I have heard it said before that when a band is either out of
\ncreative ideas or exhausted from touring, one way to appease their
\nfan base and buy time before they re-enter the studio is to put out
\na live album. As a result, most hard rock\/metal albums of this sort
\nfrequently miss their target as they are generally rushed efforts
\nthat seemingly throw together tracks in a mis-sequenced manner and
\ndissolve the real emotion the live performance originally
\ncarried.<\/p>\n
In the case of the Scorpions’s
\nWorld Wide Live<\/i> effort, I get the feeling this production
\nwas scripted long before my two assertions were ever to be
\nrealized. Evidenced by the sampling of tracks from five cities
\nrepresenting performances from over a 150-date, 13-month world tour
\nsupporting the band’s
\nLove At First Sting<\/i> album,
\nWorld Wide Live<\/i> was given its proper due and serves as a
\ntestimonial to the second chapter to the Scorpions existence.<\/p>\n
Every track from
\nWorld Wide Live<\/i> originated from the bands 1979-1984 studio
\nalbums, including
\nLovedrive<\/i>,
\nAnimal Magnetism<\/i>,
\nBlackout<\/i>, and
\nLove At First Sting<\/i>. During this time frame, the band’s
\nworldwide marquee was raised as it built off of a previous era
\n(early 70’s) documented by their first live album,
\nTokyo Tapes<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, the band was also rewarded by their creative
\nvisual efforts in making conceptual music videos embraced by the
\nearly days of MTV and catapulting three of the bands most
\nrecognized anthems, “No One Like You”, “Rock You Like A Hurricane”,
\nand “Big City Nights” into the U.S. mainstream. Using these three
\nanthems as the foundation of
\nWorld Wide Live<\/i>, any listener will recognize that this band
\nhad one of the most talented and wide ranging vocalists in Klaus
\nMeine as well as a very talented and powerful guitar tandem in
\nRudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs.<\/p>\n
On this recording, Meine, Jabs, and Schenker are joined by
\nbandmates Francis Bucholz (bass guitar) and Herman Rarebell (drums)
\nwho in retrospect have become the core unit in producing the most
\ncommercially successful and memorable tracks in the band’s nearly
\n30-year existence. Their performances sampled on this album are
\nnearly flawless and share in the emotion and power that one would
\nexpect a band to have during a live show.<\/p>\n
Sandwiched in the middle of this 15-track set are two of the
\nfinest heavy metal ballads ever recorded. “Holiday” is a stunning
\nacoustic number performed by Schenker that allows Meine the
\nopportunity to showcase his vastly underrated vocal range all while
\nthe Paris crowd eerily matches him word for word. “Still Loving
\nYou” is yet another reminder of Meine’s ability to finesse his
\nvocals through the crescendo of Schenker’s guitar work as he shares
\nmore emotion in his delivery than the studio recording would ever
\nallow. Both tracks are seductive pieces that only a few metal acts
\nof this era would have even considered recording live.<\/p>\n
If there is one track that benefits from being included on this
\nalbum it would have to be “Dynamite”. The sheer power of Schenker
\nand Jabs guitar licks on this song has me convinced that had my
\nonly opportunity to hear this song be on
\nBlackout<\/i>, I would have forgotten it long ago. This
\nconclusion should in no way undermine these two guitarists
\nperformance on any of the other tracks on the album. Scorpions
\nsongs from this era were built equally around the guitar solos and
\nlead breaks as well as the range of Meine’s vocals.<\/p>\n
If one were to find fault with anything on this album it might
\nfall on the track, “Can’t Live Without You”. This performance
\nborders on overkill with the repetitiveness of the title chant and
\naccompanying guitar loop that extends the original version to an
\nalmost untolerable length. In reminding myself that most rock and
\nroll concerts center around a drawn out version of one of the
\nband’s songs allowing for extended instrumental solos and crowd
\nparticipation measures, I still find myself reaching for the skip
\nbutton with this one.<\/p>\n
All in all, any listener of this album who is also familiar with
\nthe studio releases of the Scorpions will be amazed at both the
\ncollective and individual efforts of the band to perform at levels
\ngreater than the studio will allow.
\nWorld Wide Live<\/i> proves that the Scorpions are a band that
\nthrives on live performance. With Rock and Roll, and more
\nspecifically Heavy Metal music, relying on amped up production it
\nis indeed rare for a live album to be as balanced as this one.<\/p>\n
Beware\u2026..the first CD pressing of
\nWorld Wide Live<\/i> omits several tracks from the original vinyl
\nrelease. Recently, a remastered version has been printed which
\nincludes the “Six String Sting” solo as well as the “Can’t Get
\nEnough” and “Another Piece of Meat” tracks. Not that these tracks
\nare essential pieces in the Scorpions catalog but they still extend
\na nearly perfect recording even further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":28143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6173],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39539","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-scorpions","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39539","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\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39539"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39539"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}