8.25.2008

Scorpions - Lonesome Crow (1972)




I'm not really a big fan of the Scorpions. That said, this debut record is one of those classic album rock records that MUST be taken as a whole. A long play in the true sense of the word. The Bass from Lothar Heimberg sounds amazing. It actually sounds like a bass. I can hear a lot of Jimmy Page sounding riffs too. A nicely produced record with some cool guitar lifts for 1972. I really dug this! Play the whole recording. Your friends will never know it's the Scorpions - wino


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Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm guitarist, launched the band in 1965. At first, the band had beat influences and Schenker himself did the vocals. Things began to come together in 1969 when Schenker's younger brother Michael and vocalist Klaus Meine joined the band. In 1972, the group recorded and released their debut album Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. During the Lonesome Crow tour, Scorpions opened for upcoming British band UFO. Near the end of the tour, the members of UFO offered guitarist Michael Schenker the lead guitar job; an offer which he soon accepted. Uli Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then called in temporarily to finish off the tour.

The departure of Michael Schenker led to the breakup of the band. In 1973, Uli Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the role as lead guitarist, but turned the band down, preferring instead to remain in the band Dawn Road. Schenker eventually decided that he wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to resurrect the last Scorpions lineup. He attended some of Dawn Road's rehearsals and ultimately decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboards) and Jurgen Rosenthal (drums). Roth and Buchholz persuaded Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join, which he soon did. While there were more members of Dawn Road than Scorpions in the band, they decided to use the Scorpions name because it was well-known in the German hard rock scene and an album had been released under that name.
Scorps

1 comment:

p0nk said...

absolutely loved this album and I keep going back to it as my favorite scorpions album. It's simply not the 'arena rock' that the Scorps became known for.