345 Hello Scorpions - Is There Anybody There ? / Another Piece of Meat

Chart  entered : 26  May  1979

Chart  peak : 39

Number  of  hits : 10

Test yourself  here - other  than  their  post-Cold  War  biggie  can  you  name  another  hit  by these  guys ?  Thought  not. And  yet  they  were  popular  among  teenage  lads  at  this  time. I  remember  frequently  seeing  this  single's  parent  album,  which  had  pretty  much  the  same  artwork,  being passed  around  the  school  yard. I  wonder  how  many  of  them  actually  played  it  ?

Germany's  most  successful  rock  band  have  celebrated their  50th  anniversary , dating  their  beginnings  to  a  band  formed  by  16  year  old  guitarist  Rudolf  Schenker  in   Hanover  in  1964  initially  with  him  as  the  singer. In  1970  he  was  joined  in  the  band  by  singer  Klaus  Meine ( born  1948 ) and  his  younger  brother  Michael  ( born  1955 ). Two  years  later  they  got  a  deal  to  record  the  soundtrack  to  an  anti-drug  movie  Das  Kalte  Paradies  and  this  became  their  debut  LP  "Lonesome  Crow"  produced  by  Conny  Plank.. Although  its  blend  of  Deep  Purple, Pink  Floyd  and  Hawkwind  isn't  unpleasant  to  listen  to,  it  wasn't  a  hit  anywhere  even  in  their  native  land.

Worse  was  to  follow.  They  toured  the  album in  1973  , playing  some  dates  as  a  support  act  to   British  metallers   U.F.O. who  were  so  impressed  with  Michael's  abilities  they  invited  him  to  join  the  band. Another  guitarist  Uli  Roth  came  in  to  finish  the  tour  after  which  the  band  broke  up. Roth  then  invited   Rudolf  to  join  his  own  band  Dawn  Road  which  included  Francis  Bucholz  ( born  1954 ) on  bass. They  then  suggested  that  Rudolf  invite  Klaus  into  the  band  and  when  he  accepted  they  decided  to  resurrect  the  Scorpions  name  as  having  more  brand  recognition.

Their  second  album  "Fly  To  The  Rainbow"  was  released  in  November  1974.  The  new  line  up  rocked  much  harder  than  the  first  but  wrote  some  terrible  English  lyrics.   The  opening  track  and  single  ,"Speedy's  Coming"  which  namechecks  Alice  Cooper  and  Bowie  has  a  decent  pop  kick and  "This  Is  My  Song"  has  some  nice  melodic  guitar   but  elsewhere  it's  hard  going  for  a  non-metalhead.

The  same  is  true  of  the  follow-up  "In  Trance"  in  1975  which  saw  them  move  towards  shorter  songs  , none  of  which  provide  an  easy  route  in  for  the  casual  listener.  The  album  sleeve  was  the  first  in  a  long  line  of  controversial  covers, this  time  featuring  a  woman's  breast  as  she  straddled  a  guitar.  Members  of  the  band  have  unconvincingly  sought  to  distance  themselves  from  this  in  recent  years.

This  reached  its  apogee  with  the  next  one,  "Virgin  Killer"  in  1976  which  featured  a  naked  ten  year  old  girl  in  a  provocative  pose  on  the  cover  with  the  very  slight  mitigation  that  her  genitals  were  obscured  by  a  broken  glass  effect  ( the  issue  resurfaced  in  2008  when  Wikipedia , fearing  possible  legal  proceedings,  temporarily  blocked  any  representations  of  it ).  Much  of  the  music  is  pretty  ugly  too  although  "In  Your  Park",  "Yellow  Raven "  and  "Crying  Days"  saw  them  add  the  mournful  power  ballad  to  their  repertoire  and  provide  some  relief  from  the  headbanging.  The  album  was  their  first  hit  anywhere  in  the  world  when  it  made  number  32  in  Japan.

In  1977  the  band  finally  found  a  long  term  drummer  in  Herman  Rarebell  ( born  1949  )  .  He  played  on  their  next  album  "Taken  By  Force" . This  time  the  cover  offended  a  different  sensibility  by  having  two  boys  ( thankfully  fully  clothed ) playing  "Cowboys  and  Indians"  in  a  war  cemetery. The  relatively  interesting  tracks  are  at  the  front, the  single  "Steamrock  Fever"  which  incorporates  some  kiddie  chants  and  "We'll  Burn  The  Sky"  which  is  based  on  a  poem  by  Jimi  Hendrix's  last  girlfriend  whom  Roth  was  seeing  at  the  time  although  the  provenance  is  more  interesting  than  the  music.

After  its  release  Roth, unhappy  at  the  group's  more  commercial  bent,  announced  he  would  be  leaving  the  group  at  the  end  of  the  tour  to  form  a  new  group  Electric  Sun. His  last  performances  with  the  group  were  captured  by  the  live  album "Tokyo  Tapes" in  1978 which  surpassed  all  the  previous  studio  albums  by  charting in  Germany, Japan, Sweden  and  France. It  was  their  last  release  for  RCA  as  they  moved  across  to  Harvest.

Roth  was  replaced  by  an  experienced  Hanoverian  guitarist  Matthias  Jabs  ( born  1955 ) . However  he'd  barely  hung  up  his  coat  before  UFO  sacked  Michael  Schenker  for  persistent  drunkenness  and  Rudolf  invited  his  brother  to  participate  in  the  recording  sessions  for  the  next  album  "Lovedrive".  In  this  rather  awkward  situation  the  guitar  duties  were  divvied  up  with  Michael  appearing  on  three  of  the  eight  tracks.

This  was  their  first  single  to  be  released  in  the  UK. Diplomatically,  it  was  a  double  A-side  with  one  track  featuring  Matthias  and  one  featuring  Michael. The  former, "Is  There  Anybody  There ? "is  enjoyably  terrible  , a  rare  reggae / metal  crossover  with  laughably  meaningless  lyrics - "Life's  like  a  pantomime  trick  or  a  laser  illusion ".  The  latter  is  an  execrable  AC/DC  impersonation  which  details  an  encounter  with  a  Japanese  groupie. Neither  song  has  much  in  the  way  of  a  tune  and  almost  certainly  needed  the  green  vinyl  gimmick  to  crack  the  Top  40.