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I'M JUST A ROCK'N'ROLL SINGER

Lucifer's Friend

Heavy Prog


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Lucifer's Friend I'm Just A Rock'n'Roll Singer album cover
3.21 | 70 ratings | 3 reviews | 10% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 1973

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Groovin' Stone (5:18)
2. Closed Curtains (6:02)
3. Born on the Run (3:51)
4. Blind Freedom (6:24)
5. Rock 'N' Roll Singer (4:21)
6. Lonely City Days (4:58)
7. Mary's Breakdown (5:52)
8. Song for Louie (7:14)

Total Time: 44:00

Line-up / Musicians

- John Lawton / lead vocals
- Peter Hesslein / electric & 12-string guitars, percussion, backing vocals
- Peter Hecht / organ, piano, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron, Moog, brass arrangements
- Dieter Horns / bass, percussion, backing vocals
- Joachim Rietenbach / drums, percussion

With:
- The Starlets / chorus vocals
- Herb Geller / soprano sax (4)
- Bob Lanese / trumpet (4)
- Herbert Bornhold / percussion

Releases information

Artwork: Witt with Sebastian F.B. Dietrich (photo)

LP Vertigo ‎- 6360 611 (1973, Germany)

CD Repertoire Records ‎- PMS 7042-WP (1997, Germany)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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LUCIFER'S FRIEND I'm Just A Rock'n'Roll Singer ratings distribution


3.21
(70 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(10%)
10%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(39%)
39%
Good, but non-essential (36%)
36%
Collectors/fans only (11%)
11%
Poor. Only for completionists (4%)
4%

LUCIFER'S FRIEND I'm Just A Rock'n'Roll Singer reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Again, it's a pity that no one has ever reviewed this album. During my childhood in mid seventies, I was familiar with the two previous albums of the band "Lucifer's Friend" and "... Where the Groupies Killed the Blues". Excellent! I got this album just 5 years ago, approximately. This album is excellent. Don't worry about the title, the content has a lot of prog music. "Grooving Stone" and "Closed Curtains" is are straight hard rock tracks. Both are excellent. "Closed Curtains" has a blues rock influence and excellent guitar sound at the end of the track.

"Born on the Run" is a prog music with jazz and blues influence in its music. If you have a chance to listen to this track, observe the beauty of bass guitar sound excellently played by Dieter Horns. I think he is one of the best bass players in the world! The other interesting thing of this track is the guitar sound at the background while Lawton is singing. It's cool .

"Blind Freedom" is completely a prog track. It has a very beautiful melody and sung perfectly by Lawton with great backing vocals as well. Again, you may observe Dieter Horns bass playing that "walks the melody". The addition of flute-like keyboard sound at background has enriched this composition. This track is also heavily influenced by jazz. There is a nice brass section as well.

"Rock 'N' Roll Singer" is a straight rock music with brass section. "Lonely City Days" is a slow tempo track with a nice acoustic guitar and great lead guitar at the end of the track. In "Mary's Breakdown" you may observe how guitar and bass played nicely. That's what I like about the band. Observe also how Lawton sings in higher tone. It's a medium tempo kind of music but it's nice. The album concludes with "Song for Louie" that has good piano intro and vocals.

LUCIFER'S FRIEND is band that has its own identity. Their music is original. I can hardly find any influence of other prog band in their music. This album is worth for collection. BUY THE CD!

What do you think? - Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Symphonic Team
3 stars From Heavy Metal to Rock 'N' Roll?

Lucifer's Friend were never content to stay within one musical style, but always preferred to move on to new territories with each subsequent album. While the Metal purist's interest in Lucifer's Friend is restricted to the band's two first albums, more open minded listeners will do well to dig a little bit deeper.

The difference in sound between this and the previous two albums is striking. The dark and heavy approach is left behind here in favour of a more Hard Rock and Rock 'N' Roll style, but still with many progressive aspects. Even the lyrics are considerably more lighthearted. It is fair to say that the present disc is a transitional album between the brilliant, progressive Heavy Metal of Where The Groupies Killed The Blues and the all out Prog Rock (but no longer Metal at all) of Banquet. But while Banquet is an absolutely essential album for any fan of Progressive Rock, I'm Just A Rock 'N' Roll Singer is not essential for anyone apart from fans of this underrated band. However, there are some very good songs here too and the production values are clearly higher.

Needless to say, this album is not the best place to start with Lucifer's Friend. Metal fans should begin with the excellent Where The Groupies Killed The Blues and the self-titled debut and Prog fans should begin with Banquet.

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars From their excellent debut album to this "Rock 'n Roll Singe" stuff, only four years has passed. But gosh! What a difference between these two works. I wonder how some fellow reviewers can find anything prog in here.

This album is just pure AOR, which means poor to my ears.

I can hardly find one interesting song to outline: no highlight at all, unfortunately. The bluesy- gospel "Closed Curtains" is rather disgusting to say the least. Gosh! What is this? I guess that this can only be experienced while you try to review a whole band's discography. Shame on me! Actually not: shame on them!

The great and heavy prog experiences from their debut are alien from this album: at least this is my opinion. Some good guitar during "Born On The Run" is probably the best of your experience on this work? And it is not the jazzy "Blind Freedom » that will change my mind about this album. The title track is just a below average rock'n'roll song. Poor it is ?

To keep a long story short: this album is useless (apart some excellent guitar breaks) and no prog lover should worry about this poor offering. Their debut album was great: let's remember that. This rock'n'roll stuff is just below average and the closing "Song For Louie" saves the bill for this album.

This is the only prog moment that you can expect. Dark and tenebrous: the middle and instrumental portion is extremely good and scary. As if some other band was in charge of this short section?

Still, only two stars for this flat work.

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