Virgin Killer
| Virgin Killer | ||||
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| Scorpions studio album | ||||
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Publication |
November 21, 1976 |
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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) |
9 |
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running time |
34 min 45 s |
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| occupation |
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Virgin Killer is the fourth studio album by the German hard rock band Scorpions , which was released in late 1976. With a length of around 35 minutes, it is the band's shortest album. This achieved fame primarily through its original cover, which shows a naked ten-year-old girl behind a shattered pane of glass.
Features and meaning
Musical style
It is the second album released with producer Dieter Dierks . Psychedelic elements became rarer, it represents a further step in the direction of hard rock . As on the previous album In Trance , the songs are compact, usually structured and average in length. Klaus Meine is as usual - apart from Hell Cat and Polar Nights , on which Uli Jon Roth can be heard - as a singer. In addition to In Trance , Roth calls Virgin Killer his favorite Scorpions album.
Album cover
The album's original cover shows a naked ten year old girl named Jacqueline, whose genitals are covered by a cracked pane of glass. In the English language Wikipedia, this picture can still be found despite the Wikipedia controversy of 2008. The picture was designed by Steffan Böhle and photographed by Michael von Gimbut, who was also responsible for the sensational in-trance album cover. According to Rudolf Schenker, it was not the band but the record company who came up with the idea for the cover. Both he and Uli Roth advocated the thesis that the “virgin killer” was none other than time: The idea behind it was that a child would be born naive and lose this naivety over time. The band assumed that based on the text of the title track, listeners would understand the idea behind Virgin Killer .
It turned out, however, that the text was also often misunderstood by the public: At the time of publication, the cover was already described by a magazine as the “mess of the week”, otherwise there was no criticism at the time. After the portrayal of undressed children was viewed more and more critically in the following decades and increasingly perceived in connection with child pornography, it often occupies one of the top places on lists of the worst or most controversial album covers. In some countries the album was only allowed to be sold in a black plastic sleeve for a while, in some cases the original cover was replaced by a band photo from that time.
In 2008 Schenker stated that the band would not release such a cover again.
Spread and awards
The album got (with the censored cover) the band's first gold record in Japan (where it reached number 32), and in Germany it was also named "LP of the Year". In 1976 the Scorpions toured Europe as the opening act for Kiss .
Over a million copies of the album were sold worldwide.
Track list
- 1. Pictured Life (Schenker / Meine, Roth) - 3:21
- 2. Catch Your Train (Schenker / Meine) - 3:32
- 3. In Your Park (Schenker / Meine) - 3:39
- 4. Backstage Queen (Schenker / Meine) - 3:10
- 5. Virgin Killer (Roth) - 3:41
- 6. Hell Cat (Roth) - 2:54
- 7. Crying Days (Schenker / Meine) - 4:36
- 8. Polar Nights (Roth) - 5:04
- 9. Yellow Raven (Roth) - 4:58
Other song versions and live recordings
For the album Acoustica , the band played the song Catch Your Train as an acoustic version in 2001 .
On the band's first live album, Tokyo Tapes from 1978, the songs Pictured Life , Backstage Queen and Polar Nights from this album were represented. The USB stick A Night to Remember - Live in Essen (2009) also contains live recordings of the songs Pictured Life and Backstage Queen .
Cover versions
- The Greek power metal band Firewind covered Pictured Life on their debut album Between Heaven and Hell in 2002 .
- The Swedish symphonic metal band Therion covered Crying Days for the tribute album A Tribute to the Scorpions , but the title was given on its cover as Polar Nights . In the booklet and on Therion's album Secret of the Runes (2001), on which the song was released as a bonus track, the correct title is given. This error found widespread use on the Internet (including in this article).
- Catch Your Train was covered by Stand Proud (1999).
- Pictured Life was covered by Breaker (2001), Thobjörn Englund (2003) and Icarus Witch (2006).
- Polar Nights was covered by Eric Sands (2003).
- Yellow Raven was covered by Petrossi Dushan (2003).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Essi Berelian: The Rough Guide to Rock . Ed .: Buckley, Peter & Buckley, Jonathan. Rough Guides, London 2003, ISBN 1-84353-105-4 , pp. 909 .
- ↑ Interview with Uli Jon Roth. (No longer available online.) Metal-rules.com, December 10, 2006, archived from the original on September 17, 2012 ; accessed on August 28, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c Martin Zips: The bad nakedness. sueddeutsche.de , December 11, 2008, accessed on August 27, 2011 .
- ↑ SCORPIONS Guitarist: We Wanted To 'Make A Masterpiece For Our Own History'. (No longer available online.) Blabbermouth.net October 3, 2007, archived from the original June 6, 2011 ; accessed on August 27, 2011 (English): “We didn't actually have the idea. It was the record company. […] On the song 'Virgin Killer', time is the virgin killer. But then, when we had to do the interviews about it, we said 'Look, listen to the lyrics and then you'll know what we're talking about. We're using this only to get attention. That's what we do. ' […] The lyrics really say it all. Time is the virgin killer. A kid comes into the world very naive, they lose that naiveness and then go into this life, losing all of this getting into trouble. That was the basic idea about all of it. "
- ↑ Ben Schwan: Wiki again free. Online Blocking of "Virgin Killer". taz.de , December 10, 2008, accessed on August 27, 2011 .
- ↑ The 50 Most Controversial Album Covers Of All Time! gigwise.com, March 19, 2008, accessed August 27, 2011 .
- ^ The 15 Worst Album Covers of All-Time. Cracked.com, November 18, 2008, accessed August 27, 2011 .
- ↑ Virgin Killer Tour 1976. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 29, 2013 ; Retrieved January 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Overview Scorpions album Acoustica on the official band homepage ( Memento from March 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Overview Scorpions album Tokyo Tapes on the band's homepage ( Memento from March 17th, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Overview Scorpions USB stick A Night to Remember - Live in Essen at Concert Online
- ↑ Cover info