Tag: When The Smoke Is Going Down

Scorpions – ‘Live Bites’ (1995) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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The Scorpions camp felt it was time for another live album. This would be the band’s third to date and was released April 3, 1995. Now, the disc is not one show as that would be the smart thing to do and this instead is the easy way out. They took shows from several concerts from 1988 to 1994. The cities were Leningrad (Russia), San Francisco (US), Mexico City (Mexico), Berlin (Germany) and Munich (Germany). The album has the normal crew of Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Mathais Jabs, Herman Rarebell and current bass player, Ralph Rieckermann. However, most of the bass playing is long time member Francis Buchholz. The best thing about the album is that they did include 3 studio tracks which is the real reason to buy. No definitive time on the recordings, but I believe they range for 1988-1995, just no where I can prove that out.

As far as live albums go, it does sound fantastic. The guitar sound is actually killer, almost to amazing which makes me wonder if any touch up was done. And Klaus’ vocals are spot on, the drum sound is hard and heavy. There is no denying these boys can play live. They kick off with “Tease Me Please Me” and it would be a good song to start with as it totally rocks out and gets you on your feet. Then we get a real treat with the ‘Lovedrive’ track “Is There Anybody There”. I love the reggae vibe to the song. I really unexpected choice for the live show, but very welcomed. Really cool. Back to the heavy rock guitar sound with “Rhythm of Love” and they nail it here before going in to the only song that is a found on another live album and that is the fantastic “In Trance” and this is a classic track. Man is it good.

The first misstep for me is “No Pain No Gain” as I’m not a fan of this song, but they do make it sound a little better than the studio track here. It fits better in the live setting than album setting, but not by much. Then from ‘Blackout’ we get “When the Smoke is Going Down” and another surprise track for me. I didn’t like this song as the ending to that album, but mixed here in the middle of the show and listening to Klaus sound incredible on this one, I dig it here. Next up is “Living for Tomorrow” and this song had been released previously on the 1992 compilation called ‘Still Loving You’. On here, two slow songs in a row really can start to drag the show down. Klaus speaks to the crowd in Russian as it was recorded in Leningrad.

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Scorpions – ‘Gold Ballads’ (1984) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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In the U.S., the label was capitalizing on the Scorpions success by releasing a compilation, so why not the European labels. 1984 was a big year for the Scorpions so lets milk it for what we can was the attitude of the day!. With the massive success of their ballad “Still Loving You”, why not release an E.P. of their best ballads and pick those from four of their best albums, ‘Lovedrive, ‘Animal Magnetism’, ‘Blackout’ and ‘Love at First Sting’. And ballads are big sellers, so it made perfect sense.

My copy is the German release…yes, I have a bunch of German releases as I found all of these at one of our local record shows (not stores, but the record shows where there are all the goodies). The album was released on October 13, 1984 with multiple reissues over the next couple years across Europe. This copy I have is from the original release in Germany. It is a 5 song E.P. and let me tell you, it is a great set of ballads. I also love that the cover is probably an outtake photo from the ‘Love at First Sting’ album cover shoot.

Sit back and let us go trough it for you.

SEITE 1:

“Still Loving You”, from ‘Love at First Sting’, is one of my favorite Scorpions ballads and one of my favorite all time as well. About a couple in love that knows it’s over, but try to make it work one more time. The song opens with some gentle, soft riffing and Klaus singing in almost a whisper. Then the power part of the ballad kicks in and the guitar licks are blissfully beautiful and the chorus is gut-wrenchingly heartbreaking and lovely at the same time. I think this might one of Klaus Meine’s best vocal performances on any album.

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Scorpions – ‘Blackout’ (1982) – Album Review (The Scorpions Collection Series)

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Shortly after the release of their previous album, ‘Animal Magnetism’, Klaus Meine started having vocal issues. It got so bad he had to have surgery on his vocal cords which left a lot of doubt if he was going to heal and be able to continue as lead singer of the band. Scorpions started working on this next album and brought in singer Don Dokken to do the guide vocals on the demos. None of Don’s demoes made the album, naturally, but one can hope they get released one day (if they’ve survived). Luckily for the band, Klaus’ vocal cords healed up nicely and he had no problem completing the album. The album would see its release on March 29, 1982 and would go all the way to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. going platinum with over 1,000,000 records sold.

The band’s line-up ended up unchanged thanks to Klaus’ recovery. It was still Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Mathias Jabs, Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell. Don Dokken is credited with background vocals as they did leave some of his work in tact. Producer was still Dieter Dierks and with all the same cast of characters, the band was really starting to find their way. They were gelling and put together one of the Top 100 Greatest Metal albums of all time according to Rolling Stones Magazine in 2017. I don’t know if I agree or disagree with that, but I do know it is one hell of a great album.

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