several of the tracks which would appear on this LP. He then enlisted guitarist Jimmy Page to help with his project. However the recording sessions only held from 24 April 1969 to 5 May 1969, at the Mystic Sound Studio in Los Angeles, California. Somehow, Page found the time between Led Zeppelin sessions at Mirror Sound, LA, to do just that, and he enlisted drummer John Bonham and bassist Daniel Edwards to bang along. They played on 6 numbers including "Baby Come Back", which was a transposed remake of Roy Head's "Treat Her Right." Also participating in the recording sessions were Noel Redding and Jeff Beck playing with 3 former members of the Savages: keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, drummer Carlo Little and bassist Rick Brown. "Gutty Guitar" was obviously recorded in 1964 by the original Savages minus Bernie Watson but Jeff Beck instead. In fact most of the recorded songs during this jam session were remakes. Jimmy Page and others accepted to play on these sessions with the promise of not to credit their names.

After the U.K. release of "Lord Sutch & Heavy Friends" in May 1970, Jimmy Page said that he'd been duped as to exactly what the album would be like. Five of the 12 songs were credited to himself, not only credited as composer, also as a producer, but Page insisted that he wasn't involved in any songwriting.


Jimmy Page:
"Last time we were in L.A., he came to me and said, 'I wish you could help me out.I've got a chance to make an album, and I've been in the business for 12 years.'
... I said, 'Look, I'll help you if I can.' "

Chris Welch wrote in the Melody Maker on April 25, 1970:

"With Jimmy Page and John Bonham thundering away on several tracks, it amounts to a bonus Zeppelinalbum."

Dave Sutch is quoted in the April 11, 1970, issue of the Melody Maker telling the reason why a plurality of the songs on his album consisted of Page-Sutch "originals:
"I made sure that we didn't make the mistake that all the other rock groups have made [in covering] old songs like 'C'mon Everybody,' 'Great Balls of Fire' and 'Blue Suede Shoes.' That doesn't sell, because everybody's got 10 versions of it already. What we've done is modern rock 'n'roll with the real Zeppelin sound, that driving beat with loads of excitement. That Bonham is a tremendous drummer."

Jimmy Page is quoted in the Oct. 11, 1970, issue of Rock magazine:
"It was all fixed that I'd go down there and just do a bit, so we went down andplayed. And I just did some backing tracks to numbers like 'Good Golly MissMolly' and 'Roll Over Beethoven.' ... So, to cut a long story short, [Sutch]rewrote all the tunes."

Jimmy Page disavowed all responsibility for any of the guitar solos onthe album: "I didn't do any solos. No solos at all. I did a littlebit of wah-wah on one track ['Baby Come Back'], but I didn't do the solo inthe middle, which isn't a wah-wah thing; somebody else put that on....But - and this is where the criminal side of it comes in - he [Dave Sutch]didn't put 'Extra guitar: So and So' or 'Lead guitar played by So and So.' Heput 'Guitar....' So everybody thought, 'Oh, Jimmy Page played thatheap of crap,' and it became more than an embarrassment....He also wrote me in as producer, which was very nice of him. I wasn'tinterested in that. 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 andbecame ugly."