Crazy World

Crazy World
Scorpions studio album
Publication (s)	November 6, 1990
admission	Summer – autumn 1990
Label (s)	Mercury Records
Format (s)	CD , LP , MC
Genre (s)	Hard rock
Title (number)	11, 30 in the Deluxe Edition
running time	52:54, 138:07 Deluxe Edition
occupation	Singing : Klaus Meine Rhythm guitar : Rudolf Schenker Lead guitar: Matthias Jabs Bass : Francis Buchholz Drums : Herman Rarebell
production	Keith Olsen, Scorpions
Studio (s)	Goodnight LA ​​Studios, Los Angeles (USA) Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum (Netherlands)
chronology Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads (1989) Crazy World Still Loving You (1992)
Single releases October 1990 Tease Me Please Me December 31, 1990 Don't believe her April 1991 Wind of Change 17th September 1991 Send me an angel January 6, 1992 Hit Between the Eyes

Crazy World ( English for " crazy world ") is the eleventh studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions , which was released at the end of 1990. The commercial success of the album was largely achieved through the world hit Wind of Change , which is known as the so-called " Hymn of the Wende ". It is the last album by the band that was recorded with the "classic" line-up of the Scorpions before bassist Francis Buchholz left the band in May 1992.

Emergence

George HW Bush inspired the band to decide to name the album Crazy World (Photo: 1989)

production

With Crazy World , the band was responsible for the production of an album for the first time since the 1974 album Fly to the Rainbow . After a long-term collaboration with Dieter Dierks that began the following year , the producer and the group went their separate ways after the recordings of the previous album Savage Amusement at the end of the 1980s after an expired contract. After this separation, which was carried out by mutual consent, the Scorpions felt during the production of Crazy World, according to Klaus Meine, “ like birds that are let out of the cage ”.

The band's goal now was to prove that they can continue to have success without Dierks. The Scorpions asked the producer Bruce Fairbairn ( Bon Jovi , Def Leppard ) to produce the later Crazy World album. However, Fairbairn was already prevented by working with the bands Poison , Europe and AC / DC . However, Fairbairn later agreed to take over the production of the successor Face the Heat (1993). It was through Fairbairn that I finally got in touch with producer Keith Olsen, who had already worked with bands like Foreigner and Whitesnake and was involved in the production. Olsen criticized the Scorpions' lyrics , which were written in “wheel-breaking” English , and initially sent the band to Vancouver to see songwriter Jim Vallance , who is jointly responsible for some of the pieces of music on Crazy World . The album was mainly recorded in the Goodnight LA ​​Studios in Los Angeles (California, USA) as well as in the Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum (Netherlands). The album was digitally recorded and mixed using the Trident DI AN system with SSL consoles and DASH format recorders. The production cost one and a half million German marks.

Naming

For a long time during the production of the album, it was to be called Restless Night . When, however, at the end of the album's production phase , the drummer Herman Rarebell met the 41st President of the USA, George HW Bush, on American television “ You have to realize, we live in a crazy world ” (in German: “You have to realize that we Living in a crazy world ”), he recognized the potential of Bush's last two words and put the album through the title Crazy World . Rarebell remarked in an interview with the Saarbrücker Zeitung in 1991: “ The political development in Germany and Europe is crazy - a crazy world. Two years ago hardly anyone would have believed that the wall would fall and Germany would be reunified. "

Musical characteristics

Music genre

Since some features of the previous album Savage Amusement (1988) and other albums were superfluous during the production of Crazy World , the sound of the group has evolved audibly on this album compared to its predecessors. By separating from her long-time producer Dieter Dierks, who was responsible for the production of all Scorpions albums from the mid-seventies to the end of the 1980s and thus decisively influenced the musical development of the band and through the American producer Replaced Keith Olsen, for the first time in the history of the Scorpions a producer had direct international influence on the band's music. This is also transmitted through the collaboration with the Canadian Jim Vallance, who supported the members in writing their songs. As a result, many of the texts on this album are characterized by typical American idioms and expressions.

The basic musical style of the band has not changed significantly from its predecessors. As usual, Rudolf Schenker's rhythm guitars are in harmony with the mostly virtuoso lead guitar tour by Matthias Jabs, who also plays the talk box on Money and Fame , as with the song Media Overkill from the previous album Savage Amusement . Then there is the bass by Francis Buchholz and the drums by Herman Rarebell, which are now much more powerful than the older Scorpions recordings. Overall, the songs on Crazy World sound a bit "fresher" and more contemporary and the song structures are also set up a little differently than on the earlier albums. While the mostly eight or nine pieces of the previous albums were mostly songs about four minutes long, the songs on Crazy World are played a little more "extensively" (more repetitions of refrains, longer solos), on average every song goes on that Album less than five minutes. Overall, the songs sound quite similar stylistically compared to the follow-up Face the Heat , on which the band has embarked on a lot of experiments, which makes the eleven tracks seem "as if from a single source".

Song lyrics

The first international support that the band received from songwriter Jim Vallance ( Aerosmith , Bryan Adams ) through the agency of producer Olsen is noticeable on some of the lyrics. Compared to earlier texts, which were mainly written by the singer Klaus Meine, they contain, in addition to the somewhat more international style of phrasing, some American slang expressions and formulations that were previously searched for in vain in the songs of the Scorpions, including some songs from the earlier ones Uli Jon Roth years, which the band's former guitarist wrote himself, certainly testified to the international language. Only on the songs To Be with You in Heaven , Wind of Change , Money and Fame and Send Me an Angel , on which Vallance did not participate, this does not apply. Many texts are (more or less) about sexual activities ( Tease Me Please Me ) or about "restless nights" in the style of a rock star ( Restless Nights ).

The most important author of the album, however, turned out to be the singer Klaus Meine: He processed experiences the band had at the Moscow Peace Festival in the summer of 1989 in the album's most successful song in Europe: Wind of Change . Mine not only wrote the lyrics for this, but also composed the music for the first time for a Scorpions song . The guitarist and band founder Rudolf Schenker , who wrote most of all Scorpions compositions, was initially unsure (due to the whistling in the song) whether this song should be released. The American record company even phoned the bassist Francis Buchholz and asked him to influence Meine to stop whistling. This then led to a significant disruption of the collaboration between Meine and Buchholz, which ended with the separation of Buchholz and the band in 1992. Today, however, the song is an integral part of pop culture and, as the most successful single of 1991 (number 1 in eleven countries), is significantly involved in the success of the entire album. Wind of Change was not my last song for the Scorpions that I composed alone.

Cover and design

On the front cover of the album you can see right-aligned black and white lettering with the band name (upper line) and the album title (lower line). Underneath on the left is a female hand (note the slightly longer fingernails) that is inserting a key into a keyhole. The keyhole with the corresponding door cutout can be seen from the side. Next to it, i.e. behind the door lock, there is an area of ​​about a quarter of the total cover on the far right, which is filled with another half-open door. You can see that there is a landscape behind this door, as you can see a blue sky and a large tree behind it. This image section clearly stands out from the rest of the cover, which is mostly grayish and not particularly colorful. In the background of the right door is a cloudy cityscape, which contrasts negatively with what is behind the door.

On the back cover of the album you can see a keyhole next to the track list and the well-known fonts of the record companies. In this keyhole, the left eye and part of the mouth of the woman can be seen, who is also holding the key in her hand on the front cover. On the so-called inside cover of the album, which can be seen on the left-hand side next to the sound carrier itself when the case is opened, a total of seven doors with the well-known landscape with the trees can be seen behind the already mentioned gray urban landscape. In addition to the largest door on the left, the further you look to the right, the smaller the doors become. A slightly cloudy sky can also be seen above the doors. Like the front and back covers, this part of the cover is mainly gray.

The CD itself shows the logo with artist and album title, which is also used on the front cover, in black letters on a white background. Above is the logo of the record company "Mercury Records". On the lower side of the CD, the track list including the length of each song is shown. This was separated between track 6 and track 7 on both sides (upper and lower half of the CD). The usual logos shown on the back cover are located under the title list. The all-white booklet contains the eleven lyrics of the individual songs in black font as well as a black and white photo of the group photographed by Ross Halfin.

In the booklet, the band also thanked Jim Vallance with the translated words: “Special thanks to Jim Vallance for his invaluable help during the creative process” (translated). At the end of the acknowledgments, the CD booklet says: “We hope you enjoy listening as much as we do with the recordings. Thanks to Keith, Erwin and Shay! ... You guys are great! ”(Translated).

Originally, the German painter Sebastian Krüger was commissioned to paint a caricature of the band members for the album cover. The rock group became aware of Sebastian Krüger through various illustrations by the Rolling Stones in an issue of the Illustrierte Stern . During the process of creating the painting, the Scorpions visited the painter in his small studio and tried to make suggestions for improvement, for example the size of a nose and the physical girth of the figures. In return, Krüger was allowed to visit the rock band in a recording studio in Amsterdam when the Scorpions recorded the song Tease Me Please Me for the album Crazy World . Regarding the commissioned work, however, the record company rejected the finished result on the grounds that, apart from guitarist Rudolf Schenker , the recognition value of the individual band members was not great enough to use the painting as an album cover.

Tour and concert exploitation

tour

The subsequent Crazy World Tour 1990–1991 began with a concert in the Italian city of Florence on November 25, 1990, almost three weeks after the album was released. The one-year tour, comprising almost 150 concerts, took her to cities such as Budapest ( Hungary ), Paris ( France ), Helsinki ( Finland ), Copenhagen ( Denmark ) and Stockholm ( Sweden ). They also played two concerts in London's Wembley Arena , where bands such as Genesis, Queen and ABBA have performed. In North America they appeared at 92 concerts, this part of the tour began on February 20, 1991 in Albuquerque and took the band once across the great halls of the USA and Canada. In Los Angeles they also played two concerts in the Forum , the band Motörhead appeared as the opening act for these two concerts. The last concert of the North American tour took place on July 28, 1991 in the Canadian city of Bristol. The tour also included a total of 15 concerts in Germany , two of which took place in the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin , further appearances followed in Dortmund ( Westfalenhalle ), Mannheim , Münster , Nuremberg , Kassel , Munich ( Olympiahalle ), Stuttgart , Saarbrücken and Oldenburg . The last concert of the tour also took place in Germany on November 5, 1991 in the Frankfurt Festhalle. The opening act included a. Mr. Big , Winger and Trixter. The performances in Berlin were recorded and released on VHS . A large part of this recording is also included on the DVD A Savage Crazy World .

The following live performances

During the Crazy World Tour 1990–1991 , the Scorpions played all songs from this album live, with a few exceptions. However, this already changed on the following Face the Heat Tour from 1993-1994 , where only Hit Between the Eyes , Don't Believe Her and their power ballad Wind of Change could assert themselves as an integral part of their concerts from Crazy World . Over the years and the numerous tours of the band that followed, only Wind of Change remained from this album really permanently a part of the setlist at their concerts. It is mostly performed after Still Loving You and before the final song Rock You Like a Hurricane . On more recent tours, however, several songs from this album were presented live again: In 2006, as headliners at the Wacken Open Air Festival, they played numerous songs that were previously selected by their fans on the Internet. These included Don't Believe Her and Tease Me Please Me , but again, Wind of Change was not included. On the Humanity World Tour 2007 - 2009 even several songs from the album found their way back onto the setlist: The songs Tease Me Please Me , Don't Belive Her , Wind of Change , Hit Between the Eyes and Send Me were here Played live on Angel , the latter mostly in an acoustic version based on Acoustica . During this tour, they also used songs from several of their albums that had not been played for a long time. On the set list of their Get-Your-Sting-and Blackout- Farewell-Tour (later also named Final-Sting- Tour) the songs Tease Me Please Me , Send Me an Angel and the song Wind of Change from the Crazy World album are in the encores .

Content and title list

Track list

Tease Me Please Me - 4:44 (Music: Matthias Jabs, Jim Vallance / Text: Klaus Meine, Herman Rarebell, Vallance) Don't Believe Her - 4:55 (Rudolf Schenker, Vallance / Rarebell, Meine, Vallance) To Be with You in Heaven - 4:48 (Schenker / Meine) Wind of Change - 5:10 (Mine) Restless Nights - 5:44 (Schenker / Meine, Rarebell, Vallance) Lust or Love - 4:22 (Meine / Meine, Rarebell, Vallance) Kicks After Six - 3:49 (Francis Buchholz, Vallance / Rarebell, Meine, Vallance) Hit Between the Eyes - 4:33 (Schenker / Rarebell, Meine, Vallance) Money and Fame - 5:06 (Jabs / Jabs, Rarebell) Crazy World - 5:08 (Schenker / Meine, Schenker, Rarebell, Vallance) Send Me an Angel - 4:34 (Giver / Mine)

Tease Me Please Me

This song acted both as the album's opening title and as the pre-release single, which was released in the fall of 1990, as an introduction to the album. The single contained Kicks After Six , which was not yet known at the time of release, as the B-side . The band also shot a music video for Tease Me Please Me , which mainly shows them playing wildly in an underground car park. The gag is that the garage belongs to a couple in love and at the beginning of the video you see the man saying goodbye to his younger girlfriend and going to work. Shortly afterwards the band appears with their musical instruments in their luggage. When the man comes back in the evening, the woman pretends to be a craftsman and tells him that they have to show up again tomorrow, but they do a good “job”. The song peaked at number 8 on the US mainstream rock chart. Due to its powerful and memorable guitar riff and the hymn-like chorus, the song can be seen as the typical opening title of a Scorpions album. The song itself tells the story of a “wild” man who has already met many girls and has often had sexual intercourse with them - this is rather “paraphrased” in the text itself. The title of the song already says that the girl should “torment” (“ tease ”) the man in order to “satisfy” him (“ please ”).

Don't believe her

Don't Believe Her was released as the second single from the album and reached number 13 on the US mainstream rock charts. The single was released with the live recordings of the songs Big City Nights and Holiday at a concert in Moscow and again the song Kicks After Six as the B-side. A music video was released for this song, too, but it is only a live recording with studio synchronization. The song is about an unscrupulous and wicked woman men "heaven on earth" ( heaven on earth ) promises and cheating on her behind her back. The narrator also had this experience and would like to warn his friend in this song text not to make the same mistake and not to believe anything she says (“ don't believe her ”). Furthermore, the woman is described in the text as, among other things, insane (" insane ") and as a "attention- grabber " (" teaser ").

To Be with You in Heaven

This song is one of the few "classic" Scorpions songs on the album that was written without the influence of Jim Vallance and is therefore free of American slang. The lyrics are about a man who is hopelessly in love with a woman who does not return his love. The narrator lists numerous things in the stanzas that she can do to him. These include u. a. to shoot (“ shoot me down ”) and throw away his love (“ trash our love ”) as well as to smash his heart (“ smash my heart ”) and to waste his time (“ waste my time ”). None of these things can change a man's feelings (“ you can't change my mind ”) and the associated wish to live with a woman in heaven (“ to be with you in heaven ”). He would also go through the darkest hell (" I would go through the darkest hell ") so that his dream would come true, even if the woman's feelings remained unchanged. His would not change there either, since there is no cure in heaven that can put love out of action (“ there's no cure for love that kills ”).

CD imprint of the maxi single Wind of Change

Wind of Change

→ Main article : Wind of Change

Wind of Change , the first of two ballads on this album, is the band's most successful single hit. Singer Klaus Meine wrote this song after the inspiration he and the band gathered at the Moscow Music Peace Festival concert on August 12th and 13th, 1989. This concert took place in Moscow's Olympic Stadium and was attended by 260,000 spectators. According to Klaus Meine, the moment when so many Russian citizens sang along with a German band Still Loving You was the decisive moment that inspired him to write the song, which was written in September 1989. The song later enjoyed great success through events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The song was listed at number one in the charts in eleven countries and is the most successful single of 1991 with 14 million singles sold. Interestingly, this song was hardly played on the radio in the USA. It was only through the popularity of this song that her album Crazy World proved to be a great success and, at the same time as Wind of Change, reached the top of the album charts in numerous countries.

Restless nights

This is the longest track on this album, it contains a huge, Scorpions-typical Powerchord riff , which is supported by a frequently repeated chorus . He is wild and exciting and restless nights ( " restless nights ") in places like Tokyo ( " die hard in Tokyo "), Dallas ( " hot shot in Dallas ") and Paris ( " big time in Paris "). As the B-side of the successful single Wind of Change , the song sold 14 million times worldwide on the single alone.

Lust or Love

As the title suggests, the text of this song revolves around the question: "Lust or love?" The person described is looking for a love that lasts forever (" searchin 'for love that lasts forever "). He cannot distinguish between a feeling of pleasure and the feeling of being in love. However, he feels something that he cannot get enough of (“ I can't get enough ”). Now he is looking for someone he can trust (" who can I trust "), that is, to find a woman who not only pleases him with his masculine drive, but who for him is the one with whom he loves want to share. The actual question of this song is not answered, however, but the line of text Still looking for more, it's never enough suggests that it is lust that always drives him and that he may therefore not fall in love in the “classical” sense because he simply likes too many for that and he cannot commit himself to a certain woman.

Kicks After Six

Although this song was never released as an independent single, it has appeared on at least two singles ( Tease Me Please Me , Don't Believe Her ) as the B-side. It is about a woman who works seven days a week in a correctional facility , where she is the slave of the "tie and suit" (ie her boss) between 9 am and 5 pm and her kicks after 6 pm (" after six ") , that is, the real joys in life.

Hit Between the Eyes

This song was released as the fifth and final single from the album. In addition to the album version, the single also contained a live version of the title. Some versions of the single also featured the Trevor Jones track Alex Julie's Love Theme . The song Hit Between the Eyes was used as the soundtrack in the credits of the film Freejack - Hostage of the Future , which is why this two-minute film music excerpt is also featured on some editions of the single. The lyrics are about a "danger zone" ( " danger zone "), from which it is difficult to life also comes. There is a threat of a .45 gun that one should not mess with. The narrator says he is ready for this hit between the eyes (" hit between the eyes "), but at the same time he asserts that he is much too young to die ( I'm much too young to die ), but someone will boxing out again (" someone get me out of here alive "). Of all eleven songs on the album, this one most closely reflects the American way of life.

Money and Fame

Money and Fame is about a selfish and self- loving friend of the narrator who tries to explain to her that she knows nothing about loving and giving (" you know nothing about loving ", " you nothing about giving ") and that she is a dangerous game plays (" you play a dangerous game "). She plays with feelings (“ you play, play with emotions ”) and cannot show her own emotions (“ when will, you will show your feelings ”), she is only after money and fame (“ all you want is money and fame ”) and would completely disregard human ideals such as love.

Crazy World

The title track of the album contains the key message "We live in a crazy world". In contrast to the song, the title of the album mainly refers to the political development of the world (see interview excerpt with Herman Rarebell in the section "Album title"). In the song itself it is rather the dreary everyday life that makes the world seem so crazy to the narrator. Other reasons mentioned are the predominantly negative news or events of all kinds and the power of the government. However, the text is not completely free of political criticism, because in one line it says " Bust my balls for the tax man, so what else can I say, they spent our money on missiles, for the third world war " (in German: (I) blow my cannonball for the tax office, so what else can I say, they are spending our money on rockets for a third world war ).

Send me an angel

With Send Me an Angel , the album closes, as we are used to from other Scorpions albums, with a carrying and soulful ballad. The song is about an abandoned man who got lost in the land of the morning star . A wise man ( " the wise man but") helps him with useful advice (for example, to the call to hear his heart or to take in the search for the roses in front of the thorns in eight) the right way home to find the narrator asks his lover if she will send him an angel (“ will you send me an angel ”). This song was also released as a single and contained the title track Crazy World as the B-side . A matching music video has also been released. As the successor single to Wind of Change , the song reached number 5 in the German single charts.

Single releases

The first single was released shortly before the album Tease Me Please Me . In the spring of 1991 the single Don't Believe Her followed and in April 1991 the third single Wind of Change was finally released, the single that was to have a significant impact on the reputation of the band and the success of the entire album: Wind of Change reached in Germany Its first week in the chart was only number 47, but a few weeks later the single climbed to number 1, where it was to stay for a total of 11 weeks. The title had advanced to number one hit in a total of eleven countries and became the world's best-selling single of 1991. With the next single Send Me an Angel , which was released in autumn 1991, the Scorpions had another top 10 hit in Germany. However, the fifth single hit Between the Eyes could not achieve any notable success.

Alternative versions and live recordings

In 2013, Crazy World was re-released as a Deluxe Edition with five additional tracks, including Wind of Change in Russian and Spanish, and a live DVD. Over the years, several different versions of various Scorpions songs have been released, including some songs from the Crazy World album. In 1991, the worldwide hit Wind of Change was released together as an independent single in a Russian ( Ветер Перемен ) and a Spanish version ( Viento De Cambio ). This reached number 38 in the German single charts. For their project Moment of Glory , the Scorpions recorded several of their songs again in 2000 together with the Berliner Philharmoniker, one of the largest classical orchestras in Germany. In addition to a new version of Wind of Change , they also reinterpreted Send Me an Angel , on which the Italian singer Zucchero also participated. For their subsequent album Acoustica in 2001 they presented many of their songs in a Portuguese monastery with only acoustic instruments and without electrical amplification. They played u. a. Send Me an Angel , Wind of Change and Tease Me Please Me . The latter can only be found on the concert DVD, but not on the corresponding album.

Their third live album, which was released in 1995 under the title Live Bites , featured a total of three live recordings of Crazy World's songs: Tease Me Please Me , Crazy World and Wind of Change . Another live version of a song from Crazy World was also supported by Hit Between the Eyes on the same single or on the single Under the Same Sun published. Furthermore, on a limited concert stick (USB stick with pre-recorded concert recording) from the concert on October 2, 2009 in the Grugahalle in Essen (title: A Night to Remember - Live in Essen ), the songs Send Me an Angel (first official live audio recording of the original song), Tease Me Please Me and Wind of Change .

Concert film

The video was recorded in the Deutschlandhalle in 1991 at two concerts by the band (2006)

In November 1991, a year after the album, a VHS entitled Crazy World Tour Live ... Berlin 1991 was released, which contains a concert recording of a performance in Berlin's Deutschlandhalle , which was recorded at the end of 1990, with the following titles:

1. Bad Boys Running Wild
2. Hit Between the Eyes
3. Tease Me Please Me *
4. Can't explain
5. The zoo
6. Don't Believe Her *
7. Rhythm of Love
8. Crazy World
9. Can't Live Without You
10. blackout
11. Dynamite
12. Lust or Love
13. Send Me an Angel *
14. Big City Nights
15. Rock you like a hurricane
16. Wind of Change *

The live recordings, with the exception of Rock you Like a Hurricane and Big City Nights, were also transferred to the DVD A Savage Crazy World (2002). The songs Tease Me Please Me , Don't Believe Her , Send Me an Angel and Wind of Change , all songs that can be found on Crazy World , are each included here as a music video. The DVD of the Deluxe Edition of the album, which was released in 2013, also contains the same material.

reception

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Germany (BVMI)	2 × platinum	1,000,000
Finland (IFPI)	gold	40,716
Canada (MC)	2 × platinum	200,000
Mexico (AMPROFON)	gold	75,000
Netherlands (NVPI)	gold	50,000
Norway (IFPI)	gold	25,000
Austria (IFPI)	platinum	50,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	2 × platinum	100,000
United States (RIAA)	2 × platinum	2,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	silver	60,000
All in all	1 × silver 4 × gold 9 × platinum	3,600,716

Reviews

HiFi magazine Audio wrote the following about Crazy World : “The German Scorpions are light years away from the excesses of real heavy metal bands like AC / DC . At least the first album for the new brand announces more power and fresh steam. Above all, singer Klaus Meine strains himself to the limit without reaching the performance limit even with the toughest pace ( Kicks After Six , Hit Between the Eyes ). Send Me an Angel , the most beautiful of two and a half ballads, has hit chances even in a country whose radio suppresses heavy rock. ”The BILD newspaper wrote the sentence in its June 3, 1991 issue of the song Wind of Change. Thank you Scorpions for the fall of the wall ballad. "

Stereoplay also wrote : “With Crazy World , the scorpions are returning to the toxicity of earlier days à la Virgin Killer or Blackout . Instead of radio-smoothed refrains, the Hanoverians now serve extremely raw hard rock food. The ballads that are required for a Scorpions album are not missing ( Wind of Change , Send Me an Angel ). But many compositions cannot convince. "

Götz Kühnemund awarded eight out of ten possible points in the specialist magazine Rock Hard and wrote: “There is no question that the Scorpions' last studio work, Savage Amusement , was not the ultimate. But maybe creative flops are especially important for a band that has been in business for as long as the Scorpions, because they expose well-established concepts and offer the opportunity for a fresh start. The Scorpions' camp has undoubtedly drawn the consequences. Dieter Dierk's chapter is finally over, and so the Scorpions have to prove after a long time that they can also show success with another producer. If you take Crazy World as a benchmark, the guys will still be able to secure some precious metal, because the quality difference to Savage Amusement is enormous. The guitars are finally in the foreground again, the song material sounds fresh, and you have to be deaf not to recognize that this is basically a completely different band than two years ago. I would be careful not to call Crazy World the successor to such classics as Lovedrive or Blackout , but the new part is definitely recommended. Highlights: Lust or Love (typical Scorpions rocker with chart ambitions), the title track Crazy World and the super ballad Wind of Change . "

Worldwide success

The album has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, making it the band's most commercially successful album worldwide. It is considered the best-selling album of 1991 and achieved double platinum status in Germany for one million albums sold, where it remained in the album charts for a full 80 weeks - 7 weeks of which alone at the top. It reached number 21 in the North American Billboard Top 200 and was awarded platinum on July 24, 1991. The album was listed in the US charts for 73 weeks. In 1995 it reached multiplatin there for 2 million copies sold. In the Austrian charts , the album stayed at number 1 for 2 weeks and in the charts for 27 weeks.

statistics

Crazy World was the last Scorpions studio album for 17 years, which was recorded with the same line-up (which had existed since 1978) as its predecessor - in this case Savage Amusement (1988). In terms of the number of releases, an album has never followed its predecessor with a comparable interval (two and a half years) - since Crazy World , a new Scorpions studio album has been released every three years. Besides Humanity - Hour I, it is also the most differentiated album in terms of lyricists . Just two songs, like most of the songs in the band, were written by Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine, the other songs are shared in different ways among several band members and Jim Vallance. In terms of lyrics, Crazy World also made a debut for several band members: Wind of Change is Klaus My first completely self-written song, and Rudolf Schenker also contributed to the lyrics for the first time ( Crazy World ). Furthermore, bassist Francis Buchholz wrote Kicks After Six for the first (and last) time a composition for the Scorpions (in collaboration with Jim Vallance). A total of six composers were involved in the songwriting of the eleven songs represented, only seven more composers worked on Humanity - Hour I , which is the highest number of songwriters for a Scorpions album. Crazy World was also the band's first album to be designed for the audio CD medium with a playing time of 53 minutes. Due to its great success, a vinyl edition of the album was released in the USA in 1993, but without any loss of music. It is also the band's last studio album so far that does not work with bonus tracks in selected countries, the track list of this album is the same in all countries. Especially in Germany, this album marks a high point of success for the band: To this day, it is not only the only album that made it to number 1 in the album charts, but also their only two top 10 singles ( Wind of Change , Send Me an Angel ) both come from the Crazy World album, after Francis Buchholz left, no Scorpions song made it into the top 10 of the German single charts. Thus the album Crazy World also represents the end of the most successful line-up of the Scorpions, which remained unchanged from 1978 to 1992: Francis Buchholz, Matthias Jabs, Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Hermann Rarebell. Furthermore, only three songs from this album ( To Be with You in Heaven , Lust or Love and Money and Fame ) were not released as a single or B-side of a single. In addition, ten of the eleven songs on the compilation Classic Bites (2002) were reused. Never again have so many songs from the same album been re-released on a single Scorpions compilation, even on more than one CD, such as the 3-disc box sets Box of Scorpions (2004) and The Platinum Collection (2005).

Contributors and equipment

tape

• Singing , whistling ( Wind of Change ): Klaus Meine
• Rhythm guitar : Rudolf Schenker
• Lead guitar, acoustic guitar ( Send Me an Angel ): Matthias Jabs
• Bass : Francis Buchholz
• Drums : Herman Rarebell

Guest musician

• Keyboards: Jim Vallance ( Send Me an Angel ), Koen VanBaal ( Wind of Change )
• Gang singing: Roy Teysse, Dries Van Der Schuyt, Ria Makker, Gerard vd Pot, Louis Spillman, Wolfgang Praetz, Inka Esser, Claudia Frohling, Cliff Roles, Peter Angmeer, Tony Ioannoua, Jim Lewis, Erwin Musper, Keith Olsen ( Tease Me Please Me )
• Pop songs: Marcel Gelderblom, Mirjam Erftemeijer, Henk Horden, Patrick Ulenberg, Erwin Musper, Keith Olsen ( Crazy World )

Rod

• Production: Keith Olsen, Scorpions
• Technique: Keith Olsen, Erwin Musper
• Mix: Keith Olsen, Shay Baby, Erwin Musper
• Technical Assistant: Shay Baby (Goodnight LA ​​Studios), Attie Bauw (Wisseloord Studios)
• Second assistant: Tom Fletcher (Goodnight LA ​​Studios), Albert Boekholt (Wisseloord Studios)
• Design and equipment: Po by Hipgnosis and Icon by Hollywood & London
• Photography: Wanelle Fitch, Richard Evans
• Group photo: Ross Halfin
• Mastering: Greg Fulginiti

Instruments used

• Francis Buchholz: Warwick bass guitars, Ampeg SVT amplifiers
• Herman Rarebell: Yamaha drums, Paiste cymbals
• Rudolf Schenker: Gibson guitars, Marshall / Rivera amplifiers, Shadow guitar synthesizers
• Matthias Jabs: Gibson and Fender guitars, Marshall and Soldano amplifiers

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

Web links and literature references

• Scorpions website
• Album song lyrics on the official band homepage
• "Scorpions" (Author: Hollow Skai, Verlagsunion Erich Pabel-Arthur Moewig KG, 1992)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.amazon.de/Crazy-World-Deluxe-Edition-Scorpions/dp/samples/B00ENZUUF8/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_1
2. ↑ http://www.amazon.de/Send-Me-Angel-Musikkassette-Scorpions/dp/B00000DKSP/ref=sr_1_33?ie=UTF8&qid=1337077125&sr=8-33
3. ↑ http://www.abendblatt.de/vermischtes/journal/thema/article1210581/Der-Wende-Hit.html
4. ↑ The entire cover and booklet of the Scorpions album Crazy World at Cover Paradies
5. ↑ Rock Hard , German music magazine, No. 398, issue July / August 2020. Behind the scenes: Sebastian Krüger - mascots enrich life , interview by Felix Mescoli. Rock Hard Verlags- und Handels-GmbH, Dortmund. P. 74
6. ↑ Crazy World Tour 1990 - 1991 ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Overview Scorpions single Tease Me Please Me on the band's official homepage ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ Overview of Scorpions single Don't Believe Her on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ Don't Believe Her : The music video on YouTube
10. ↑ Overview Scorpions single Wind of Change on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ ^{a b} Overview of Scorpions single Hit Between the Eyes on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ Overview Scorpions single Send Me An Angel on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ Send Me an Angel : The music video on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from July 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ↑ Overview Scorpions single Ветер Перемен on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ Overview Scorpions-DVD Acoustica on the official band's homepage ( Memento of the original from June 6th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Overview Scorpions album Acoustica on the official band homepage ( Memento of the original from March 22nd, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ↑ Overview Scorpions album Live Bites on the band's official homepage ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
18. ↑ Overview Scorpions single Under the Same Sun on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
19. ↑ Concert Online Live Recordings: Scorpions: A Night to Remember - Live in Essen
20. ↑ Product descriptions for the Scorpions video Crazy World Tour Live on Amazon.de
21. ↑ Overview Scorpions video Crazy World Tour Live on the band's official homepage ( Memento of the original from August 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
22. ↑ Overview Scorpions DVD A Savage Crazy World on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from July 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
23. ↑ Award in Germany
24. ↑ Award in Finland
25. ↑ Award in Canada
26. ^ Award in Mexico
27. ↑ Award in the Netherlands
28. ^ Award in Norway
29. ↑ Award in Austria
30. ↑ Award in Switzerland
31. ↑ Distinction in the United States
32. ↑ Award in the United Kingdom
33. ↑ Product descriptions for the Scorpions vinyl LP Crazy World on Amazon.de
34. ^ Review of the Scorpions album Crazy World from the archive of the rock magazine Rock Hard homepage
35. ↑ http://www.morgenpost.de/kultur/berlin-kultur/article1244646/Die-Scorpions-kommen-zum-letzt-Mal-nach-Berlin.html
36. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
37. ↑ Crazy World in the Vinyl Records Collectors Guide
38. ↑ Product descriptions of the Scorpions album Classic Bites on Amazon.de
39. ↑ Overview of Scorpions album Box of Scorpions on the band's official homepage ( memento of the original from March 24th 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
40. ↑ Overview Scorpions album The Platinum Collection on the band's official homepage ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.