Taken by Force
| Taken by Force | ||||
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| Scorpions studio album | ||||
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Publication |
December 1977 |
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| Label (s) | RCA Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Hard rock |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
June to October 1977 in the Dierks Studios near Cologne |
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Taken by Force is the fifth studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions , which was released in Europe at the end of 1977 and in January 1978 for example. B. was published in the USA. As the last studio album with lead guitarist Uli Jon Roth , it can be seen as the end of an era, as Roth has always been heavily involved in songwriting and, with his Jimi-Hendrix-like guitar playing (based on Roth's great example), he has strongly influenced the style helped shape the group in the 1970s. Furthermore, Herman Rarebell can be heard on drums for the first time, who ultimately remained a member of the Scorpions for the next 20 years.
Origin, characteristics and meaning
Production history
Between June and October 1977 it was time for the band to record a new album. The Belgian Rudy Lenners had to leave the band here for health reasons, whereupon Herman Rarebell was hired as the band's new drummer. Produced again in Dieter Dierks ' Cologne studios under his direction, another exit became apparent in addition to Lenners, who was temporarily dismissed: The lead guitarist Uli Jon Roth announced his exit to the band during the recordings, as he was dealing with the musical path of the Scorpions could no longer identify. “During the Virgin Killer tour, Uli had his big dream,” revealed the band's founder Rudolf Schenker years later. “We played at the Marquee in London, and Uli met Monika Dannemann (the last Hendrix friend) there. From then on it was clear to him that he had nothing to do with the Scorpions story and wanted to orientate himself elsewhere. We didn't even try to change his mind. ”According to this, Roth left the group after the tour of Japan that followed the album. Herman Rarebell, who drummed with the Scorpions for the first time on this album, wrote to the Musikexpress in 1980 about this album: "I didn't like the (record) at all. It wasn't a group, it was Ulrich Roth and accompanying band. Uli was just too strong as an instrumentalist for the Scorpions. "
Musical style
On Taken by Force the band goes in a slightly different direction than their two predecessors. While these were mostly characterized by quite simply structured and relatively short pieces (without exceptions), the band is again much more diverse and eager to experiment, also with regard to the instrumentation (example: Born to Touch Your Feelings ). Here again songs with a little excess length and sometimes more complex structures appear. So is z. B. We'll Burn the Sky a nearly six and a half minute composition that is known for the repeated alternation of ballad and rock song. With the exception of the guitarist Roth, the band is already playing in the line-up that ultimately lasted for a decade and a half and that established the most successful years in the band's history, this work of the Roth era can best be compared with later works by the band. On the basis of the fact that Roth no longer appears as a singer, as with the band's last three albums, or that the songs written by Roth alone are sung by Klaus Meine, one can see that Roth left the band in 1978 for a longer period of time and he seems to withdraw musically on this album.
Songwriting and characteristics of the lyrics
The authors of the texts are also relatively different here. Ulrich Roth is only involved in three of the eight songs as an author (possibly another sign of his musical “retreat”). Outside of Roth's compositions, all of the songs were composed by Rudolf Schenker, which by and large had already crystallized and is still the norm today. The new drummer Herman Rarebell has already appeared on his first album with the band as (part) author of a text - on the song He's a Woman - She's a Man .
The song We'll Burn the Sky is of great importance for this album , which is special for the band not only in its musical structure, but also in terms of its lyrics. So this text, as is usually rather unusual for Scorpions texts in general, was not written by any direct band member, but by Monika Dannemann, the last partner of Jimi Hendrix, who died in 1970, and is therefore dedicated by the band in honor of Hendrix. Since Roth, who names Hendrix as his great idol, was no longer interested in the hard rock that the Scorpions were playing at the time this album was recorded, it can be assumed that this song was possibly the only thing that made him feel let the band stay one more album (and one live album) longer.
Another text worth mentioning is the piece "The Sails of Charon" written by Uli Jon Roth, which deals with the figure of the same name from Greek mythology . According to Greek tradition, Charon brought the dead across the Acheron River to the entrance of Hades, the god of the dead and ruler of the underworld. Roth's text deals mainly with the feelings of the dead on their way to the underworld.
Album cover
As with most of the band's previously released album covers, there are two different versions of this cover, as the original version had to be censored. The actual cover, photographed by Michael von Gimbut for the third time in a row, shows two boys in a cemetery who are “fighting” with revolvers between numerous crosses (or pretending in a childlike way). According to Uli Jon Roth, the band did not pursue any “bad” intentions here either, but as is so often the case, the band's intentions were obviously misunderstood in public. Therefore, this original cover was also replaced by another one, which shows the band's logo in five copies next to each other in the upper area, below are individual portraits of the band members, on the photo of which the full name of the respective musician can be read below (from left to right: Rudolf Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Klaus Meine, Herman Rarebell and Francis Buchholz). Shortly below there is a relatively large lettering with the album title, which is distributed over three individual lines (one word per line). The rest of the cover is kept in black. Before a re-mastered CD version was released in 2001, each member had a lettering from the record company RCA on the right of this cover , but this has since been removed.
tour
To promote the album, the Scorpions went on tour with the album. This tour took the band through Germany, the Netherlands and Japan, among others. In 1978 the group released Tokyo Tapes, a live album recorded on this tour.
Criticism, sales and awards
The Record Mirror stated: “ Scorpions is one of the few bands in this genre with the ability to shake your marrow and bone and send chills down your spine. It is of course the purest prepotent boasting escapism that we need from time to time. The group really deserves to be taken seriously. "Christof Leim, author at Metal Hammer , came to the following criticism while listening to Taken by Force :" The last and best work of the Uli Jon Roth phase. The mixture of mature compositional art, catchy melodies, independent singing and self-confidence ensures a number of classics. "( Metal Hammer report" 40 Years of Scorpions ", September 2009)
Like the previous album , Taken by Force received gold in Japan. Over a million copies of the album were sold worldwide.
Track list
- Steamrock Fever (Schenker / Meine) - 3:37
- We'll Burn the Sky (Schenker / Monika Dannemann) - 6:26
- I've Got to Be Free (Roth) - 4:00
- The Riot of Your Time (Schenker / Meine) - 4:09
- The Sails of Charon (Roth) - 4:23 (5:16)
- Your Light (Roth) - 4:31
- He's a Woman - She's a Man (Schenker / Meine, Rarebell) - 3:15
- Born to Touch Your Feelings (Schenker / Meine) - 7:40
50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition - bonus tracks
- Suspender Love - 3:21
- Busy Guys [Unreleased Demo Version] - 4:24
- Believe In Love [Unreleased Demo Version] - 3:42
- Midnight Blues Jam [Unreleased Demo Version] - 4:08
- Blue Dream [Unfinished Instrumental Version] - 4:09
- Born To Touch Your Feelings [Unreleased Demo Version] (Schenker / Meine) - 5:03
Single releases
The song He's a Woman - She's a Man was released as a single in 1977 along with the rare B-side Suspender Love .
Differences in later publications
The album was released on August 24, 2001 together with several older Scorpions albums in a remastered edition, which contains the following bonus tracks:
- Suspender Love (B-side of the single He's a Woman - She's a Man ) - 3:20
- Polar Nights (live version from the Tokyo Tapes album ) - 6:56
The latter results from the fact that as part of this re-release of various albums by the band, the original double album Tokyo Tapes (all previous CD editions are double CDs) has been made into a single CD, resulting in around five Minutes of the double album do not fit on the single CD and it was therefore decided to transfer a song of this size as a bonus track on another album, so that this recording of the live album is not completely lost in the remastered edition goes.
Furthermore, a shorter, cut version of the song The Sails of Charon is included on most releases . The original length of this song is 5 minutes and 16 seconds and contains various "psychedelic" sound effects. This longer version is initially only on CD on a version of the album released exclusively in Japan in 2010, before it was also used worldwide on the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the album in 2015 .
Other song versions and live recordings
The remix album Still Loving You , released in 1992, also includes a remix of the song Born to Touch Your Feelings . The band presented the song We'll Burn the Sky in 2000 as part of their project Moment of Glory in 2000 together with the Berliner Philharmoniker in a new version. This is included on the DVD for the concert.
The live album Tokyo Tapes from 1978 includes a. Live versions of the songs We'll Burn the Sky , Suspender Love , He's a Woman, She's a Man and Steamrock Fever . The USB stick A Night to Remember - Live in Essen , recorded in 2009, contains a live recording of We'll Burn the Sky , which was played with Uli Jon Roth as a guest.
Cover versions
- He's A Woman - She's A Man was covered by Helstar (1988), Helloween (1999), Evil Dead (2001) and John Corabi (2004).
- Steamrock Fever was covered by Phil Lewis (2004).
- The Sails Of Charon was covered by Yngwie Malmsteen (1996), Testament (1997) and Joop Wolters (2003). Cover info Kirk Hammett played parts of the song on his guitar solo at Metallica concerts .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Taken by Force Tour 1977 - 1978 on the official band website ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2011 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.
- ↑ Overview of Scorpion's single He's a Woman - She's a Man 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.
- ↑ Product Description Taken by Force (Remastered) , Amazon.de
- ↑ Overview Scorpions DVD Moment of Glory Live on the band's official website ( Memento of the original from February 12, 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.
- ↑ Overview Scorpions USB stick A Night to Remember - Live in Essen at Concert Online
