The Scorpions - Savage Amusement

The Scorpions – Savage Amusement

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What is noticeable with The Scorpions on this ‘Savage Amusement’ album is how commercial it is. Americanized, with a hint of Dokken.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: The Scorpions
ALBUM: Savage Amusement
LABEL: EMI
SERIAL: 064-74-6704-1
YEAR: 1988
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 Don’t Stop At The Top * 02 Rhythm Of Love * 03 Passion Rules The Game * 04 Media Overkill * 05 Walking On The Edge * 06 We Let It Rock – You Let It Roll * 07 Every Minute Every Day Love * 08 Love On The Run * 09 Believe In Love

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Background

It was a long extended break for German mainstays The Scorpions during the mid 80’s. After the successful ‘Love At First Sting’ album and worldwide tours that followed, one could forgive the band for taking time out. It wasn’t until 1988 that the band reappeared with ‘Savage Amusement’, an album which went Top 5 in the USA charts, but musically wasn’t a patch on the two previous studio albums – ‘Blackout’ and the aforementioned ‘Love At First Sting’.

What is noticeable with The Scorpions on this ‘Savage Amusement’ album is how commercial it is. Americanized, with a hint of Dokken, but with enough appeal to land a few songs into the minds and walkman’s of late 80’s youth It seems also that the success of ballads such as ‘Still Loving You’ may have been responsible for the commercial direction, though longtime producer Dieter Dierks knew enough to keep the band relevant to their wide and varied fan-base.

The Songs

The best remembered song from the album was ‘Rhythm Of Love’, even if the video for this was kind of sci-fi/spacey and weird on one part, with gorgeous chicks covorting all over the place – on the other part! Though it was a power ballad, it’s not truly representative of the album’s style. There are enough rockers here to keep everyone on red-alert.

The melodic guitar lines that precede ‘Don’t Stop At The Top’ will be enjoyable to fans of American rockers Dokken and their ilk. As would ‘Media Overkill’ have an appeal for Bon Jovi fans with it’s voice-box interludes amid some ‘savage’ guitar work from Jabs and Schenker.

There are a couple of slower more restrained moments. ‘Walking On The Edge’ and ‘Passion Rules The Game’ but when the boys from Hanover put the pedal to the metal, they can produce moments of manic Teutonic brilliance as displayed on ‘We Let It Rock – You Let It Roll’ and the OTT ‘Love On The Run’.

The closing ballad ‘Believe In Love’ is one of the better slower moments during the 80’s era. The band released some tremendous power ballads during the Uli Roth era, but this one is kinda nice, I much prefer it to ‘Still Loving You’ if that’s anything to go by.

In Summary

I quite liked the variety presented on this album. It should please all of the older fans plus the hair-metal brigade of the 80’s era. Of course the band would keep up appearances for 1990’s ‘Crazy World’, which contained the massive worldwide hit ‘Winds Of Change’.

That track was used as the catalyst for the breaking down of the Berlin Wall – a symbolic moment indeed for the German people of all ages. The band continue to rock on successfully, as evidenced by the superb 2007 album ‘Humanity Hour I’ album and other albums beyond that.

Video

Rhythm Of Love

Scorpions - Rhythm Of Love (Official Music Video)

Passion Rules The Game
Scorpions - Passion Rules The Game (Official Video)

Believe In Love
Scorpions - Believe In Love

Entire Album (Select Tracks)
Playlist: Scorpions - Savage Amusement
Watch this playlist on YouTube


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