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ONLINE ONLY SPECIAL BONUS FEATURE Das SCORPIONS Get Back To Old-Schoolby Tom Lounges
Not many bands have had the kind of global impact nor the kind of career highlights as Germany’s Teutonic terrors –– The Scorpions –– now celebrating 35 years as a heavy metal force with the release of their 20th career album. Their list of prestigious concerts would fill an article unto itself. Among them have been –– headlining the first ever annual “Rock In Rio Music Festival” in 1985; headlining the Moscow Peace Festival in 1988 (the Woodstock of the USSR); performing live at the site of the Berlin Wall known as the “death strip” for the Reunification of Berlin in 1990; opening the Tour de France in 2000; opening the Masters of Endurance Motorcycle World Championship in 2001; performing in front of 40 international leaders at the Tercentenial Celebrations in St. Petersburg in 2003; and last last year performing along with the Presidential Orchestra of the Russian Federation in Moscow’s Red Square backdropped by Lenin’s Tomb and the St. Basil’s Cathedral. “Yes, we’ve had many memorable experiences and performances,” said co-lead guitarist Matthias Jabs, during a day off from playing this week. “We just started this tour in Seattle [on October 21]. Lucky us, we get our first day off in Salt Lake City,” he laughed, adding he was in no hurry to go anywhere and was happy to do the interview. While political anthems like “Winds Of Change” and “Crazy World” have contributed to the Scorpions being invited to so many politically charge world music events, Jabs said –– “We have never considered themselves or wanted to be considered as a political band.” Jabs and his bandmates –– vocalist Klaus Mein and guitarist Rudolf Schenker –– all speak much better English than when this writer interviewed them over a slab of ribs at the Rockford Speedway a quarter century ago. The Scorpions made an intentional return to roots with their latest album, Unbreakable, released last month via Sanctuary Records. The band had gotten a lot softer-edged following 1999’s retail disaster, Eye II Eye, which fans worldwide virtually ignored in favor of the band’s early catalog of music. “Basically, we have been doing this [hard rock] all of these years, all of our career, apart from a few things,” said Jabs. “You mention Eye II Eye and I always count that as an experimental album and it failed so to speak.” An album recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic Symphony and an all acoustic, European-only release followed in the failed experiment’s wake. Although exceptional collections, these did little to boost the Scorpions back into the good graces of those hard core heavy metal fans who were weaned upon early Scorps releases like Virgin Killer, Animal Magnetism and Lovedrive. “Those were all viewed by us as ‘side projects’,” Jabs said of everything that followed Eye II Eye. “We’ve now gotten back to doing what we do best – rock ‘n’ roll!” The move back to their original style prompted the departure of their previous bassist Ralph Rieckermann, who had been living a softer life in Hollywood working on film music. “[Ralph] didn’t feel so comfortable [going back to heavy guitar rock] so Pawel Maciwoda came to us out of the woodwork just before we made this new album. He is from Poland, but used to live in New York for some years. Pawel is a very nice guy whose personality fits well with the band and he is a great bass player. He’s got much talent in his fingers...lots of feeling and lots of power.” Because the last few years have found the band more or less rearranging old songs to work with orchestra and acoustic arrangements, there was a tremendous amount of newly written material to choose from when it came time to start making Unbreakable with long time Scorpions engineer/producer Erwin Musper (Metallica, Iron Maiden). “We picked about twenty of the best songs and went in the studio with them,” recalled Jabs. “We kept it simpler, no concept, no hard thinking...just pure gut feeling. We just went in and recorded the basic tracks live and then added a few overdubs here and there and it was done. It was making a record like we did back in the old days, which is why it sounds like it does.” Despite their straying from the crunchy sound of their early albums during the last several years, Jabs raved about the band’s fans who unlike those of other pioneering metal bands, never abandoned them during the heyday of grunge and alternative music. While many other metal bands of their era were reduced to playing small halls and large night clubs, the Scorpions remain booked in arenas and have consistently sold out venues like New York’s Madison Square Garden. “Our fans here, as well as all over the world are very loyal and we love them,” he said. “The have been very supportive of us for all the years.” For the live shows, Jabs said the set list for America is not yet in stone. “We started touring behind this album at the end of April. We did Europe and Asia and two weeks ago were in Australia. There we play much longer shows, like two hours or more,” he said. “There we were doing about eight of the new songs. That might be too much here, where we can only play maybe 80-minutes because of curfews and things here in America.” He does promise us a mixed bag of old and new songs, at least one or two reaching back to those grand 1970s LPs like In Trance and Taken By Force, along with most of their best loved gems –– “The Zoo”, “Rock You Like A Hurricane” and “Winds Of Change.” Despite 35 years of playing music and having released 20 albums, all of which are either gold or platinum, Jabs said the Scorpions are not ready to rest. “What keeps us going?” He pondered the final question. “Because we still have not yet written the perfect song or made the perfect album,” he concluded. “We’re happy but we are never really satisfied with what we do. We think we have so much more in us, that we continue to try and try again. I think that is healthy. I think that will keep us around for a while longer.” THE SCORPIONS perform on October 29@ THE ALLSTATE ARENA in Chicago, IL |
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