Lonesome Crow
| Lonesome Crow | ||||
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| Scorpions studio album | ||||
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Publication |
February 11, 1972 |
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| Label (s) | Brain ( Universal ) | |||
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Format (s) |
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Hard rock |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
40 min 37 s |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
October 1971 in the Star Studio, Hamburg |
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Lonesome Crow is the first studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions and the only one with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. It is also the only album with Michael Schenker, Rudolf Schenker's brother, as a "full-fledged" guitarist and composer. The album was produced in just a week and released in 1972.
Origin, characteristics and meaning
Production history
After guitarist Rudolf Schenker founded the band Scorpions in 1965, it took a few more years to come together in the line-up under which this debut album was finally recorded. So was z. B. Harald Grosskopf only appeared as the band's drummer in 1967. When singer Klaus Meine and Schenkers' brother Michael joined the band in 1969 , the five band members wrote their songs in English from the start, as the goal from the start was not only to become known as the German Krautrock band, but later on to conquer the whole world with "Hard Rock - Made in Germany". In 1971 the band signed their first record deal, and a year later the band finally made their debut album under the direction of Conny Plank, whom the band got to know while working on the anti-drug film The Cold Paradise . Singer Klaus Meine later recalled telling the producer that the band would one day play in England and "Plank just smiled" ( Metal-Hammer interview, 1984). "You have no chance, there are so many good musicians there, you will never play there. Forget it!", Plank continues to quote. Mine, however, is still grateful to the producer for these words, as they represented a further motivational boost for him to achieve the set goal.
Musical style
Lonesome Crow emphasizes that the Scorpions were unique at this time, and not just because of their text language for German standards. This album partly also contains elements from psychedelic rock . In particular the title track, which with a playing time of thirteen and a half minutes is the longest track in the band, is characterized by this progressive style. The album also uses light elements from jazz and is also the only album by the band that can also be classified as part of the so-called Krautrock, whereby Lonesome Crow is significantly harder overall compared to other pieces of this style and therefore - like from the Band intends - tries to stand out from this genre.
Songwriting and characteristics of the lyrics
Because of their goal, it was clear to the band early on that their lyrics should be written in English. At the beginning of their careers in particular , this was a little difficult for them. The individual songs consist mainly of instrumental passages instead of refrains and longer stanzas, and the lyrics are accordingly short. This should change with the successor Fly to the Rainbow (1974). Lonesome Crow is the band's only album on which the authorship for all songs is the same. The two Schenker brothers were responsible for the music for all seven songs and the other three band members for the writing of the lyrics. On the other hand, on the follow-up album, Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine emerged as the main composers of the band. B. with the support of drummer Herman Rarebell .
Album title
Although the Scorpions' debut album officially bears the name Lonesome Crow , the numerous different releases featured a wide variety of alternative titles. For example, the album was released on CD under the title Action on the Karussell label . On the cover of this issue you can see a group photo from the late 1980s, on which only Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker of the group members who worked for Lonesome Crow can be seen. However, this title was already used for an LP release in 1980. In addition, the album was released in 1976 as Gold Rock and in 1978 under the title Starlight , all with completely different cover motifs.
Album cover
Due to the old age of the album and the changing media of music storage, Lonesome Crow was republished several times and was accordingly published over time with slightly different cover motifs. The main basic motif of the album shows an outstretched male left hand over a scorpion. Blood can be seen on the index finger as well as on the scorpion's tail, which in turn means that the man was stabbed in the finger by the scorpion. A seldom used cover idea shows a bright, wintry landscape with the outlines of a scorpion in the background. This cover motif was z. B. used for the French release of the album.
tour
The release of the album was followed by a tour of Germany as a support act for Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep , Atomic Rooster and UFO . However, this cost the band their guitarist, because after Michael Schenker had helped the band UFO at some of the joint concerts, he was finally employed by the band and left the Scorpions, which led to the band's temporary breakup. In total, the Scorpions played over 130 concerts in 1972.
Criticism and sale
Barry Weber wrote the following about the album on allmusic.com: "As a special feature of the Scorpions, Lonesome Crow focuses on deep and dark melodies that sound like a bad combination of Black Sabbath , Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones . Although Michael Schenker has some strong ones Contributing guitar melodies, the album does not succeed in attracting real interest. Klaus Meines voice, which usually reaches the tenor level, is flat and bland. Despite the harmony, Lonesome Crow is one of the weaker Scorpions releases. " (translated)
The album was also released by a local record company in Chicago , USA , where it sold around 25,000 copies. To date, over a million copies of the album have been sold worldwide.
Track list
- 1. I'm Going Mad - 4:53
- 2. It All Depends - 3:30
- 3. Leave Me - 5:06
- 4. In Search of the Peace of Mind - 5:00 am
- 5. Inheritance - 4:41
- 6. Action - 3:56
- 7. Lonesome Crow - 1:31 pm
2001 re-release bonus tracks
- 1. Crying Days
- 2. Catch your train
- 3. Virgin Killer
from the album Virgin Killer
Live recordings
On their first live album Tokyo Tapes , the Scorpions released a live recording of the song In Search of the Peace of Mind in 1978 , which, however, is a little shorter than the original album version.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rudolf Schenker in an interview at Wetten Dass ... Backstage (from 0:29)
- ↑ The cover of the Scorpions album Action on Cover Paradies
- ↑ The Scorpions album Action at Media Control
- ↑ The Scorpions album Gold Rock on Media Control
- ↑ The Scorpions album Starlight at Media Control
- ↑ Product descriptions on Amazon.de
- ↑ Lonesome Crow Tour 1972 on the band's official homepage ( 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.
- ↑ allmusic.com: Lonesome Crow
