Scorpions

The departure of guitarist Uli Jon Roth, replaced by Matthias Jabs, triggered a stylistic shift that would go on to define the history of Scorpions. Up until 1978's "Taken By Force", which already showed a growing radio-friendly bent, the Hannover band dealt in hard rock with clear psychedelic overtones, courtesy of Roth's guitar work and his love of Jimi Hendrix. Roth eventually quit the band because the other members didn't share his wish to push the sound further in that direction and write lyrics steeped in Eastern philosophy. Tracks like "Steamrock Forever" and "He's A Woman – She's A Man" already reveal, especially in singer Klaus Meine's hunt for anthemic hooks, a drive towards more direct music, suited to stadiums, without sacrificing any aggression. While no one would dispute the merits of albums like the aforementioned "Taken By Force" or the immediately preceding "In Trance" (1975) and "Virgin Killer" (1976), it's clear that the Scorpions who made history are the ones that came after Jabs joined the lineup. So it was the arrival of the new guitarist, in step with the rest of the band's desire for a change of direction, that turned Scorpions into one of the most crucial and successful acts in European hard rock.

"Lovedrive", released in February 1979, is the album that plants the seed for everything to come, marrying instantly catchy songs with a taste for anything-but-obvious choices and hybrids that upend the genre's usual standards. It's a transitional work, then, but also a peak in terms of ideas and invention. Even though Scorpions' truly global hits would only arrive a few years later (think "Rock You Like A Hurricane" and "Winds Of Change"), "Lovedrive" already contains some of the band's classics. It's here that the band's signature formula takes shape, alternating driving tracks - several of which tip right over into heavy metal - with seductive ballads, a template later widely copied even in the United States: no small feat for a German band. While the influence of "Lovedrive" acknowledged by bands like Megadeth and Mötley Crüe comes as no surprise, the one professed by Billy Corgan shows a reach far wider than usually acknowledged (the Smashing Pumpkins frontman would later collaborate with the band in 2007, lending his voice to "The Cross", from the album "Humanity: Hour I").

The album's consistency is all the more striking given the turbulent circumstances of its recording: alongside Meine's vocals and the rhythm section, made up of Francis Buchholz (bass), Herman Rarebell (drums) and Rudolf Schenker (rhythm guitar), at one point the band also brought in Rudolf's brother, Michael, to join Jabs as an additional lead guitarist. His stint lasted just a few months before he left to found his own project (the Michael Schenker Group, which would go on to make its own mark on hard rock history), much to the relief of Jabs, who hadn't enjoyed sharing guitar duties. Schenker's contribution appears on only three of the eight tracks on the album ("Lovedrive", "Another Piece of Meat" and "Coast To Coast").

The album also crystallizes, thematically, the hard rock sound of the 1980s. With a title track steeped in sexual urges and excess, echoed too, most likely, by Storm Thorgerson's controversial cover art, depicting two lovers in the back seat of a luxury car, his hand connected to her breast by a sticky strand of chewing gum.

The opening track "Loving You Sunday Morning", though never released as a single, got considerable radio play in the United States, helping to kickstart the American cult following for Scorpions. After all, with a verse driven by tight rhythm guitar, choral harmonies through the chorus and a powerful, driving drum sound, part of the band's winning formula was already in place. Even the solo, melodic and fluid in a way never heard during the Roth-dominated era, demanded the attention of ever-growing crowds.

The sexual innuendo continues on the following "Another Piece Of Meat", though with at least double the energy. It's a heavy metal romp with an accelerating chorus, destined to dominate many of the band's live shows throughout the Eighties: it packs razor-sharp riffs, effects-laden guitar textures and a particularly loud, cymbal-heavy drumming style into three and a half minutes. The solos come in flashes, making the electric storm unleashed by the band feel even more menacing.

Sitting at track three, "Always Somewhere" completely flips the album's mood and tone. Winking sexual tension gives way to romanticism, nostalgia and a meditation on long-distance love: it's an archetypal power ballad, its verse resting on clean-toned electric arpeggios lightly touched by echo, an aching chorus and an epic solo leading into the finale. Though it too owes a debt to Lynyrd Skynyrd (there's a certain structural resemblance to their "Simple Man"), "Always Somewhere" is a particularly influential and widely imitated track - just think of the most famous Guns N' Roses ballads.

The mood turns menacing again to close out side one of the vinyl, with the instrumental midtempo of "Coast To Coast", almost cinematic in feel (particularly thanks to Buchholz's bass lines, which make skillful use of legato). The other side opens with "Can't Get Enough": its brevity and approach give it an almost punk drive, even though the sound remains firmly anchored in heavy metal.

Not always a favorite among hardline rock purists, the following "Is There Anybody There?" is one of the tracklist's most visionary moments, with Schenker's rhythm guitar and Rarebell's drums locked into a reggae groove and the chorus laced with exquisite vocal harmonies - it sounds like a hard rock answer to the sound of Police.

The grand finale falls to "Holiday", the moment closest to progressive rock, with its dark opening woven from interlocking acoustic guitars, its escapist lyrics turning a holiday into a necessary escape from suffocating everyday life, and above all its intricate three-part structure: a ballad, an electric charge with ethereal vocal harmonies, and an instrumental coda that revisits the opening theme as a canvas for one last solo.

Over time the song has won over the most disparate admirers, from James Hetfield of Metallica to Jon Bon Jovi, all the way to Noel Gallagher of Oasis. It's also one of the fans' favourites, to the point of becoming the inevitable encore at countless of the band's concerts, albeit often in a simplified arrangement.

Having left Rca the previous year, the band released "Lovedrive" on Harvest in Europe and on Mercury in the North American market: partly thanks to a more appealing formula, partly due to greater support from the record labels compared to the past, the album turned into their first real success: it reached number 11 in their native Germany (their first top-20 entry, selling 250,000 copies), number 36 in the UK (their first top-40 entry) and number 55 in the United States (with 500,000 copies sold by 1986). This last result is without doubt the most significant, given that until then the Scorpions had never cracked the top 200 over there. From then on, their results kept steadily climbing, deservedly establishing them among the most representative rock bands of the Eighties.

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10/08/2025