Moscow Scorpions

Just a little over a decade ago, I discovered the band simply known as Scorpions; and since then, to this very day; they are easily one of my favourite bands. If you asked me to name my favourite bands; it probably wouldn’t take too long for me to mention Scorpions. I discovered them rather by chance. I remember an episode of The Simpsons (the one where Sideshow Bob hijacks the Wright Brothers plane), and in that episode there was a cool piece of music. A group of Harriers take off to the lyric of: “Here I Am!”, but then you barely hear anything after that. I always wanted to know what that song was called, and after a chance conversation with some people on a college course I was doing back in 2009, they told me what that song was called. So I wrote it down, and then looked it up on YouTube. Well, the video I found was of a performance of that song, live in Moscow; and since then, I became not just a big fan of that song, but a big fan too of the band that played it; Scorpions.

Since then I have grown to love that song as well as other songs of theirs too; including Sting in the Tail (which was going through my head as I graduated from university), and Wind of Change among others. Recently though I began to almost grow weary of that Moscow performance which led me to the band in the first place. I don’t know if it is possible to be done to death with a certain piece of music, but for what is probably my favourite Scorpions song, I was almost done with it. It was the case that the more times I had listened to in recent times, I was always jumping to listen to the solo from Matthias Jabs; instead of listening to it all the way through; possibly as a result of that I was growing disenchanted by it. Anyway, before I started writing this post I gave it another listen; same performance from Moscow; and I loved it again!

I have always believed that this is by far the best performance (at least from the range I have heard) of this song. There are more purer versions such as the original tracks, and even live versions with just the band; but for me this stands out above the rest. The Moscow performance features not just Scorpions themselves, but also an orchestra. The Orchestra begins with the riff and create a nice uplifting intro, and then the band comes in, and that easy and steady riff builds up and brings a power keg of promise, before getting into the nice and steady riff once more. The inclusion of the orchestra creates a level of accenting the song. The song’s tune and tone is already fast and powerful, but the orchestra fills the void of where there may be moments of silence, filling them with an accenting sound which continues to deliver and provide the raw energy the song creates. It starts off the song, and then stays with it. The song’s main performance is of course from the band, but the orchestra provides an extra level of delicacy to the taste.

It almost becomes like a blur and just hangs around in the background keeping rhythm as other members of the band take over. The performance is a very well done piece overall, which in turn features great musicianship to create an almost ultra level of musical performance. Even the recording of the song on the video side is well done as there is no shaky camera’s, but focussed camera’s looking upon the musicians, like Rudolf Schenker; featuring their tremendous talents. Sometimes even going in close to look at their finger work, showing how well their fingers blend into the song, but also expressing, how slow fast songs can seem, and how relatively simple a complicated looking riff is to play.

It has been a full 10 years now since I heard this song from start to finish for the first time, and it’s a song which I still love. I realise that it was my impatience just to want to hear a solo where I began to struggle, but this piece isn’t just a solo, it’s a complete piece of music. It may not be a giant anthem long piece like many other pieces of well known heavy metal, but it’s still a great song. It provides an incredible solo, as well as a lot of great music before and after too. It captures the sweetness, and provides just enough to be incredibly delectable, but doesn’t hang around too long to sour the taste!

Even now, I still get tingles down my spine as I hear the track once more!