Biography
Big Jim Sullivan, the acclaimed session musician and guitar virtuoso, recorded under the alias Lord Sitar. During 1966 and 1967 he remained the sole established session guitarist in England who owned a sitar. That distinction made him a sought-after figure by 1967, after George Harrison of the Beatles and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones had featured the instrument on their respective bands’ releases. Sullivan had already completed a full album of sitar-based material, Sitar Beat, for Mercury Records before its 1968 release when Regal Zonophone—an EMI imprint already home to George Harrison’s authentic raga-rock recordings with the Beatles—decided an additional project could profit from surging interest in the Hindustani instrument’s sound. The result was the Lord Sitar billing, with Sullivan working under producer John Hawkins.
In later conversations, among them an interview with Kieron Tyler for the R.P.M. reissue of Sitar Beat, Sullivan characterized those sessions as unsatisfying and unmemorable, especially beside the earlier work on Sitar Beat. Nevertheless the Lord Sitar album earned a review in Rolling Stone, then regarded as the leading rock-music publication, because speculation surrounded the identity of “Lord Sitar” and because the record appeared on Capitol Records in America. Hawkins’ sleeve notes encouraged rumors of a direct link to George Harrison. Any connection that existed was strictly commercial, one-sided, and uninvolving the musicians themselves. The presence of “If I Were a Rich Man” on the track list promptly ended such speculation and placed “Lord Sitar” among peripheral Beatles-related curiosities that later included Klaatu and other rumored or alleged projects tied to the group. The ploy might have succeeded momentarily had Hawkins not chosen such incongruous repertoire, among them “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Daydream Believer,” Kim Fowley’s “Ode to Joy” imitation “Emerald City,” and two of Hawkins’ own compositions, “Tomorrow’s People” and “In a Dream.” The project’s sheer peculiarity raises the question of whether anyone ever clarified exactly what they were attempting to accomplish.
In later conversations, among them an interview with Kieron Tyler for the R.P.M. reissue of Sitar Beat, Sullivan characterized those sessions as unsatisfying and unmemorable, especially beside the earlier work on Sitar Beat. Nevertheless the Lord Sitar album earned a review in Rolling Stone, then regarded as the leading rock-music publication, because speculation surrounded the identity of “Lord Sitar” and because the record appeared on Capitol Records in America. Hawkins’ sleeve notes encouraged rumors of a direct link to George Harrison. Any connection that existed was strictly commercial, one-sided, and uninvolving the musicians themselves. The presence of “If I Were a Rich Man” on the track list promptly ended such speculation and placed “Lord Sitar” among peripheral Beatles-related curiosities that later included Klaatu and other rumored or alleged projects tied to the group. The ploy might have succeeded momentarily had Hawkins not chosen such incongruous repertoire, among them “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Daydream Believer,” Kim Fowley’s “Ode to Joy” imitation “Emerald City,” and two of Hawkins’ own compositions, “Tomorrow’s People” and “In a Dream.” The project’s sheer peculiarity raises the question of whether anyone ever clarified exactly what they were attempting to accomplish.
Albums