Looking back on the 1984 calendar, German band The Scorpions had reached the pinnacle of their career with this album ‘Love At First Sting’.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: The Scorpions
ALBUM: Love At First Sting
LABEL: EMI (Europe), Mercury (USA)
SERIAL: 064-24-0007-1, SRM-1-4085
YEAR: 1984
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
LINEUP: Klaus Meine – vocals * Matthias Jabs – lead guitar * Rudolf Schenker – rhythm guitar * Francis Buchholz – bass * Herman Rarebell – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Bad Boys Running Wild * 02 Rock You Like A Hurriance * 03 I’m Leaving You * 04 Coming Home * 05 The Same Thrill * 06 Big City Nights * 07 As Soon As The Good Times Roll * 08 Crossfire * 09 Still Loving You
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Looking back on the 1984 calendar, German band The Scorpions had reached the pinnacle of their career with this album ‘Love At First Sting’. Many punters were saying ‘how could they possibly top 1982’s ‘Blackout’ album? Well they did, but it wasn’t without pain.
Singer Klaus Meine had recovered his voice from a serious ailment that could’ve ended his career. It was also interesting to note that neither bassist Francis Buchholz nor Herman Rarebell had much of a hand in the recording of this album, though they are credited. Why I’m not sure, perhaps the band needed to display a semblance of order in among the chaos.
Anyhow, Jimmy Bain covered for Buchholz, while NY drummer Bobby Rondinelli filled in for Rarebell who was in rehab. As it turned out, the album, buoyed by the super-friendly folk over at MTV garnered a strong presence for the band, both radio and TV besieged by the German rockers. Finally, The Scorpions had truly invaded America.
The Songs
Spiralling lead guitars and chunky rhythm guitars form the basis of lead-off track ‘Bad Boys Running Wild’, a metallic anthem for 1984 if ever there was one. Not to be outdone, the band’s best known track here is ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’, a track that anyone well versed in that timeframe of hard rock will know of.
Taking a commercial angle (if you could call it that) is ‘I’m Leaving You’, the acoustic passages through the verses softens things up, but the ever-present stinging electric guitars from Jabs and Schenker aren’t too far away. You’d be mistaken for thinking that ‘Coming Home’ was some sort of folk song for at least the first two minutes – then the electric flood gates open and tear up a storm, great track with some tremendous riffing a la Saxon.
The band continue their mad-dash antics with ‘The Same Thrill’, though by comparison ‘Big City Nights’ is kinda restrained with an effective easy-to-remember chorus. ‘Crossfire’ with its big regimented drum-roll is less interesting, but the album ends with the memorable power-ballad ‘Still Loving You’, another contender for The Scorpions Best Of compilations in years to come.
MTV gave the videos ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’, ‘Bad Boys Running Wild’, ‘Big City Nights’ and ‘Still Loving You’ a heap of coverage, to the point of saturation, which helped push the album to double-platinum levels.
In Summary
On the strength of the album, the band would tour for the best part of a year, in the process releasing another double-live set ‘World Wide Live’ during 1985.
Though ‘Love At First Sting’ did remarkably well on the charts (reaching #6 on Billboard), it would take a few more albums for the band to sell more records and gain a high placing single onto the charts, which they did with ‘Savage Amusement’ (album) and the worldwide hit ‘Winds Of Change’ from 1990 (remember the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989?).
From my listening perspective, ‘Love At First Sting’ could be considered a ‘period piece’ from the 80’s heavy metal era, and I don’t think it has aged that well to be honest, not helped by some silly lyrics and typical 80’s arrangements, however, back in the day, we were all none the wiser. The Scorpions survive to this day and are still releasing product. Longevity indeed.
The Scorpions on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
