In praise of Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come

this is some raw dogg 70s hard rock....Marky Ramone on the wheels of steel!

the best 70's hard rock, and it's only the beginning of the decade!

yeah, follow-up's pretty good too, though a bit proto-proggy. CD w both is OOP now, apparently, but used copies still around:
Track Listings
1. Kingdom Come
2. I Got A Woman
3. Hell Hound
4. Helium head (I Got A Love)
5. Ain't Got Hung On You
6. Master Heartache
7. Hard Rain Fallin'
8. Lady Of Fire
9. Lake Isle Of Innersfree
10. Pumped Up
11. Chicago Lives
12. Loe And Behold
13. Woman Tamer
14. Caesar LXXI
15. Man From Manhattan
16. Where Are We Going
Editorial Reviews
Full Title - Kingdome Come/Sir Lord Baltimore. This 1994 reissue combines both of the Brooklyn-based outfit's two albums (originally released in 1970 & 1971) onto one CD, with the 16 tracks rearranged in the order in which they were originally intended to be heard. Polygram. 2004.

Tough poll.

i have that CD it's great

marky raone wasnt in sir lord baltimore, he was in dust

ramone*

ah yeah duh..i got old copies of both around the same time i always associate them w/each other

yeah. John Garner was SLB's drummer/lead singer. Dust was real good too, the other two Dust guys became a production team, dunno if they ever recorded as Dust again. Garner and one of the others in SLB (also a trio) got back together a few years ago, but wasn't it Christian rock or something?

which might also be good, I guess

One of my 16 favourite albums of all time - I wanna register 9 sockpuppet accounts so I can vote for the whole damn thing! I've actually come to prefer the CD sequence which reverses the sides (the way they originally wanted it sez the liner notes, but I'm dubious.)

"Pumped Up" gets my vote. That crazy moment in the middle when the bass and drums drop out, and Dambra goes into this unaccompanied solo just like he wants to be Jimmy Page doing "Heartbreaker", only to suddenly drop it after ten seconds, and you imagine Justin and Garner staring at him open-mouthed like he's Marty McFly inventing Eddie Van Halen, like "What the HELL are you doing?!" Then they immediately start up again at fullspeed like nothing ever happened, and Garner screeches "AAAHHHHH!!! You got me SO PUMPED UP!!" Surreal. Awesome.

Greatest singing performance by a drummer/drumming performance by a singer EVER!!

John Garner is on facebook I been FB friends w/ him for a few years now. He seems like a super nice guy. Talks a lot about his family. And yeah, he's very Xtian, posts a lot about his faith. Although I still have yet to hear that SLB III cd, I never got the impression that the content was overtly religious

Anyway, the original 2 LPs are just so jaw-droppingly massive. My OPO is prolly "Master Heartache"

Here's a piece I wrote in '07:

http://www2.citypaper.com/music/review.asp?rid=11321

I interviewed Garner and guitarist Tony Dambra for the Voice back in '07.

My love of both albums has been well-documented for a couple decades now. (In fact, I think it was documented on a sticker on the cover when Kingdom Come was reissued on CD, but I don't have that anymore. Don't have my vinyl copies anymore either. I'm an idiot.) Anyway, I would traditionally pick "Pumped Up," with "Master Heartache" and maybe "Hard Rain Fallin'" next in line, but I'm gonna listen to the album this week and decide then. Tempted to go with "Lake Isle Of Innersfree" just because it took me by surprise in an exotic animal pet store in Austin last year -- it sounded totally amazing, but so out of context that it took until the next song for me to even register what it was.)

By the way, John Garner fans should check out the first couple albums by his early '00s retro-metal band the Lizards. They're pretty good, too.

The only thing I know for sure is it isn't Lake Isle of Innersfree

Whoops, the version of the twofer CD I was thinking of may indeed be OOP, but Amazon's got maybe another edition new, and each individual album on vinyl and mp3, pretty good prices:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_ex_n_0?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ASir+Lord+Baltimore&keywords=Sir+Lord+Baltimore&ie=UTF8&qid=1348289068

yeah, think I noticed it coming up when I was going through recommendations on Amazon a few days ago. I have the 2fer cd somewhere.
Not heard it in a while don't remember the sound being particularly good.
So was hoping new on was a remaster.
Do remember that Julian Cope reviewed it as an lp of the month, or maybe just the first one
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/sir-lord-baltimore-kingdom-come

I came across the source of the bandname somewhere a while back and it struck me at the time, but trying to remember if it is this now. Butch & Sundance looking at a posse that's been doggedly pursuing them way after other people would have given up. They point to the Indian tracker and say 'that's Sir Lord Baltimore , he's a.... from ...' or something to that effect. Is that it?

'Hell Hound' is my jam.

xpost yeah, Butch is trying to remember the name of the Indian tracker, thinks it's "Sir Baltimore, Lord Baltimore, something like that."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

OK OK Ain't Got Hung On You

Really tough choice that could change at any moment.

"Ain't Got Hung On You" - does Garner REALLY sing "You make me drink my Ovaltine!" or is that my ears playing tricks??

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"You make me drink my Ovaltine!"

I'm not hearing it. But I do hear "you make me eat your football team," so...

Ah that must be it. A+ lyric either way!

HELL HAAWWOOOWWNNNDDD

hell hound just came on shuffle at work :)

Womaaaaaaaaaan!

Only five voters? For shame, ILM.

tbh i discovered this album because of this thread, but after listening to it, i was disappointed in the poll participation too

woulda voted for "pumped up" i guess but i wasn't ILXing hardly at all at the time the poll happened

these dudes were all about 18 when they did this record, is what i heard? holy heck.

"main" thread: Sir Lord Baltimore and several mentions on the Singing Drummers thread:

Surprised that John Garner of Sir Lord Baltimore isn't on here. SLB's 1971 Kingdom Come is what would now be called proto-metal I guess---tagged as heavy metal when that was still a new, esoteric rock critic category---real good, and the follow-up was okay; way later when they were mentioned in CREEM again, somebody wrote in to say that Garner had become a Christian EMT and wedding singer. Then about 12 years ago the third album was finally released, earlier sessions re-worked with Christian-themed lyrics (considering the title of the debut, maybe this was always in there, but originally over my head if so). Kingdom Come's re-reissue on CD is prob OOP by now but worth looking for.

― dow, Thursday, September 6, 2018 10:30 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Listening again---if you want visionary caveman vocals x drums for the wedding, Garner is your guy! Or was (RIP).

― dow, Thursday, September 6, 2018
SLB update from Rolling Reissues 2020:
Sir Lord Baltimore finally getting an official reissue of their lps as a 3cd on April 24th. Through Cherry Red .
That includes a 2006 reunion lp.

I think all cd releases to now have been bootlegs.

― Stevolende, Wednesday, March 11, 2020 2:31 AM

― dow, Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Fave part of s/t thread:

think my favorite is probably "Woman Tamer", but then I heard the s/t first and used to cane that all the time on my college radio show back in the day. All I had was a tape dub of that lp til I found a vinyl copy of 'Kingdom Come' in the mid-90s. "Master Heartache" is ferocious too but I have a soft spot for "Woman Tamer"

I am Facebook "friends" with John Garner! had a couple cool exchanges with him, including one where he got miffed at me when I said that 'Kingdom Come' and Chicken Shack's 'Imagination Lady' were two of my favorite heavy albums of all-time (he was all "we came way before them" ha)

― Stormy Davis, Wednesday, April 7, 2010 6:32 PM (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is there any live footage?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, April 13, 2010