Music Flashback: Scorpions

This German Hard Rock band remains one of my favorite groups of all-time.

It is hard to believe, but Scorpions were actually formed in West Germany back in 1965, forty-six years ago.

Although I really became a huge fan during my High School years, I actually first heard the band on German radio in the mid 1970′s when my Father was stationed in West Germany in the US Air Force. At that time, they were still basically unknown here in the US.

It was the release of the 1979 album “Lovedrive” that really launched the group to success here in the US.

Their greatest commercial success occurred in the period from 1979-1990 when they released a string of highly successful albums and had a number of prolific world concert tours.

Some of their classic hits include:

THE ZOO
LOVING YOU SUNDAY MORNING
NO ONE LIKE YOU
ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE
STILL LOVING YOU
BIG CITY NIGHTS
RHYTHM OF LOVE
COMING HOME
WINDS OF CHANGE
I’M LEAVING YOU
CAN’T EXPLAIN
SEND ME AN ANGEL
TEASE ME PLEASE ME
and many others…….

Their signature anthem and most popular hit continues to be “Rock you like a Hurricane“

Their music videos were staples on MTV during much of the 1980′s.

During the peak successful years for the group, it’s members included:

Klaus Meine – Vocals
Matthias Jabs – Guitar
Rudolph Schenker – Guitar
Herman Rarebell – Drums
Francis Buchholz – Bass

The group has sold over 100 Million records worldwide.

Although there have been a number of personnel changes over the years, the group is still together and recording and touring to this day. Klaus Meine, Rudolph Schenker, and Matthias Jabs are still members of the group.

I have a particular fond memory of the band from 1984. I was living in Eugene, Oregon at the time. It was announced that the Scorpions were coming to Eugene on tour. It was very rare that Eugene ever got any “big name” acts due to our close proximity to Portland. It was announced that all tickets would be “festival seating” meaning, first come, first serve as far as the best seats. My friend Kevin and I bought tickets. We got to the “arena” about 5 hours early so we could be up towards the front of the line. We were about 50th in line. We figured we had it made in the shade to get into the first 2 rows at worst. After 5 hours the doors opened and we all rushed in. We discovered a huge open exhibition hall with a stage….and a floor. Not a seat in the building anywhere. The good news was that we were right up next to the stage. The bad news was that we were being crushed like sardines. During the opening act, we quickly determined that we needed to work our way back away from the stage to avoid every bone in our bodies being crushed. By the time The Scorpions came out, we had snaked our way back far enough to where we could breath and found ourselves standing with the people that had shown up right when the doors opened. Our 5 hour wait in line had been for nothing. The concert was awesome though and The Scorpions rocked that small little exhibition hall. I was completely deaf for about 6 months but it was worth it!