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No one might ever accuse Scorpions of taking the straightforward path to success. By the time the Germans have been firmly established as one of many world’s largest rock bands, that they had put in practically 20 years of energetic service.
But after a few years of incremental progress, 1982’s Blackout album lastly propelled guitarist Rudolf Schenker and his bandmates to the highest of the burgeoning 80s heavy metallic tree, with irresistible singles No One Like You and Can’t Live Without You turning the band into a significant power on US rock radio.
Of course, momentum is every little thing, and so when the band started work on their subsequent album, Rudolf knew instinctively that they wanted some extra large, singalong anthems. But larger ones.
“No One Like You was the most-played song on US radio in 1982,” Rudolf recollects. “That was fairly loopy. From there we have been in a position to do our first headlining reveals within the States, with Iron Maiden and Girlschool, and we did fantastically well.
“We were really riding on this high wave, and so I was thinking even bigger… what could I write next, you know?”
The recording sessions for Blackout had been plagued with problems, not least vocalist Klaus Meine’s temporary departure to deal with a serious vocal issue.
Even as band and long-time producer Dieter Dierks began work on the follow-up, Love At First Sting, things didn’t seem to have calmed down much.
We were really riding on this high wave, and so I was thinking even bigger.
Rudolf Schenker
Drummer Herman Rarebell and bassist Francis Buchholz were temporarily ejected from the band without their knowledge, allegedly because they were “tired” from touring (Rarebell later admitted that he was “a total alcoholic” at the time).
Both were eventually reinstated for the sessions, and it seemed the tough times had bought them closer together. Newly inspired, Rudolf presented the band with a new song that he’d begun to write while on the Blackout tour. It was big, brash and catchy as hell. All it needed was some lyrics.
“Dieter understood that this song needed the right lyrics. I understood, too, but I couldn’t find them!” he laughs. “In the end, we wrote the lyrics for the song nine times. Every time Dieter would say ‘No!’ or ‘That isn’t working!”
The task of nailing the lyrics fell to singer Klaus Meine and Herman Rarebell. “Klaus and Herman wrote the lyrics together,” says Schenker. “It was Klaus’s very romantic, harmonic mind and Herman’s very dirty mind.”
Rarebell had an idea for the song’s title. “The original title, for me at least, was Fuck You Like A Hurricane,’” the drummer later said, admitting it reflected his lifestyle at the time: “For me it was a wild time, it really was sex and drugs and rock’n’roll.”
The band’s panicked document label insisted that potty-mouthed title wouldn’t fly, in order that they toned it down. Fuck You Like A Hurricane turned Rock You Like A Hurricane. But the drummer nonetheless managed to sneak some near-the-knuckle lyrics into the tune.
While the album’s opening traces – “It’s early morning, the sun comes out/Last night was shaking and pretty loud” – have been pretty tame, different lyrics wouldn’t wash at this time.
“Herman was always the guy for the double meanings and innuendos, and suddenly the song was there… ‘The bitch is hungry, she needs to tell, so give her inches and feed her well.’
“It was perfect for the song. It was sexual, it was crazy, it was rocking… it just felt right, you know? You have to remember that this was the 80s!”
While Rock You Like A Hurricane in all probability wouldn’t move a political sensitivity style today, however there’s no denying that the tune’s clever mixture of mischievous smut and hooks the dimensions of Jupiter made it a colossal hit around the globe upon its launch as a single in February 1984.
It was sexual, it was loopy, it was rocking. You need to do not forget that this was the 80s!
Rudolf Schenker
“When our agent heard the song live for the first time, he called me and said, ‘This is a hit!’” says Rudolf. “And he was right! We started to notice how strong the song was. It was on the radio in the States and it was in the top 20 charts worldwide.
American girls came up to us, saying, ‘We love you guys! Rock you like a hurricane!’ so it was obviously working. Suddenly you start to hear the song in a different way and you play it in a different way because then you understand the true power of the song.”
Widely considered one in all the best 80s arduous rock anthems, Rock You Like A Hurricane has been a everlasting fixture in Scorpions’ dwell units ever since.
It has additionally been used and abused by a unending succession of TV reveals, movies and commercials; the unerring energy of that riff and the ludicrous catchiness of that refrain guaranteeing that the tune is as a lot a part of mainstream tradition as it’s a revered heavy metallic basic.
“I performed at an awards ceremony in Tokyo a while ago with a bunch of different musicians, and we played Rock You Like A Hurricane,” Rudolf notes.
“I noticed when we played the song that it’s still incredibly strong. It still has that power, even when I play it with other people. When the music and the lyrics meet and they’re perfect together, it’s synergy. You just can’t beat that.”
Originally printed in Metal Hammer subject 310 (May 2018)
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