Sometimes, as I wander the vast hallways of the Pierce Archives,
\nit amazes me to see some of the artists who haven’t had the chance
\nto grace these pages yet… and I’m truly surprised that we don’t
\nget flame mail about some of the bands we haven’t featured.<\/p>\n
For some reason, this time through the Archives, I paused by the
\nsection where the German metal band Scorpions have taken
\nresidence… why not? They were a big force in metal’s rise in
\npopularity in the mid-’80s, and they’re still slugging it out,
\nthough the spotlight doesn’t shine as brightly on them. So, out cam
\ntheir 1979 release
\nLovedrive<\/i>, quite possibly the album that first got them
\nprominently noticed. Either that, or I liked ogling the gum-covered
\nbreast of the woman on the cover… naaaahh.<\/p>\n
The band that gave Michael Schenker his start got a surprise on
\nthis album – along with regular guitarists Rudolf Schenker and
\nMatthias Jabs, Michael himself returned to contribute some guitar
\nwork to the album. Bassist Francis Buchholz and drummer Herman
\nRarebell might not have hopped into the forefront, but they
\nprovided a solid backbeat that kept this band going. And vocalist
\nKlaus Meine was one of the more powerful but melodic vocalists the
\ngenre ever spawned.<\/p>\n
Even today, almost 20 years since this album came out, there is
\nquite a bit on the disc that is enjoyable. The opening track
\n“Loving You Sunday Morning” is a great way to kick off the album,
\nespecially with the highlighting of harmony vocals on the choruses.
\nThe title track has lost little of its punch, while “Holiday” was
\nproof that a metal band could do a ballad of sorts without turning
\ninto spineless wimps.<\/p>\n
But in a sense, one wonders if Michael Schenker’s presence was
\nreally necessary on
\nLovedrive<\/i> – the other five members were more than capable of
\nworking their magic on their own. Songs like “Always Somewhere” and
\nthe instrumental “Coast To Coast” sound like they could have been
\nUFO throwaways, never mind the fact that they were enjoyable. (I’m
\nnot sure which tracks Michael Schenker played on – the liner notes
\non my vinyl copy aren’t that detailed.) I’ve said before that UFO
\nwas a band that wasn’t sure if they wanted to be hard rock or
\nprogressive; at times, you can almost hear that kind of questioning
\nin the music of The Scorpions. Fortunately, they choose hard
\nrock\/heavy metal.<\/p>\n
One wonders today if anyone could get away with naming a song
\n“Another Piece Of Meat,” and it hardly represents the best work on
\nLovedrive<\/i>, but it is somewhat interesting to hear it in the
\ncontext of 1979 metal… even if it sounds out of place in 1998.
\nFor that matter, I don’t remember the pictured cover being the one
\nI most often saw in my metalhead days – I think enough people
\npitched a fit about the bare-breasted woman to scare the label into
\nissuing a milder cover. (The original cover has since been reissued
\nwith the remixed CD.)<\/p>\n
\nLovedrive<\/i> is an interesting picture of a band about to break
\ninto the mainstream, and the Scorpions handle the transition quite
\nwell. Maybe
\nLove At First Sting<\/i> made them superstars, maybe
\nBlackout<\/i> brought them their first real taste of success in
\nAmerica… but
\nLovedrive<\/i> helped get us to know just who these five German
\nrockers were, and that they were worth the time to check out. The
\nsame holds true today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6173],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38803","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-scorpions","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38803"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}