GOOD TIME WARRIOR

Lucifer's Fried albums was not very well known to larger public, besides 'Where The Groupies Killed The Blues and Banquet, the best albums they ever done, the rest of their catalogue is rather good towards mediocre releases. Banquet to me was their peak in manner of composing, after this one they lost that great progressive arrangements to a more mainstream rock even AOR in the end of the '70's early '80's. Good time warrior released in 1978 have a new vocalist Mike Starrs from Colosseum II fame, replacing the great and unforgetable voice of John Lawton, finding his new home in a more well known band Uriah Heep. Mike Stars has a perfect voice for this new aproach of the band in musical terms, AOR with some mainstream hard rock. To say the truth only one pieces worth the album to be heared, is the last tune, the longest named Warriors, nearly 11 mi of good music , like in old Lucifer's Friend. The rest of the pieces are medicre at best, nothing intristing just good to be puted on radio. Bands like Jourbey, Toto , Forigner will be pleased to here this new tunes from a band that was a real progressive rock band in his early years. So 2 stars for this album maybe another half star added for Warriors track because the rest is forgetable at best.

Let's be honest with this band: their debut album was excellent, their sophomore was quite good and what came after was rather (below) average). Their sixth album is of no better texture as far as I am concerned.

Totally AOR and FM oriented, there are hardly anything great to retain from this work. Some nicely rock balanced song of which the best one is "Meet You In L.A." ("Sweet Little Lady" is another good old rock track to be fair).

Some superb guitar intro is featured during "My Love" but it is totally ruined with the predictable vocals. Of course, Lawton is not there any longer but neither him could have saved the bill of the former albums; so?

To listen all the way through to this work is not of a great musical reward to be honest. Most of the songs are quite dull and are quite "press next" oriented ("Good Times", "Gaambling Man").

The best piece of music is probably the long closing "Warriors". It holds some fine instrumental sections (the middle "Bolero" type is good). Superb guitar all the way through and for once, decent vocals are topping a rather convincing track.

Still, the whole of this album sounds quite weak. I wouldn't think of a higher rating than two stars for such a work.

After a successful album (my view) 'Mind Exploding' (1976) John Lawton left the band to join Uriah Heep. Mike Starrs, previously with Colosseum II, joined the band and recorded two albums 'Good Time Warrior' (1978) and 'Sneak Me In' (1980). When I purchased the cassette of Good Time Warrior I was shocked knowing the band changed its direction into much more commercial approach. I thought it was a good strategy as Mike Starrs voice quality more appropriate to this kind of straight rock or AOR kind of music. There is no longer stunning and long guitar solo backed with solid bass lines like the one I could hear in previous albums. Unfortunately the album did not reach commercial success either.

That's the story of the band and let's talk about the music. Despite the change in musical direction, the Lucifer's Friend name had already big when this sixth studio album was released. I was so fortunate could buy this album in the year of its release even though I lived in a small town, Madiun of Indonesia East Java. To me this cassette meant so much as everyday I always visited the cassette stores in town to check new release of rock band at that time. I purchased the cassette of Good Time Warrior without asking how the music was because I trusted that something from Lucifer's Friend must be good. Overwhelmed by that big name I forced myself to like it. In fact one of the radio stations kept playing track number 2 "Meet You in L.A." (4:03) and also the third track "My Love" (5:57) was featured in compilation cassette well known and popular in my country at that time called Dream Express 2. What a great time.

Of course, this album is for collector or die hard fans of Lucifer's Friend. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW