Pretty weird artwork for Lucifer's Friend's debut album. Two dudes, one a bald short guy and the other a creepy thug lookin' motherfucker standing in a pool of blood. They just wack somebody and write the band's name in blood on the alley wall? dope I guess.
Well upon hearing the first track off of Lucifer's Friend, already there is controversy brewing. The french horn hook in Ride the Sky, well shit -it sounds just like Robert Plant's scream in Immigrant Song "Ay-ya-yaaaa-yai!" You know which one right? After a bit of research, it turns out both songs came out in 1970, too close to really tell which one came first. Rock historians seem to agree that Ride the Sky came out first and that Zeppelin ripped the shit off, I kinda tend to agree...I just want to go with the underdog on this one, albeit a german underdog.
What a freaking kick ass song. Hard rocking guitar licks melting your face off. As straight up hard rock as they come, only clocking in at a measly 2:56, only slightly longer than most punk songs, but somehow the song stands alone and it's a complete face melter. Sweet astrological lyrics to boot "Mars, Venus and Stars, shaking their heads at me" also shit like "Hey world, look out i'm coming" I love boastful, self-righteous lyrics like these. Did I mention that there is french horn in this piece? Also some mean rock organ not unlike the sounds of John Lord, Deep Purple's organist.
To the meat of the walnut... Lucifer's Friend's singer is none other than John Lawton of later Uriah Heep fame. Shit can this dude sing. He's got a clear, penetrating voice that could cut glass on the right high note. Just the right amount of raspyness and emotion in his voice, Lawton just freaking belts on those high notes. The rest of the musicians in Lucifer's Friend are a bunch of German dudes, so the band is technically considered a German band, although all their songs are sung in English by the British Lawton and their style is heavily, heavily British and American hard 70's rock influenced. Think Deep Purple's In Rock, and any of Zeppelin's and Sabbath's early stuff.
Everybody's Clown is kind of your run-of-the-mill, hard rock'n blues song...great guitar rock and singing, but nothing that blows your socks off. Keep Going is definitely a bit more interesting...a more gloom and doom style hard rock song, with heavy fuzzy guitar hooks and a more somber vocal style and melody...Lawton's voice sounds really excellent on the blues and this song is no exception...it sort of morphs a third of the way into the song and picks up tempo a bit, becoming more than just an average slow tempo rock blues track.
Toxic Shadows is easily becoming my favorite track off Lucifer's Friend's debut. Interesting heavy guitar and organ driven piece with a soaring and complicated melody from Lawton. Great lyrics:
"I smell coal dust in your hair
You who bakes in A house of fire
with YOUR FEELING finger
Take my hard rock, put it THERE
OOH BABE just a little bit higher"
wooo sexy. Song kinda gets into the "jammy" territory that I usually can't stand, but I'll let it slide just this once.
The song entitled Lucifer's Friend is a crazy proggy, almost Who's Tommy rockopera style masterpiece. Big intervals, and some powerful choruses, a precursor to power metal if you ask me. This shit get's tripped out and gloomtastic, Sabbath anyone? This song is a true "undiscovered" Gem, every time I hear it, I hear new things in it and it blows me away.
Rock and Roll Singer is such a departure from the other songs on this album, it's such an odd fit. It's a really upbeat, fast and happy little rock song about loving rock n' roll...I mean who can't get down with that sentiment, but on this gloomy/proggy and hard rock album, it seems really out of place.
Satyr's Dance also seems really out of place, but this song kicks much ass. It sounds like it's from another decade, early 80's...with it's synthesizers and almost disco like rock beat, hard to believe this song came out in 1970. The most progressive song on Lucifer's Friend, this instrumental only track makes you wish you were tripping balls at a laser light show.
Our World is a Rock and Roll Band is another mismatch on this album. More of a singer songwriter style rock song...I could hear this on a Todd Rundgren album or even a Chicago album. Gone are the hard rocking guitars and drums, replaced with a honky tonk sounding piano and happy go lucky verses about loving being in a rock band, sounds like a full horn section, which makes me think of Chicago. This is still a great song, but so hard to imagine the band that earlier in the album was blasting out Ride in the Sky also made this song around the same time.
Alepnrosen is just a stick, southern rock sounding bad ass rock joint. Complete with sick guitar solos and hard and fast synthesizers, I can't even think of another band to compare this kind of sound to. There's elements of jazz/blues/southern rock/chicago style-esque horn section/shit that sounds like the score for a 70's action crime drama series like the streets of san fransisco.. Really innovative cool shit.
This album is just a masterpiece. It's a schizophrenic masterpiece, but a masterpiece non-the-less. Lawton's crystal clear vocals shine, and the rest of the band can play THE SHIT out of their instruments. The one constant every time I listen to this album is that I can not believe it came out in 1970. It's also hard to believe that it's remained relatively so underground for all these years despite it's innovative, even ground-breaking rock stylings. To tell you the truth, I kinda like it better that way.
