Episode: 192 The Scorpions

VHF-192 (Scorpions 74-78) explores the early era of legendary German rockers Scorpions. Before they achieved huge success with power ballads like Rock Me Like A Hurricane and sing along chants such as Winds Of Change the band actually rocked hard. 

Backstory in 1972 they released a morose psychedelic album called Lonesome Crow. It didn’t sell well, mainly appreciated by heads and freaks. Bad trip psychosis isn’t exactly everyone’s thing. Rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker, Scorpions founder,  invited his 16 year old brother Michael to play lead guitar. They hit the road opening for fellow psychonauts UFO. By tours end the members of UFO had charmed Michael into quitting Scorpions and joining UFO to quite a successful career. 

That’s when Rudolf, via Michael’s suggestion, hired Hendrix disciple Uli Jon Roth to play lead guitar, slide guitar and vocals. With Ulrich Roth in the group the songs changed towards psychedelic hard rock. Between 1974 and 1978 Uli Jon Roth and the rest of the Scorpions released four studio albums and the mandatory Japanese live album. We will check out 1974’s Fly To The Rainbow, 75’s In Trance, 76’s Virgin Killer, 77’s Taken By Force and 1978’s live album Tokyo Tapes. 

By the end of the 1978 Japanese tour Uli was not enjoying the direction other members of the band were taking their music. He quit, they hired a melodic guitarist and made it big in a commercial sense. 

We at Very High Frequencies appreciate the heavy early era of Scorpions and have put together a sampling of all of the Uli Jon Roth era albums. 

The day after Not Dead Yet Mike put this show together it was announced that after many years the phenomenal guitarist Uli Jon Roth is touring North America. He announced that after all these decades every Scorpions album he played on has just been rereleased on vinyl, as well as his post Scorpions band Electric Sun. Full disclosure, Not Dead Yet Mike even scored two third row tickets to see him live in May. Serendipity is real! Keep your frequencies high!