August 01, 2002

Julian Cope's Unsung Album of the Month for August is Sir Lord Baltimore's 1970 LP Kingdom Come. The review begins like this:

"In 1969, three longhairs from Brooklyn, New York, were thrown off the stage of Bill Graham's Fillmore East, for being what that now legendary promoter described as 'Pus'. The trio was Sir Lord Baltimore and they'd just recorded a flawed but fantastic first album, called Kingdom Come, which combined thee most histrionic proto-Kiss, proto-David Lee Roth vocal acrobatics ever with enough Stooged-out proto-metal to last any sane band a lifetime. Did you ever wish that 'Speed King', 'Highway Star' and 'Fireball' were the only songs Deep Purple had ever recorded? Did you ever feel that everything Blue Cheer recorded after side one of OutsideInside was unnecessary, including side two of that very LP? Did you ever lament that telling people just how much you love 'I'm on Fire' and 'Atomic Punk' from Van Halen 1 inevitably made them think you secretly loved later sub-Genesis detritus such as 'Jump' as well? Well, search out this album and you've got everything you need in one record."