But is this really the worst album ever?

In the sixties, Screaming Lord Sutch (pseudonym of David Edward Sutch) was quite popular, in Great Britain, thanks to his shocking and outrageous shows – in a certain sense he was a precursor of Alice Cooper and his shock rock. His best known song was titled “Jack the Ripper” (“Jack Lo Ripper”). Screaming Lord Sutch released two study albums, and the first of the two has been repeatedly called “the worst album ever” (also by a 1998 BBC referendum). Yet the highest quality musicians played us.

When he entered the studio in 1969 to record his debut album on the long distance, he had Jimmy Page as a producer (and in 1969 the Led Zeppelin were already very famous thanks to the first two albums). The choice of the title of 33 laps, “Lord Sutch and his Heavy Friends”, was due precisely to the fact that the cast of the instrumentalists was stellar.

Jimmy Page plays in almost all the traces of the album, as well as having chopped six of the twelve tracks of the tracklist. And Page had summoned John Bonham to play the battery, and Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience to play the bass. Jeff Beck plays the guitar in three songs, Nicky Hopkins – one of the best keyboards ever – plays the piano and keyboards. There is also Kent Henry of the Stepenwolf on the guitar in some pieces.

Jimmy Page:

“I had accepted the right assignment to have fun and put together some good old rock’n’roll. It was a joke, but it ended badly. Maybe we all thought that that album would never be published, and instead … “

Instead he left, and was massacred by critics, as well as selling almost nothing.

Screaming Lord Sutch released a live album in 1972, entitled “Hands of Jack the Ripper”, with the participation of Richie Blackmore and Keith Moon, but this was also a flop.

After that Screaming Lord Sutch left music and devoted himself to politics, helping to pass laws such as that on the liberalization of commercial radio and that for the lowering of the age of 18.

Lord Sutch, who had always suffered from depression and bipolar syndrome, committed suicide by hanging himself in 1999: he was 58 years old.

If you want to listen to “Screaming Lord Sutch and His Heavy Friends” in his memory, you can do it below.