Disc 290 is...Blackout
Artist: ScorpionsYear of Release: 1982
What’s Up With The Cover?: If a blackout is strictly speaking, an event that prevents you from seeing, then this cover would be a fairly stark depiction of the event. A man has had bent forks stuck into his eyes for some reason - likely as punishment for that awful seventies crowbar moustache he is sporting.
How I Came To Know It: I knew the Scorpions from my junior high days, when "Love At First Sting" came out, and while I knew some of the songs off of Blackout from parties and such, I hadn't really had a good listen to the record until my buddy Ross put it on one night when I was over at his place. I think at the time he and I were obsessed with "great side twos", and "Blackout" certainly qualifies. Anyway, I loved it, and bought it shortly thereafter.
How It Stacks Up: I am not a huge Scorpions fan, and only have two of their albums, this ones and the aforementioned "Love At First Sting". I'd like to get "Crazy World" because as someone who lived through the latter days of the Cold War, I have a soft spot for "Wind of Change" - it is a hard record to find. For now, of the two I have, I think "Blackout" is the better album.
Rating: 4 stars.
As anyone of my generation that doesn't live in a cave knows, the Scorpions are classic eighties metal band from Germany. My brother and I used to love watching them get interviewed on the MuchMusic Power Hour because their English was so atrocious. They would basically do a lot of devil horn signs and yell "rock and roll! Scorpions" into the monitor.
It is said that they recorded "Blackout" by singing the lines phonetically, rather than understanding what they were saying. I don't know if it is true, but it is a cool enough rumour that I've reprinted it.
Whether they understood what they were saying, they certainly understood music, because they lay down some furious riffs on "Blackout". Songs like "Blackout", "No One Like You" and "Dynamite" are rock and roll staples that sound as fresh today as they did nearly thirty years ago.
Outdoing all of these though is the six and a half minute "China White" which is so incredibly heavy, it holds its own against any modern metal song, without the benefit of later tricks of production.
At times listening to this album I found lead singer Klaus Meine's vocals a bit grating. He has amazing metal pipes, but at times he comes off a bit wooden in his delivery - likely a result of singing in a less familiar language. He also gets a bit shrieky in a way that contemporaries like Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford manage to avoid.
I have a strange association with the song "Dynamite", because when I was at University I used to attend this Creative Writing event called the "Poetry Massacre" which was basically a booze up of poets and English Lit types where atrocious poetry (original and dredged up) was read out at an open mike setting.
It was damned funny stuff - among the works I heard there, I can recall poems about an outbreak of genital warts among some free lovin' students, as well as an off-colour piece about a fajitas with uncommon ingredients, of which the less said, the better.
One year, a guy brought the lyrics to the Scorpion's "Dynamite" and read them deadpan, with no musical accompaniment. Since there is none more deadpan than reading them in a blog entry, allow me to pass along a passage from same:
"Get it now or never
Let's get it really tight
We'll make this night a special one
Make us feel alright
Put your heat into my body
Give ya all my size.
We gonna beat the beat tonight
Come on let's break the ice
"Dynamite
You're dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite"
As you can tell, I don't listen to the Scorpions for their lyrically prowess. However, their musical prowess on this record is enough to elevate them just north of 4 stars. If you only want to own one Scorpions' album - I'd argue this is the one.
Best tracks: Blackout, Can't Live Without You, No One Like You, You Give Me All I Need, Arizona, China White
No comments:
Post a Comment