Before Alice Cooper and the Cramps, there was Screaming Lord Sutch

Dangerous Minds ^ | July 16, 2014 | Paul Gallagher

[Squawk 8888]

It seemed that Screaming Lord Sutch ran in every election and by-election in the UK from the early 1980s until his untimely death in 1999. There he would be on every election night, standing on the podium with his leopard spot jacket, top hat and rainbow rosette. Sutch was the perennial candidate of the Official Monster Raving Looney Party, which he founded in 1983. In fact, he had been standing for parliament on a regular basis under different guises since 1963, when sickened by the hypocrisy and corruption of British politics as exposed through the Profumo scandal, he started the National Teenage Party. Alas, Sutch never won, which was a shame, as his presence always ensured some anarchic, intelligent fun was added to the usual gaudy proceedings.

But Screaming Lord Sutch was more than a prickly whoopee cushion in the lives of unaccountable politicians, he was a well-loved sixties rock star, an early pioneer of shock rock, garage rock, psycho-billy who mixed monster movie aesthetics with rock ‘n’ roll long before Alice Cooper and The Cramps came along.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends is one of my all-time fave trash-rock albums. No redeeming qualities whatever!

[dennisw]

Jimmy page was on it I belive. I remember Sutch’s album w the large Union jack and a Rolls IIRC

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

That's the one. Page shoulda ditched Plant for Sutch!

And Black Sabbath should have had Reg Presley from the Troggs as lead singer. Check out "Feels Like a Woman" and you'll see what I mean!

[njslim]

Actually Alice Cooper (real name Vincent Furnier) is a
GOP conservative

Alice Cooper is his stage persona

Went to a concert several years ago - puts on good show......

[dfwgator]

Screaming Jay Hawkins was the original.

[Fiji Hill]

This was a hit among the military and civilian brats at Darmstadt American School in Darmstadt, Germany during the mid-1960's. Some of the kids altered the lyrics, singing "Jack the Stripper," in reference to a serial killer active at the time.

Jack the Ripper--Screaming Lord Sutch (1963)

[ozzymandus]

I have that album. It was hilarious. Haven’t heard it in 25 years.

[az_gila]

My picture of Screaming Lord Sutch performing at a Liverpool University Engineers dance night in March of 1967, when he was in singing mode, not politician mode...:^)

I took the picture, but the above is a scan from the student newspaper. As you can see, it was a lively show.

[sauropod]

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