Scorpions are a hard rock band that started in the former West Germany. In the nineteen sixties, their earlier incarnations were more of a ‘beat’ group than anything close to what they are known for now. Their debut album, ‘Lonesome Crow’ wasn’t released until 1972, and perhaps owes more to experimental German bands of the time than straight forward rock’n’roll or hard rock, being a stepping stone to what would become a signature sound for Scorpions through the seventies. The first album featured the founding members Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker, who would go on to be the core of the band through many line-up changes. Rudolph’s brother Michael Schenker plays lead guitar on this album and would later become an international superstar with UFO and his own band, returning briefly to record a Scorpions album in 1979, more of which later in this piece…
From 1974 to 1978, the band were prolific in their output, releasing four amazing studio albums, ‘Fly To The Rainbow’, ‘In Trance’, ‘Virgin Killer’ and ‘Taken By Force’, then the live double LP ‘Tokyo Tapes’. The latter was to become one of the classic live rock albums, sitting up there with Deep Purple’s ‘Made In Japan’, Thin Lizzy’s ‘Live And Dangerous’, Judas Priest’s ‘Unleashed In The East’ and Cheap Trick’s ‘At Budokan’. There’s a theme through some of those, and it’s the case that a number of bands over the years would choose to record their concerts in Japan, because rock music was received so well there [4.]. Unfortunately, ‘Tokyo Tapes’ was the last Scorpions album to include virtuoso lead guitarist Ulrich Roth (later known as Uli Jon Roth), a big miss for the band. Through the years noted above, Roth contributed immensely to the recordings, through his songwriting, vocals and of course his fantastic guitar work, inspired by his hero Jimi Hendrix. He wrote powerful, memorable songs such as ‘Dark Lady, ‘Evening Wind’, ‘Virgin Killer’, the epic ‘Polar Nights’, beautiful ballad ‘Yellow Raven’ and the dark mystical ‘The Sails Of Charon’, amongst others and co-wrote a number of tunes over that prolific four-year period. Bassist Francis Buchholz was also a constant during that time and would stay with the band until 1992.
The author saw Uli Jon Roth live in Edinburgh in 2017 on his ‘Tokyo Tapes Revisited’ tour and wrote this about the guitarist’s originality:
“Uli can use a ‘whammy bar’ like no other, as demonstrated in the mid section of ‘Fly To The Rainbow’, transporting us to another world: “Well I lived in a magic solitude of cloudy-looking mountains, and the lake, made out of crystal raindrops..Roaming through Space ten thousand years ago, I’ve seen the giant city of Atlantis sinking to eternal waves of darkness…” Yes, indeed!” [5.]
Roth had said since that he had no hesitation in leaving the Scorpions, saying it was what he felt he had to do, and the right thing at the time. Roth has also explained that it took a long time, because he told the band to look for another guitar player, but apparently they didn’t, continuing to book gigs until Roth confirmed he was going. Time tells that the decision was musical, Roth having used his freedom to explore many avenues for his guitar playing and songwriting, and amicable, Roth having remained friends with original band members and joining them on stage over the years.
If you listen to ‘Earthquake’, the first album by Uli Jon Roth’s band Electric Sun, released in April 1979, a couple of months after ‘Lovedrive’, you can appreciate how Roth’s musical direction diverges from that of the Scorpions. ‘Earthquake’ has elements of classical, fusion and progressive material which are signs of things to come, the three-piece a vehicle for Roth to stretch out and expand his musical ideas, in a similar vein to his hero Hendrix. Of course, we’ll never know how things might have transpired had Roth stayed in the Scorpions – Would his guitar style and dark songwriting have tempered the more commercial aspects of the band’s output? Would the band still have broken big and ‘conquered’ the US market? These are interesting but somewhat pointless questions. I would say that the albums which Roth contributed to are a fascinating wealth of material demonstrating what the individual members brought to the Scorpions’ musical table.
The cover of ‘Lovedrive’ attracted some controversy, particularly in the USA, where a somewhat staid alternative had to be found – a silver scorpion on top of extruded lettering of the band name on a black background. The original was created by English graphic artist Storm Thorgerson, most famous for founding Hipgnosis and his work with Pink Floyd. Its subject is a couple in formal dress in the back of a car, the woman’s dress off her shoulder to reveal her right breast, which the man is pulling chewing gum from, the woman staring straight ahead as if she is not aware. On the back cover, the couple are smiling, holding a framed picture of the Scorpions. It wasn’t the first Scorpions cover to attract criticism – The photo of a young girl used for their ‘Virgin Killer’ album and the photo of children playing with guns in a military cemetery for their ‘Taken By Force’ album both had to be substituted in some countries, the former with a band photo and the later with a black cover adorned with photos of individual band members.
Michael Schenker, who played on the band’s debut album, released in 1972, returned after a seven year hiatus, during which he had become a household name in rock with British band UFO, to play rhythm and lead guitar on ‘Lovedrive’. It seemed as if he would also become a full-time member and Mattias Jabs, who the band had lined up for the spot vacated by Uli Jon Roth was temporarily let go, being brought back in after Schenker decided to forge his own musical path instead. This ‘kerfuffle’ explains the presence of both Schenker and Jabs on this recording, certainly at no detriment to the playing or the cohesion of the overall production. 
The album opens strongly with ‘Loving You Sunday Morning’, the distorted lone guitar figure leading to full band riffing in the key of A, the picking of the open A-string a key part of the sound in the verse rock-outs, relieved by the slower repeated choruses, the stops/restarts and the ‘ooh ah, bap bap bap bap’ parts. Sinews of lead wind their way round the riffing and respond to the call of the singing. The lyrics are about a relationship which sounds like it’s in trouble, Meine singing that he will change, asking his lover to “believe in me my love, I’m coming home”.
I bought the ‘Is There Anybody There?’/’Another Piece Of Meat’ double A-side 45prm single when it came out and certainly played the latter to death, a bludgeoning, full-on rock out which takes off after ‘Loving You Sunday Morning’ on the album. The words find the hapless male protagonist being treated as ‘just another piece of meat’ by his female lover, apparently inspired by a girlfriend of Herman Rarebell who was obsessed with kickboxing. ‘Is There Anybody There?’ appears as the second track on Side Two and crosses genres, Scorpions playing a reggae beat with some power-chord choruses. There was just so much authentic reggae around at the time, so was this a nod of reverence to that, or just enjoyment in stepping into another musical territory? In any case, it does work and is catchy.
‘Always Somewhere’ is a wistful ballad which could be about a musician on the road who misses his lover back home. It provides a reduced tempo, a contrast to the previous rock-out, with some cool vocal harmonies, nice picking on arpeggios and a lush production.
Instrumental ‘Coast To Coast’ closes the first side of the original LP, a memorable rocker with strong riffs and meaty basslines. The track was chosen as the b-side of the title track, which was one of the five tracks from the album released as a single – I used to own the 12” version in red vinyl.
‘Can’t Get Enough’ blasts off the second side of the vinyl – No, not a cover of the old Bad Company classic, but something a tad faster, featuring screaming vocals by Klause Meine, a simple, repetitive, effective riff and an exciting short guitar solo. The aforementioned ‘Is There Anybody There?’ takes things in a different direction with great vocal harmonies, particularly effective on the lines ‘in the darkness of these days’ and ‘Is there anybody there?’.
The gallop rhythm of title track ‘Lovedrive’ is infectious – more good driving music. The lyrics compare a woman and a car, not the first or last rock song to ever do that. Rock’n’roll was never politically correct, was it, and the Scorpions certainly aren’t!
Closing track ‘Holiday’ starts as a ballad with acoustic guitar – “Let me take you far away” sings Meine, offering a holiday ‘exchanging cold days for the sun’. The tune rocks out later, is a good way to end the album and would become a live favourite for the band.
‘Lovedrive’ is a glowing gem in the Scorpions archive, Dieter Derks’ wall of sound production bringing the best out of the strong, rocking collection of songs. The album, in many ways, marked the end of an era. After that period, Scorpions would tread a different path, their material more mainstream rock-oriented, the huge selling ‘Love At First Sting’ being a case in point, including the hit ‘Rock.You Like A Hurricane’, which is now one of their best known tunes. ‘Animal Magnetism’, which followed ‘Lovedrive’ in 1980 had some memorable moments for sure, particularly opening track ‘Make It Real’, penned by Herman Rarebell, with its palm-muted verse guitar riffing and catchy chorus and ‘The Zoo’, an insistent chug with uplifting choruses, lyrics by Meine allegedly inspired by New York City. It was however to be a song released in 1990 which started with an unlikely whistled melody line that would become their most famous, ‘Wind Of Change’, a sentimental, sing along ballad about ‘Die Wende’, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the bringing down of the ‘Iron Curtain’ and the massive shift across Europe that resulted. When you change, you lose old fans and gain new ones. Personally, I much prefer the Scorpions music from the seventies to anything that came after – The period from 1974-79 showcases amazing music, and demonstrates how prolific the band were at that time – These days, you could wait five years for a rock band to release one album! 
‘Lovedrive’
Released: 25th February 1979
Label: Harvest/EMI
Recorded at: Dierks Studios, Stommeln, West Germany
Producer: Dieter Dierks
tracklisting:
Side 1
Loving You Sunday Morning
Another Piece Of Meat
Always Somewhere
Coast To Coast
Side 2
Can’t Get Enough
Is There Anybody There?
Lovedrive
Holiday
personnel:
Klaus Meine – vocals
Rudolf Schenker – lead and rhythm guitars
Matthias Jabs – lead and rhythm guitars
Michael Schenker – lead and rhythm guitars (lead on ‘Another Piece of Meat’, ‘Coast to Coast’ and ‘Lovedrive’)
Francis Buchholz – bass
Herman Rarebell – drums
References:
1. ‘Lovedrive’ LP and CD – author’s own collection.
2. Scorpions CDs – author’s own collection.
3. Popoff, M. (2013). ‘Scorpions: Top Of The Bill’. Toronto: Power Chord Press.
4. C is for…Cheap Trick! ‘At The Budokan’ Eddies Rock Music A-Z – blog post https://eddiesrockmusic.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/c-is-forcheap-trick-at-the-budokan/
5. Uli Jon Roth – Tokyo Tapes Revisited live at Bannerman’s Bar in Edinburgh, Scotland 7th May 2017 – Eddies Rock Music A-Z – blog post Uli Jon Roth – Tokyo Tapes Revisited – Eddie’s Rock Music A-Z (wordpress.com)
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovedrive
Eddie's Rock Music A-Z 