Uli Jon Roth’s Scorpions Revisited is Positively Epic
Uli Jon Roth
Scorpions Revisited
UDR music, 2015
If all you know of The Scorpions is their 1980’s radio and MTV hits, you’re going to need to sit a minute. Before they were slick dispensers of four minute pop metal anthems about rock, weather conditions, and the vagaries of love, they were a little more earthy. And like most everyone in the 1970’s, sometimes a bit long winded. Uli Jon Roth was with The Scorpions from 1974-78 as a songwriter, lead guitarist as well as singing the occasional tune.
Roth is one of those guitarists who other guitar players listen to, who squeaked past most everyone else’s radar. He never paid it any mind playing shows, designing tricky guitars and recording mountains of critically acclaimed material.
Here now, he revisits music he was directly involved with, taking another pass at these numbers and he makes this trip positively worthwhile.
“The Sails of Charon” is a spectacular, soaring piece, which needs to be used to score a fight scene in the next season of “The Vikings.” There are distinct movements and real pathos in this performance.
“Life’s Like a River” bursts forth with a feverish blaze of notes, swelling and contracting accordingly.
The extended workout on “Dark Lady” is a soulful, jazzy exploration with deep distorted grooves. Same goes for the dizzying histrionics on “Polar Nights.” This is a limber rhythm section supporting the soloist throughout.
“Hell Cat” is a song which Uli Jon Roth famously growled through, is now given a “Voodoo Chile” wah wah treatment, inverting the song for the better.
“Rainbow Dream Prelude” is an exquisite track and it doesn’t take a lot to picture a young Randy Rhodes listening to it repeatedly. One can hear it’s long term effect on him and other influential 80’s guitarists. The guitar solo at the end of “Fly to the Rainbow” sounds like Hendrix and Blackmore trying to outdo one another, and remember, it’s just the one guy with a fretboard here.
This double CD collection is positively EPIC in it’s scope and ambition. Roth and his band deliver at every turn.
