Sometime in October of 2015 I wrote the following: The Scorpions' last stand before completely selling out. You get some empty calories with the title track, 'Now!', and 'Dynamite', which like Big Mac's are great on initial impact, but maybe not so much later. 'Can't Live Without You' has a decent melodic line, and we enter song title hell with 'No One Like You', 'You Give Me All I Need', and 'When the Smoke is Going Down', all about as deep as their namesakes. 'Arizona' is the only true skip over here and a harbinger of things to come. 'China White' is the one composition with heft, and the only decent legacy the album really has. I bought the LP new when it came out, and I was finishing up my junior year in high school - certainly the best of times. This was one of many soundtracks of a great era in life.
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Funny enough, I hear this album better today than the above review implies, but my rating stays the same. You have to hand it to the Scorpions - they were able to make heavy metal mainstream. That is to say, more popular with the general populace than the usual down-market angry white male audience (you know... like me). Def Leppard also accomplished similar. And whereas I recently noted that the Scorpions seemed to miss their chance on Animal Magnetism, they caught themselves here. So the metal tracks pack more wallop and the commercial oriented songs have more hooks. Other than 'China White' it becomes clear that the Scorpions were no longer interested in artistic legacy, but rather cashing in at the local bank. Can you blame them? They were in the right-time, right-place. They were to take this philosophy even further on their next opus Love at First Sting. An album I bought real time but never really liked. I'm sure I'll find one eventually and we'll see if that remains true or not. And then the Scorpions were no longer relevant after that - desperately trying to make hits when no one was interested in an old grizzled German band (or so it seemed to the new incoming youth). Today, the Scorpions don't have the same historical admiration that bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden enjoy. And any new product is met with skepticism, fair or not. That's the price you pay when you make a deal with the corporate devil.
Ownership: LP: 1982 Mercury. Single sleeve with lyric inner bag. Purchased at the latest Denver record show (2022) for a good price. This title has proven to be hard to source at a reasonable cost, despite selling a gazillion copies originally. In any case, this is the familiar UMR tale: Bought the album when it came out; Became tired of this sound in the 90s and sold it off; Bought a sealed CD for less than $5 a decade later when nostalgia starts to kick in; Recently find the LP out in the wilds and ditch the commodity CD, which may have been played twice. How long will this LP stick around in the collection? Not likely the whole way lol.
1982; 6//05; 10/14/15; 12/3/22 (new entry)
i actually think The Scorpions still have a pretty big following. They tour every year and I've seen them a couple times and my daughter never misses them. They still fill venues. I find myself chatting with people often about them. I turned my sweetheart on to them a few years back. She never liked the few songs she had heard. Once she fell in love with Schenker and Uli albums, she saw redeeming qualities in their later music. She LOVES anything Klaus sings, but Lonesome Crow and Taken by Force are her favorites. YES, I am bragging on what an awesome music babe I have! ☮❤🎸
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