A shower drain is where you find hair, and this column is where you find hair metal. I’m your uncle Eric, and I’m here to show you the finest records from the 1980s. The feature this month is Scorpions’ 1984 album, Love at First Sting.
If you’re familiar with this German hard-rock quintet, you’ve probably heard some songs from this album. Rock you Like A Hurricane, Big City Nights, and Still Loving You were all chart-toppers in a day when people cared about charts. You might not know that the band had been around since 1965- and that Love at First Sting was their ninth release. The band members were all well into their 30s at that point, so let that be a lesson to all you kids thinking about giving up on your music careers.
The album artwork is a lot of fun. Some tasteful sideboob, a dude in a leather jacket giving a chick a tattoo, leather and cowboy boots. No wonder it was controversial in the US. “Vat? Ees just booben, who careß?” says the band, but Americans are scared of boobs. The label put out a “clean” album cover of the band just standing there, which sucks. It’s not the first time, or the last time, that they had to do this exact routine with their album art. Either they didn’t learn or they didn’t care, you decide.
I probably don’t even need to describe the music to you. Rock You Like A Hurricane is as recognizable as We Will Rock You. Still Loving You is one of the greatest songs of loss ever penned. But here goes. Imagine if you took all the rock n’ roll in the world and melted it down into a big pot. Then, bring that pot to a rolling boil, capturing the steam in an alembic, letting the steam condense and drip into a separate pot. Then, plug some headphones into the second pot and enjoy the pure sound of distilled rock n’ roll. It would almost be as good as Love at First Sting.
Spud media 