Better to burnout than fade away...?

I don't know, but it's always a good idea to stop before you SUCK! 


I can think of many bands, actors and writers who may have stuck around too long. It doesn't diminish what was accomplished earlier in their careers. Hell most just don't know what else to do with themselves or they simply need the cash flow! We are all full of piss and vinegar when we are young and don't know any better, we work, create just for the love of it, or for some hidden drive to show what we can do regardless if anyone notices, much less buys it, sees it or reads it.


 I know what you are thinking, " Tank! For the love of God, no Clapton in a professor's tweed jacket and spectacles... please no!!!"


Do not fret! I wouldn't post anything that does not KICK ASS! I merely want to point out that we all get older and what we did in the past should never be dismissed, diminished or forgotten even if what we have done lately blows! 


There are so many examples I could present to illustrate my point but this being ESG I will try to keep it relevant to the music I love. And just to establish something, age has nothing to do with it, I still dig allot of older cats with new material but for the most part age has a direct correlation to the quality of the product, you dig?


Today's case in point ( oh, there will be more installments like this) is a band most would bunch in with the "80's Hair Band" genre, please excuse the popular vernacular, but it too illustrates the point! 


Scorpions first formed in the freaking mid 60s!!! The 1960s!


Lead by German brothers Rudy and Micheal Schenker they recruited Klaus Meine on vocals and Lonesome Crow was release in 1972! Mike leaves to join UFO ( thank the guitar gods for this ) so Rudy and Klaus join  together with a band call Dawn Road and their hot shit guitar player Uli Jon Roth ( again the guitar gods were looking out for us) they stick with Scorpions keep Francis Buchholz on bass and Jurgen Rosenthal on drums the line up is set, Fly to the Rainbow is released in '74!  Rosenthal was a bad ass ( see vid below) but had to quit cause he was drafted in the army! Who knew Germany even had a damn army! So new drummer Rudy Lenners joins for the InTrance ( released '75) sessions. Virgin Killers is recorded and released in '77.  Rudy left and Herman Rarebell joined the band,Tokyo Tapes was release in '78. Uli leaves to start Electric Sun and the Scorpions find Mathias Jabs to fill his enormouse shoes, now Mathias is a very complete player and having seen him three times that I can recall really good live, but he is no ULI! Lovedrive comes out in '79
( Micheal is back for a couple of tracks), Animal Magnetism in '80, Blackout in '81, Love at First Sting ' 84, Jump the Shark in '82...( just making sure you are paying attention! ) 


Seriously Blackout has some o.k. stuff namely "Dynamite" but 'Sting could be called Jumped the Shark! The band that I first fell in mad love with on Tokyo Tapes was on the fast track to self-parody and laziness not  since Van Halen did Diver Down or AC/DC's abhorred Flick of the Switch did a band totally mail it in! The songs with bluesy bass lines, jazzy beats with complex fills, soaring ethereal guitar work surrounding psychedelic or story based-well thought-out lyrics was gone...instead we got generic cords with thumping lazy bass lines and unimaginative drumming that only emphasized the lame ass lyrics! arrrghghhh! "Bad Boys Running Wild"..."Rythmn of Love".....really.  


To mention more of their "efforts" through the rest of the '80s until now would be to vilify the very band I am trying to build up! One thing is for certain you can kowtow to the man, the industry and the dollar and be well on your way to sucking, but if you kicked ass once that is all that really counts! 


Just don't expect to see your old ass on ESG! 


1972 with Micheal Schenker at age 16 or17!  truncated version "I'm Going Mad" from Lonesome Crow!
Listen to that bass work! 


1973 "This is My Song" from Fly to the Rainbow live this gives me the chills! Uli is soooo good and Rosenthal can straight rip! And even Francis had chops back in the day!




1974 "Speedy's Coming" from Fly to the Rainbow , lip synced, TV but check out those clothes!



1977 "He's a Woman, She's a Man" from Taken By Force and Tokyo Tapes.  TV but cool.


"Steamrock Fever" from Taken by Force, TV



"Is There Anybody There" from Lovedrive 1979 with Jabs on lead.



On a personal aside I still have the scars in my knees from hoping the barbed wire fence to get into the show in '82...bled down to my socks! We were mainly there for Iron Maiden!...I think The Rods opened!! Awww the good old days!