The Scorpions are a heavy metal/hard
rock band from Hanover
, Germany,
probably best known for their 1980s rock anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and
their singles "No One Like You",
"Send Me an Angel,
"Still Loving You", and "Wind of Change". The band has
sold over 75 million albums worldwide and were ranked #46 on
VH1's
Greatest Artists of Hard Rock
program.
History
Formation and early history (1965-1973)
Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm
guitarist launched the band in 1965. At first, the band had beat
influences and Schenker himself did the vocals. Things began to
come together in 1969 when Schenker's younger brother
Michael and vocalist
Klaus Meine joined the band. In 1972, the group
recorded and released their debut album
Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on
bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. During the
Lonesome
Crow tour, the Scorpions opened for upcoming British band
UFO. Near the end of the tour, the
members of UFO offered guitarist Michael Schenker the lead guitar
job; an offer which he soon accepted.
Uli
Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then called in
temporarily to finish off the tour.
The departure of Michael Schenker led to the breakup of the band.
In 1973, Uli Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the
Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the role as lead
guitarist, but turned the band down, preferring instead to remain
in the band
Dawn Road.Schenker eventually decided that he
wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to resurrect the last
Scorpions lineup. He attended some of Dawn Road's rehearsals and
ultimately decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth,
Francis Buchholz (bass),
Achim Kirschning (keyboards) and
Jürgen Rosenthal (drums). Roth and
Buchholz persuaded Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join,
which he soon did. While there were more members of Dawn Road than
Scorpions in the band, they decided to use the
Scorpions
name because it was well-known in the German hard rock scene and an
album had been released under that name.
Rise to fame (1974-1978)
In 1974 the new line-up of Scorpions released
Fly to the Rainbow. The album proved
to be more successful than
Lonesome Crow and songs such as
"Speedy's Coming" and the title track began to establish the band's
sound. Achim Kirschning decided to leave after the recordings. Soon
after,
Jürgen Rosenthal had to
leave as he was being drafted into the army. Later, in 1976, he
would join a German progressive rock band called
Eloy and record three albums with them. He was replaced
by a Belgian drummer, Rudy Lenners.
In 1975 the band hit their stride with the release of
In Trance, which marked the beginning of
Scorpions' long collaboration with German producer
Dieter Dierks. The album was a huge step
forward for Scorpions and firmly established their hard rock
formula, while at the same time garnering a substantial fan base,
both at home and abroad. Cuts such as "Dark Lady", "Robot Man" and
the title track are still considered classics by fans today.
In 1976, Scorpions released
Virgin
Killer. The album's cover featured a
nude prepubescent girl covered with broken glass. The
cover art was designed by Stefan Bohle who was the product manager
for
RCA Records, their label at the
time. The cover brought the band considerable criticism and was
pulled or replaced in several countries. Despite the controversy,
the album itself garnered significant praise for its music from
critics and fans alike.
The following year, Rudy Lenners resigned due to health reasons and
was replaced by
Herman
Rarebell.
For the follow-up
Taken by
Force, RCA Records made a determined effort to promote the
album in stores and on the radio. The album's single, "Steamrock
Fever", was added to some of RCA's radio promotional records. Roth
was not happy with the commercial direction the band was taking.
Although he performed on the band's Japan tour, he departed to form
his own band,
Electric Sun prior to the
release of the resultant double live album
Tokyo Tapes.
Tokyo Tapes
was released in the US and Europe six months after its Japanese
release. By that time in mid 1978, after auditioning around 140
guitarists, Scorpions recruited new guitarist
Matthias Jabs.
Commercial success (1979-1990)
Following the addition of Jabs, Scorpions left RCA for Mercury
Records to record their next album. Just weeks after being evicted
from UFO for his alcohol abuse, Michael Schenker also returned to
the group for a short period during the recordings for the album.
This gave the band three guitarists (though Schenker's contribution
to the final release was limited to only three songs). The result
was
Lovedrive, an album which
some critics consider to be the pinnacle of their career.Containing
such fan favorites as "Loving You Sunday Morning", "Always
Somewhere", "Holiday" and the instrumental "Coast to Coast", the
'Scorpions formula' of hard rock songs mixed with melodic ballads
was firmly cemented. The album's provocative artwork was named
"Best album sleeve of 1979" by
Playboy
magazine though it was ultimately changed for American release.
Lovedrive peaked at #55 on the US charts proving that
Scorpions were gathering an international following. After the
completion and release of the album, the band decided to retain
Michael in the band, thus forcing Jabs to leave. However after a
few weeks of the tour, Michael, still coping with alcoholism,
missed a number of gigs and at one point collapsed on stage and
Jabs was brought back to fill in for him on those occasions when he
could not perform. In April, 1979, during their tour in France,
Jabs was brought in permanently to replace Michael.
The Scorpions' logo
In 1980, the band released
Animal Magnetism,
again with a provocative cover, this time showing a girl kneeling
in front of a man.
Animal Magnetism contained classics
such as "
The Zoo" and "Make
It Real". Soon after the album's release, Meine began experiencing
throat problems. He required surgery on his vocal cords and doubts
were raised about whether he would ever sing again.
Meanwhile, the band began working on their next album,
Blackout in 1981.
Don Dokken was brought in to provide guide and
backing vocals while Meine recovered.Meine eventually healed
completely and was able to finish the album.
Blackout was
released in 1982 and quickly became the band's best selling to
date, eventually going platinum. Meine's voice showed no signs of
weakness and critical response to the album was good.
Blackout spawned three hit singles: "Dynamite," "Blackout"
and "
No One Like You".
It was not until 1984 and the release of
Love at First Sting that the band
finally cemented their status as rock superstars. Propelled by the
single "
Rock You Like a
Hurricane",
Love at First Sting climbed the charts and
went double platinum in the USA a few months after its release.
However, Scorpions did manage to stir up controversy once again
with their provocative album cover. This time it was a man kissing
a woman while at the same time planting a tattoo on her naked
thigh, mimicking a gag from the satire movie
This Is Spinal Tap that was released
the same year. Some stores refused to sell the album.
MTV gave the album's videos "Rock You Like a Hurricane",
"Bad Boys Running Wild", "Big City Nights", and the
power ballad "
Still
Loving You" significant airtime, greatly contributing to the
album's success. The channel even supplied Scorpions with the
nickname "The Ambassadors of Rock".The band toured extensively
behind
Love at First Sting and decided to record and
release their second live album,
World Wide Live in 1985. Recorded over
a year-long world tour and released at the height of their
popularity, the album was another success for the band, peaking at
#14 in the charts in the US and at #18 in the UK.
After their extensive world tours, the band finally returned to the
studio to record
Savage
Amusement. Released in 1988, four years after their
previous studio album,
Savage Amusement represented a more
polished pop sound similar to the style
Def
Leppard had found success with. The album sold well, but was
considered somewhat of a critical disappointment. However, British
heavy rock magazine
Kerrang! did
award the album five K's out of five.
On the
Savage Amusement tour in 1988, Scorpions became only the
second Western group to play in the Soviet Union
(the first being Uriah
Heep in December, 1987), with a performance in Leningrad
. The following year the band returned to
perform at the
Moscow Music
Peace Festival. As a result, Scorpions developed a strong
Russian fan base and still return regularly to perform throughout
the area.
Wishing to distance themselves from the
Savage Amusement
style, the band separated from their long-time producer and "Sixth
Scorpion,"
Dieter Dierks, replacing
him with Keith Olsen when they returned to the studio in 1990.
Crazy World was released that
same year and displayed a less polished sound. The album was a hit,
propelled in large part by the massive success of the ballad
"
Wind of Change". The song
muses on the socio-political changes that were occurring in
Eastern Europe and in other parts of
the world at the end of the
Cold War. On
July 21, 1990 they joined many other guests for
Roger Waters'
massive performance of
The Wall in Berlin. Scorpions
performed both versions of "
In the
Flesh" from
The Wall.After the
Crazy World tour Francis Buchholz, the
band's long-serving bassist, left the group.
Later days (1993-present)
In 1993, Scorpions released
Face the
Heat. Bass was handled by
Ralph Rieckermann. For the recording
process, Scorpions brought in producer
Bruce Fairbairn. The album's sound was more
metal than melodic and divided the band's fan base somewhat. Many
"headbangers" responded positively to the album while many longtime
fans were put off. Neither the hard rock single "Alien Nation" nor
the ballad "Under The Same Sun" came close to matching the success
of "
Wind of Change".
Face
the Heat was a moderate success.
In 1995, a new live album,
Live Bites, was produced. The
disc documented live performances from their Savage Amusement Tour
in 1988, all the way through the Face the Heat Tour in 1994. While
the album had a much cleaner sound in comparison to their
best-selling live album,
World Wide Live, it was not as
successful.
Prior to recording their 13th studio album, 1996s
Pure Instinct, drummer Herman Rarebell
left the band to set up a recording label. Curt Cress took charge
of the drumsticks for the album before Kentucky-born
James Kottak took over permanently. Many feel
Pure Instinct is a response to the complaints levied
against
Face the Heat. The album had many ballads. Still,
the album's singles "Wild Child" and the soothing ballad "You and
I" both enjoyed moderate success.
1999 saw the release of
Eye II
Eye and a significant change in the band's style, mixing
in elements of pop and techno. While the album was slickly
produced, fans were unsure what to make of the band, responding
negatively to almost everything from pop-soul backup singers to the
electronic drums present on several songs. The video to the album's
first European single, "To Be No. 1," featured a
Monica Lewinsky look-alike which did little
to improve its popularity.
The following year, Scorpions had a fairly successful collaboration
with the
Berlin Philharmonic
that resulted in a 10-song album named
Moment of Glory. The album went a long
way toward rebuilding the band's reputation after the harsh
criticism of
Eye II Eye.
However, critics accused them of following on the coattails of
Metallica's similar collaboration
(
S&M) with the
San Francisco Symphony which had been
released the previous year, even though the orchestra had first
approached Scorpions with the idea in 1995.
.JPG/200px-Scorpions_(9).JPG)
Scorpions in 2007
In 2001, Scorpions released
Acoustica, a live unplugged
album featuring acoustic reworkings of the band's biggest hits,
plus new tracks. While appreciated by fans, the lack of a new
studio album was frustrating to some, and
Acoustica did
little to return the band to the spotlight.
In 2004, the band released
Unbreakable, an album
that was hailed by critics as a long-awaited return to form. The
album was the heaviest the band had released since
Face the
Heat, and fans responded well to tracks such as "New
Generation", "Love 'em or Leave 'em" and "Deep and Dark". Whether a
result of poor promotion by the band's label or the long time
between studio releases,
Unbreakable received little
airplay and did not chart. Scorpions toured extensively behind the
album and played as 'Special Guests' with
Judas Priest during the 2005 British tour -
these were the Scorpions first dates in the UK since 1999.
In early 2006, Scorpions released the DVD
1 Night in
Vienna that included 14 live tracks and a complete
rockumentary.
In LA
, the band
spent about four months in the studio with producers James Michael
and Desmond Child working on their new
concept album titled Humanity: Hour I, which was released
in late May 2007.Followed by the "
Humanity World Tour".
In 2007, the band saw two of their signature tracks featured in the
popular video game series, "Guitar Hero." "No One Like You" was
featured on the "Rocks the '80s" version of the game while "Rock
You Like A Hurricane" was released on "Guitar Hero 3: Legends of
Rock."
On May 14, 2007, Scorpions released
Humanity - Hour I in
Europe.
Humanity - Hour I became available in the U.S. on
August 28 on
New Door Records,
entering the
Billboard
charts at number #63.
In a September 2007 podcast interview, Meine said the new album
wasn't so much a "concept album" as it was a collection of songs
with a common theme. "We didn't want to make another record with
songs about boys chasing girls. I mean, come on, give me a break,"
Meine said.
Asked in 2007 if the band was planning to release a
Humanity -
Hour II, Meine replied:
On December 20, 2007, Scorpions played at a concert for the elite
of Russia’s security forces in the
Kremlin.
The
concert was a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding
of the Cheka - predecessor of the KGB
. The
band has claimed that they thought they were performing a
Christmas concert. They have said that their
concert was by no means a tribute to the Cheka, communism, or
Russia's brutal
past. Members of the audience included
Vladimir Putin and
Dmitry Medvedev.
On
February 21, 2009, Scorpions received Germany's ECHO Honorary Award for lifetime
achievement at Berlin's O2
World
.
As of November 2009, Scorpions have announced that their 17th
studio album,
Sting in the
Tail, is tentatively due in early 2010. The CD is being
recorded at a studio in Hannover, Germany with Swedish producers
Mikael "Nord" Andersson and Martin Hansen.
Band members
Current members
- Klaus Meine - lead
vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion, tambourine, backing vocals
(1970-present)
- Matthias Jabs -
lead & rhythm guitars (1978-present)
- Rudolf Schenker
- rhythm & lead guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "They
Need A Million", "Drifting Sun" (1965-present)
- Paweł
Mąciwoda - bass, backing vocals (2003-present)
- James Kottak -
drums, percussion, backing vocals (1996-present)
Former members
- Lothar Heimberg - bass, backing vocals
(1965-1973)
- Wolfgang Dziony
- drums, percussion (1965-1973)
- Michael
Schenker - lead & rhythm guitars (1970-1973,
1979)
- Ulrich Roth - lead
& rhythm guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Drifting
Sun", "Fly to the Rainbow", "Dark Lady", "Sun in My Hand", "Hell
Cat", "Polar Nights" (1973-1978)
- Francis
Buchholz - bass, backing vocals (1973-1983, 1984-1992,
1994)
- Achim Kirschning - keyboards (1973-1974)
- Jürgen
Rosenthal - drums, percussion (1973-1975)
- Rudy Lenners - drums, percussion
(1975-1977)
- Herman Rarebell
- drums, percussion (1977-1983, 1984-1995)
- Ralph Rieckermann - bass (1993-2000,
2000-2003)
- Curt Cress - drums, percussion (1996)
- Ken Taylor - bass (2000)
- Barry Sparks -
bass (2004)
- Ingo Powitzer - bass (2004)
Manager
- Stewart Young (1995-Present)
Discography
Albums
Tours
References
- Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and its
Culture. DaCapo, 2000. ISBN 0-306-80970-2, pg. 29, 36.
- The Greatest: 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock (40
- 21) at VH1.com
- The Story of "Scorpions" (ulijonroth.com)]
- Don Dokken interview
(classicrockrevisited.com)
- Interview with Klaus Meine
(metal-rules.com)
- New SCORPIONS Album Title, Artwork Revealed
(bravewords.com)
-
http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/International_3/Scorpions_Give_Spies_a_Perestroika_Ballad.shtml
-
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=130836
See also
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