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by Jeb Wright
The Scorpions are a
band that have had two very distinct careers. The early years the band were
based in Germany and while they had a worldwide record deal on RCA they
could not break into the mainstream in the United States. A few line up
changes were made and the band jumped from RCA to Mercury who promised to do
what RCA had failed to do – promote the band in America. A promise alone
was not enough, however, as the Scorpions would have to deliver the goods in
the form of heavy rock music that would appeal to young, American music
buyers. Drummer Herman Rarebell remembers the first Mercury album,
Lovedrive, and the impact it made. “The album that opened the doors in
America for us was Lovedrive. I wrote “Loving You Sunday Morning”
and “Another Piece of Meat” with Rudolf [Schenker]. They got a lot of air
play and it really was the breakthrough album for us in America.”
The band continued on
and in 1980 released Animal Magnetism. The album was more cohesive
than Lovedrive and gave the band their first bonafide FM radio hit in
“The Zoo.” “Animal Magnetism is one of my favorite albums. I wrote
the lyrics for “Make It Real,” “Don’t Make No Promises,” “Hold Me Tight,”
“Falling in Love,” “Only a Man” and “Animal Magnetism.” We had hits with
“Make It Real” and “The Zoo.” Those songs gave us enough air play that we
got another gold record.”
The band toured
extensively in the States on the strength of Animal Magnetism. They
were reaching out to huge numbers of record buyers. “We were special guests
for Ted Nugent, AC/DC and Aerosmith. Our opening act was Def Leppard. Rick
Allen, the drummer for Def Leppard, was only 16 then. Cliff Davies, Ted
Nugent’s drummer, and I smuggled him into the clubs every night. He had to
show his licence and they would stop him but because of our status with the
bands they would let him in. We would often end up jamming in the clubs
with the local musicians. Touring America was just fantastic. It was
paradise for a young man. There was no Aids then. We got laid every night
and we got drunk all the time. They were crazy times. It was what every
German boy dreams of when he hears about America. It was like being in a
candy store as a child and being told that all the candy is yours. It was a
fantastic time. Every time I think back to it I get a big smile on my
face.”
While the band’s dream
of American success was coming true, it would take more than a couple of
gold records in order for the group to become true rock stars. “We felt we
had to come out with a better album than Animal Magnetism because we
knew we had a lot of fans in America and now we wanted to give them the
goodies. We knew the album had to go platinum.” The Scorpions retreated to
Southern France to record the album. “We rented a big, big villa. We had a
recording mobile. All of our instruments were in the living room and Dieter
Dirks was out in the mobile recording us. It was fantastic to record in the
South of France. You had the atmosphere of the beautiful old villa. You
had the normal South of France of life during the day. You could go play
sports or go to the swimming pool and there was the wonderful French food.
We recorded all the basic tracks there. We recorded all the drums, the
rhythm guitars and the bass guitars. Some of the songs were already written
but some parts were written there on the spot. Many nights I would sit in
the garden at night and write lyrics.”
The band was on the
brink of breaking into the next level. Momentum had shifted in their
direction and they were taking advantage of the situation. “I was very
happy with the songs. When I heard ‘Blackout’ for the first time, I thought
that is was going to really go over in America. In those days, the
combination of good music and good lyrics would mean you would have a hit.
We had the inspiration to do that. We picked up right from the Animal
Magnetism tour and we went right into the studio with all that energy.
In our minds we were still in America playing.”
As good as the music
was, there was an issue in the South of France that had to be dealt with.
“That is where the vocal problems started with Klaus. We started hearing
them in the South of France but when we got back to the studio in Cologne it
was much worse. Klaus had big vocal problems. For nine months we could do
nothing because he had to lay off singing. We had to then re-record the
vocals when he got better because the first recordings he blew out his vocal
chords. It was just a rumor that we were looking for another singer. We
never wanted to change singers. We told Klaus that we would wait until he
was better. In those days it was not only important to have the right
singer, it was important to have the right friends.”
The band waited and
when Klaus returned they were relieved to find that the damage was minimal.
He delivered a vocal performance that was as strong as, if not better, than
anything he had ever done before. Rumors had been flying rampant that Meine
was going to be replaced by American vocalist Don Dokken. And while Dokken
was in the studio Rarebell denounces that he was being looked at to be
Meine’s replacement. He states that Dokken, who ironically would appear on
four tracks on Herman Rarebell’s 1984 solo album Herman Z German,
does not appear at all on Blackout. “Don Dokken sang a chorus that
was later erased because all five of us sang it. I think he sang a high
voice on ‘You Give Me All I Need.’”
The album was released
and went platinum. “Mercury Records was totally behind us and they believed
in us. They wanted us to keep making albums. They wanted us to grow and do
better each time out. Lovedrive went gold. Animal Magnetism
went gold and then Blackout was the first one to go platinum.
Schenker/Meine/Rarebell was a great songwriting team. You can see that from
how many successful albums we had. After I left the band, they didn’t have
any more hits. ”
The cover art for
Blackout featured a madman who had just had a lobotomy and had some
strange type of forks pulling at his eyeballs. The man on the cover
screamed until glass broke. Many thought that guitarist Rudolf Schenker was
the man on the cover but looks can be deceiving. “Everyone thought it was
Rudolf on the cover but it is actually the artist who made the cover. I was
there when the shooting was done. Rudolf and the artist created the figure
on the cover. They came up with the idea of the crazy guy and Rudolf said
to put the forks in his eyes. Rudolf would appear on stage sometimes with
the bandage on his head and forks in his eyes but he was not on the cover.”
Rudolf also appeared
as the madman in the video for “No One Like You” which was recorded at the
abandoned prison Alcatraz off of the shores of San Francisco. The video
appeared in heavy rotation on MTV allowing even more fans to become aware of
the band. “MTV played the shit out of us. It helped a lot. All the rock
fans watched MTV then. I used to watch MTV twenty four hours a day. I
wanted to see the next Van Halen or the next AC/DC or the next Aerosmith
song. It was one rock band after another.”
While the band enjoyed
the success the video brought, being stranded in a prison miles away from
civilization hit too close to home for bass player Francis Bulcholz. Rarebell remembers with fond laughter, “In the morning at five o’clock we
all left to go back to the mainland. We were in the middle of the sea and
suddenly we realized that Francis was not with us. We did some scenes in
the cells. Francis fell asleep in one of the cells and nobody had woke him
up. He was left behind. We had to take the boat back to go get him. Can
you imagine how he felt when he woke up? When we came back, he was wide
awake.”
In the end,
Blackout became the album to catapult the band to superstardom. They
began headlining areas and selling out around the world. Blackout
would be followed up by the 1984 smash album Love at First Sting and
the hit single “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” Rarebell remains proud of
Blackout to this day. “Blackout had a very good group feeling.
We wrote together. We had the same ideas and we were going for the same
goals. It was a very loose atmosphere. We had wine and cheese along with
good food and good weather. It felt like a holiday but it wasn’t a holiday,
it was work. But it really felt good. Now the Scorpions are doing it more
from the business side because they have two employees in the band; the
drummer and the bass player.”
Blackout
took the Scorpions to a new level of
success. “No One Like You” is still played daily on classic rock radio
stations around the world. Unfortunately, the classic line up would not
stay intact for the long haul. Rarebell was the first to leave as he was
against the musical direction the band took in the late ‘90s. When asked if
he would ever rejoin his bandmates Rarebell admits, “I have no problem
coming back but I think Klaus Meine is very happy to not have a reunion. It
would mean that I would write lyrics instead of him and most importantly to
him, he would have to split the money five ways instead of three ways. I
think it would be better to split five million dollars five ways than to
split three hundred thousand dollars three ways. That is the American way
and I agree with the American way. It may take Klaus a few years to come to
that conclusion.”
The Songs
Blackout
I had the idea for the title. One night Rudolf Schenker got caught in the
doorway of a supermarket. He was completely drunk out of his mind. He
didn’t know where he was. He had a real blackout. He almost got arrested
because the police thought he was trying to break into the supermarket. His
wife kind of saved him because he couldn’t speak English very well. He came
back to the hotel. I was in the room with Judas Priest and he walked in
with a beer bottle in his hand. He walked in and threw the beer bottle at
the TV and left without saying a word. If I wouldn’t have known that he was
pissed out of his brain then I would have smacked him one. I saw the state
he was in and was just speechless. We all looked at each other and nobody
said anything. It happened so fast that we didn’t know what to think. He
walked in, threw the beer and walked out again. The next day I said to him,
“You can’t remember nothing?” He said, “No.” I said, “You had a
blackout.” I started writing the lyrics and that is how the song came
together. We made Blackout the name of the album and later on Rudolf
had the idea to make this crazy thing with the two forks in the eyes.
Can’t Live Without
You
This was song where we could say to the audience that we go out on the road
but we can’t do it without you. Every rock star needs his fans.
No One Like You
I love the song. Klaus wrote that song. We did the video in Alcatraz. The
video was like Klaus was having a dream. It was a funny video.
You Give Me All I Need
I wrote this about my woman I was with at the time in California. She would
give me all I need, you know.
Now
This one I wrote to just be a good rocker.
Dynamite
The opening lyrics says, “I am going to kick your ass to heaven with rock n’
roll tonight.” That tells you the whole story. I wrote that one about the
rock n’ roll and the lifestyle.
Arizona
I got literally picked up on the street by a girl and brought back to the
tour bus then next morning by the same girl. I was in Arizona that night so
I wrote the song to go, “Arizona really was a blast. I was screwed up in a
total mess.” That sums it up.
China White
Rudolf and Klaus wrote this one. It was a heavy statement about drugs.
When the Smokes
Come Down
This song is not about smoking a doobie. When you play a big arena and the
show is over you can see the smoke coming down. You see all the empty seats
and all the rubbish that people throw away. Suddenly a wonderful concert
becomes reality again when the smoke comes down and you see everything in
the hall. |
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