Showing posts with label Herman Rarebell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Herman Rarebell. Show all posts

CD Review: Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock – Bridge The Gap

Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock – Bridge The Gap
Inakustik
All Access Review: A-

Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock - Bridge
The Gap 2014
There's only room for one high priest in this Temple of Rock, and that's guitar god Michael Schenker. Although for Schenker's new album under that moniker, the near religious experience for guitar freaks that is Bridge The Gap, he's assembled a small group of trusted heavy metal clergymen to help conduct these rock 'n' roll rituals, including his old Scorpions' mates Herman Rarebell and Francis Buchholz.

Not since 1979's seminal Lovedrive album have these three appeared on a record together, so this is, indeed, a momentous occasion. That, in and of itself, however, wouldn't be enough to recommend Bridge The Gap if it wasn't simply a marvel of dramatic song structures and synergistic guitar worship.

And it's different from Schenker's first Temple of Rock outing in 2011. A jaw-dropping spectacle of wild, blazing solos and torrential riffing, made with a loose gathering of guest stars, that sprawling record suggested that Schenker was chomping at the bit to reclaim his position as one of rock's most awe-inspiring guitarists. Though not without its moments of orgasmic six-string explosions from Schenker, who blends finesse and fury in crunching riffs and leads that can be understated and stylish or aggressive and staggeringly brilliant, Bridge The Gap feels more like a group effort, as Schenker steps back a bit, assuming less of a leadership role and becoming part of a spirited rock 'n' roll cavalry that charges forward with swords brandished and a sense that they have nothing to lose through surprisingly strong song-oriented material and barely harnessed bombast.

Out on CD, a glossy deluxe edition with a bonus track in "Faith" that's sung by Don Dokken or as a 180-gram LP, Bridge The Gap sees this united front building up a strong head of steam on "Rock n Roll Symphony" and the frenzied "Temple of the Holy," the rhythmic might of Rarebell and Buchholz – their performances generating great momentum – coming to the fore as Schenker fires off salvo after salvo of imaginative, wide-ranging fretwork. Heavy, bludgeoning intros to "Where the Wild Winds Blow" and "Horizons" set the stage for blazing sonic uprisings that build into great epics, thanks to massive synth swells from the band's secret weapon, keyboardist/guitarist Wayne Findlay. Darkly melodic, all caught up in a thicket of hooks and trudging forth with weighty, crunching steps, "Black Moon Rising" and "Dance for the Piper" find common ground with Dio's best work. And with its bounding movements and whirling neo-classical energy, "To Live for the King" sounds like latter-day Rainbow on horseback, racing to the finish in a mad dash with pulses pounding.

It's no accident that Bridge The Gap is reminiscent of Ritchie Blackmore's former band, what with Doogie White writing the record's fantasy-based, romance-obsessed lyrics and singing with his usual masculine clarity. And like Rainbow, this Temple of Rock balances traditional metal power and melodic magic, dipping back into the past for inspiration while also managing to sound current and in the "now." Although scenes of Led Zeppelin in their prime drifting off in an opium den come to mind in the mysterious and intoxicating "Shine On," And while Bridge The Gap isn't the platform for unfettered shredding that the first Temple of Rock was, Schenker doesn't take the day off.

Amid the powerhouse riffing, beautiful plumes and soaring, well-articulated leads, there is interesting activity going on underneath the surface, as if Schenker is digging a complex series of underground passages. Take time to walk through them. Schenker has sublime surprises in store for those who do. http://www.in-akustik.com/en/MuM/default.asp
– Peter Lindblad



CD Review: Michael Shenker "Temple of Rock"

CD Review: Michael Shenker "Temple of Rock"
Inakustik
All Access Review: A-


A shrine built of molten, rampaging riffs and burning solos – all infused with subtle melodic touches and flourishes – Temple of Rock is an all-out shred-a-thon from one of metal’s most enduring and admired guitar slingers. Pulling out all the stops, Michael Schenker unleashes a fast and furious sonic bombardment that sweetly and majestically explodes on impact in tracks like the “How Long,” “Storming In,” “The End of an Era” and “Fallen Angel,” and if this Temple of Rock is, indeed, a place of worship, perhaps it could also serve as a sanctuary for a man beset by turmoil in both his personal and public life.

A cult hero to serious fans of metal, Schenker is also a cautionary tale, an extraordinary talent whose alcoholism and health issues, not to mention his onstage blowups with UFO and revolving-door personnel changes in the Michael Schenker Group, almost completely derailed his career. There almost at the beginning with The Scorpions, founded by his older brother Rudolf in 1965, Schenker lent his burgeoning axe work to the band’s 1972 debut Lonesome Crow. While on tour with The Scorpions in support of Lonesome Crow, headliners UFO witnessed Schenker’s six-string sorcery. Under his spell, the British hard-rock survivors beamed him aboard as a replacement for Bernie Marsden, himself a temporary fill-in for departed original member Mike Bolton.

Schenker’s tenure with UFO was tumultuous, to say the least, spanning the years between 1974’s Phenomenon and 1979’s classic steamroller of a live LP Strangers in the Night. All the while, critics, blown away by Schenker’s blazing fretwork, lined up around the block to hail this guitar phenomenon, with the rest of UFO becoming engulfed by the large shadow he cast. Tensions ran high, and there were nights when it all came to a head. On a few occasions, Schenker was reported to have walked off the stage in the middle of a show. By 1978, he’d had enough, and for a brief period, Schenker rejoined The Scorpions, injecting Lovedrive’s “Another Piece of Meat,” “Coast to Coast” and the title track with a potent shot of lead guitar Viagra.

In the years since, Schenker has fronted his own project, the Michael Schenker Group, which for a time became the McAuley-Schenker Group. But, when UFO set about making the comeback record Walk on Water in 1995, Schenker couldn’t resist re-upping for another tour of duty. Eventually, though, Schenker would return to MSG, which has had its ups and downs, as has Schenker. Personnel shuffling and Schenker’s continued battles with the bottle led to inconsistent recordings and live performances, but through it all – including a bizarre episode where his wife divorced him and disappeared with his kids, and his manager’s alleged embezzlement of Schenker’s savings – the guitarist has persevered, despite a troubled 2007 tour, riddled with cancellations, that would have killed the careers of lesser artists.

Schenker, though, has apparently come out the other side a better man, and a more focused musician, as Temple of Rock bears out. Despite his problems, Schenker doesn’t seem to lack for friends. The band he assembled for Temple of Rock includes ex-Scorpion Herman Rarebell on drums, Schenker’s old UFO mate Pete Way on bass, Wayne Findlay on keyboards and Michael Voss on vocals. And that’s not all. Among the cast of thousands appearing as guest stars are keyboardist Don Airey, legendary Mountain guitarist Leslie West (who participates in a three-man guitar battle with Schenker and Michael Amott on “How Long (3 Generations Guitar Battle Version), and drum gods Carmine Appice and Brian Tichy – not to mention Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner.

But, go ahead and throw the liner notes away, because a cleaned-up, motivated Schenker was all that was needed to make guitar nerds wet their pants over this release. His solos, so fluid and smoothly executed, are sublime, and those heavy riffs of his have all the powerful thrust of booster rockets, propelling each track into the stratosphere. On the aforementioned “Fallen Angel,” Schenker assembles what seems to be a jigsaw puzzle of neon-lit guitar parts, piecing together surging, shape-shifting riffs and high-flying leads until they form a dazzling picture of an artist who isn’t afraid of complexity. Drag racing ahead is the “The End of an Era,” which showcases Schenker’s ability to combine speed, an impeccable feel for the urgency of the moment and barely harnessed energy, while he punishes “Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead” with power chords and shrouds it in a bluesy darkness that knocks at your backdoor like Perfect Strangers’-era Deep Purple did in the ‘80s.

In the quiet moments of the epic “Storming In,” Schenker adroitly navigates a tricky acoustic prelude, before a deluge of riffs comes pouring down and floods the scene. His solos here bloom like a bush of roses turned black by some demonic hand, setting the stage for the progressive-metal oddity “Scene of Crime,” a track that’s full of sonic menace and muscular rhythms that occasionally detours into Asian gardens of sound that an early Genesis might have planted.

The full breadth of Schenker’s talent and experience are on display in Temple of Rock, as the fist-pumping party anthem “Saturday Night” sits comfortably alongside the red-hot, muscle-car growl and grind of “Speed.” And if you like guitar solos the triple-threat guitar orgy of the freedom-fighting “How Long,” (3 Generations Guitar Battle Version)” featuring West and Amott, is not to be missed. This Temple of Rock is built on a bedrock foundation of classic musicianship and strong songwriting, and it houses one of the finest guitarists metal has ever known.

-Peter Lindblad

Official Michael Shenker Website: Michaelschenkerhimself.com

Start a revolution: The Scorpions help bring down Communism

Herman Rarebell talks about his life in heavy metal


By Peter Lindblad


The Iron Curtain lifted ever so slightly in the late ‘80s to allow The Scorpions access to a Soviet Union empire that was in the death throes, only it didn’t know it yet.

Herman Rarebell
With a wary eye, the Kremlin coldly and dispassionately watched as the hard-rocking, hard-partying Germans from the other side of the Berlin Wall performed to massive, rabid crowds across the vast Communist empire.

Something about The Scorpions’ wolfish mix of searing power chords, piercing guitar solos,  polished pop-metal hooks, and liberating, often animalistic lyrical philosophy – not to mention their sexually provocative album covers – tapped into a growing desire among Soviet bloc youth trapped under the thumb of repression to experience the freedom of the West. Herman Rarebell, the Scorpions drummer at the time, could feel that a revolution was coming.

“When we came to the Soviet Union for the first time in 1988 [their concert in Leningrad marked only the second time a band from the West had played there, Uriah Heep being the first], it was communistic,” remembered Rarebell. “And a year later, we played the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival together with Jon Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue … it was a big thing. And we got invited that night to the first hard-rock concert in Moscow, and you could feel the wind of change actually in the air and on a night in November of the same year, the wall fell down. And we had an invitation six weeks later to go and see the most powerful man in the Soviet Union, [the last General Secretary of the Communist Party] Mikhail Gorbachev. A few months later, after that, the complete East could come into West Germany. They could live like us; the days of Communism were finally done.”

History will credit Ronald Reagan and perhaps other political figures with exerting so much international pressure on the crumbling Soviet Union that it had to “tear down that wall.” But you could make the argument that it was The Scorpions, in particular, and other monsters of heavy-metal that had more to do with fomenting the wave of dissent that overwhelmed authoritarian Communism and knocked down that damnable Wall than Reagan ever did, as Rarebell was to find out later.

“Nowadays, yes, we felt that we were responsible for it, especially the song ‘Wind of Change’ was on all the news at the time, and also you know, Gorbachev, President Gorbachev, called us,” related Rarebell. “He made a joke about it. He said, ‘What was the biggest mistake the United States did?’ Well, we said, we don’t know. He said, ‘Well, they let The Beatles in in 1964. That was when rock and roll took over.’ And he said, ‘My biggest mistake was when I let you guys in.’” (laughs) Gorbachev was, perhaps, only half-joking. The Soviet government actually took The Scorpions very seriously.

“I mean, I don’t want to compare us with the Beatles, but with the Soviet Union, probably we did a lot of things, because when we played the year before [1988], in Leningrad, we sold out 10 shows with 20,000 people each night,” said Rarebell. “So they came from all over, because [it was] first planned [we would play] five shows in Leningrad and five shows in Moscow. But it was so close to the First of May, so they thought there would be revolution in Moscow. They said you couldn’t play there. And they said, oh, now you have to play 10 shows in Leningrad, which you know is now St. Petersburg.”

Paranoia was running rampant within the Kremlin, and like many Soviet citizens, the Scorpions had the feeling that the walls had ears and eyes. “It really was strange then,” said Rarebell. “All that you knew was you had the feeling they were watching you. Maybe there were hidden mics in the room. It felt like being in one of those [spy] films, you know, like an old James Bond [movie]. I’m sure until this day that they went through my clothes and looked at stuff.”

The government had good reason to worry as it turned out. Rarebell witnessed firsthand how hungry young Russians were for freedom and what impact the Scorpions’ performances were having, even though, as Rarebell admitted, they were not a political band.

“I remember when we played the stadium in ’89 at the Moscow Music Peace Festival, they put in the middle of the stadium about a few hundred soldiers there to take care and control of the people there so they didn’t riot,” said Rarebell. “But the soldiers themselves were throwing up their hats and singing along with the songs in Russian. Then I knew something was going to happen. They were singing along to ‘Blackout,’ they were singing along to ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane.’”

And it wasn’t like state-sponsored media was blasting Scorpions tunes across the platforms it controlled. Kids discovered Scorpions hits like “Loving You” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane” in other ways.
“When we came there in 1988, we were aware that there must have been a huge underground population playing the music, from one tape recorder to the next tape recorder,” said Rarebell. “All of the radio stations played it. I know that ‘Loving You’ became a big hit before. This is probably how they became aware of the band – ‘Loving You’ and ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane.’ Those were the songs that were played there, and then somebody underground spread more. And more people heard the music. Suddenly, we were very popular in the underground, which is huge there. And suddenly all of our concerts were sold out. And yet, we were going to the #1 position in Moscow and I remember [going] to the record companies and [asking], ‘How many records did we sell?’ And they said, ‘Oh, we don’t know yet. We have to see.’” (laughs) There’s no control, no nothing, and there was nothing you could do about it. It was just on the radio you hear ‘Loving You,’ and the record company tells you we haven’t sold any records.”

Information about record sales in the Soviet Union was sketchy, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the Scorpions were more popular than Lenin there. When Rarebell, born in November 1949 in Saarbrucken, Germany, was banging on his mother’s pots and pans as a young boy, such a situation would have been unthinkable. By the age of 12 or 13, Rarebell had graduated to drums.

“Well, basically, I was attracted by physical fitness, you know,” said Rarebell. “And banging on the drums and going around the house and doing all this, this was like the perfect instrument in order to get out all my aggression and my youthful power. It was just … I tell you, it felt immediately right. And I always had a good rhythm feel. This is basic to have as a drummer, you must feel the rhythm. If you don’t have that, the whole instrument is pointless.”

There was nothing “pointless” about Rarebell’s early training. His first band was the Mastermen, “ … which was a school band, which was when I was around 14. And we played basically on the weekends, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, being in pubs, you know, playing in gasthauses, as we say in Germany, where we played like four sets a night, 45 minutes, 50 minutes, that kind of thing.”

At age 17, Rarebell joined his first professional band, Fuggs Blues. “We played in Germany the American airbases for the American soldiers,” said Rarebell. “And basically, what we did there was also four sets a night of Top 40 material. In those days – this was ’68, ’69 – we played songs like ‘Wipeout,’ for example, you know, Sam & Dave’s ‘Hold On, I’m Coming.’ We played Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe,’ stuff like this. So for us, this was perfect training to get the necessary routine for me as a drummer; playing every night, four sets, it gives you a perfect routine.”

Now well-drilled in keeping time, as any drummer should, Rarebell set out to make his mark on the world. At about age 18 or 19, Rarebell told his parents he wanted to study music, and then, he went to England to try to catch on with a heavy-metal band. Opportunity didn’t knock right away. “Of course, reality came and after my money was gone, I was a gardener, a taxi driver, a barman, until finally I became a studio musician and got into this thing,” said Rarebell.

Meeting Michael Schenker, then in UFO, changed everything. “One day he said to me, ‘My brother is coming over here looking for a drummer,’” said Rarebell. “It was in the spring of ’77. So I went to an audition. They had probably 40 or 50 other drummers. And we each had to play three songs. Then the famous ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’ came. I thought I’d never hear from them. The next day, they called me and said, ‘You got the job. We want to take your drums to Hanover, from London to Hanover. I said, ‘Well, hang on. I have to talk to my girlfriend first.’”

Ironically, Rarebell had gone to England only to find himself in a German band, and now, he was heading back home. It’s funny how things work out. Still, even though this wasn’t exactly how Rarebell planned it, he had stumbled upon the group of individuals who were going to make all his dreams come true.
“Well, we had the same tastes,” said Rarebell. “I remember when I met Rudolf the first time, in the speakeasy together with his brother, we talked about music. So we were on the same wavelength. We both grew up with bands like the Kinks, Yardbirds, later on Led Zeppelin – the kind of music we wanted to do. We could feel it, you know?”

There were lingering apprehensions, though. Living in England, Rarebell was a regular in the London club scene from the end of 1971 to the spring of 1977. One of those establishments was the famed Marquee Club.
“It was a club, but the atmosphere there was unbelievable,” said Rarebell. “I mean, I saw Hendrix there, I saw Taste there, I saw The Who there … imagine, a small pub like this, you standing directly in front of them.”

With room for about 300 customers, the Marquee was not the biggest of venues, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in star power. Even the Scorpions played there … lots of times, even before Rarebell joined up. He saw them when guitar wizard Uli Jon Roth was in the band and Rudy Lenners was The Scorpions’ drummer. Rarebell cops to not being very impressed.

When asked what he thought of them, Rarebell responded, “Terrible. I said to myself, ‘Half of them are playing like Uriah Heep, and the other half plays songs like Jimi Hendrix.’ I said that to Rudy. He looked at me like I was coming from the moon. I said, ‘You guys have no direction. One guy plays like Hendrix, the others play like Uriah Heep. You don’t have in mind what you want to do.’ And as you know, a year later, Uli left to make Electric Sun and go this Hendrix direction, and the Scorpions took Michael Schenker and went on to do melodic hard rock.”

And the rest is history. It wasn’t long before Rarebell found himself assuming a key role in the band. For one thing, he spoke the best English of them all. So, understandably, he was tapped to provide some lyrics on the first album he recorded with the band, 1978’s Taken by Force.

“Rudolf asked on the first album when we did the song ‘He’s A Woman, She’s A Man,’ do you have an idea for the lyrics?” said Rarebell. “And at the same time, we made a visit to Paris for promotion, and I remember we drove around Paris, of course, at night, as a young man driving a car, we ended up in the red light district. And we looked at all those beautiful girls, as we were passing by, Rudolf said, ‘Oh, look at this beautiful girl there.’ So, I said, ‘Come on, drive over.’ So he drove over, put the window down, and this girl came nearer to the car and she put her head into the car and she said (in a deep, manly voice), ‘Hi, guys. Just wanted to tell you I’m a guy.’ So, we were all like shocked. But I went back to the hotel room and wrote my first lyrics then, ‘He’s A Woman – She’s a Man.’ I remember that.”

Following a tour in support of Taken by Force, Roth left the band, the classic live album Tokyo Tapes serving as his farewell. Free to pursue a new, and more commercially viable, path, the Scorpions, with new guitarist Matthias Jabs in tow, the Scorpions created their landmark LP Lovedrive. Michael Schenker returned to the band briefly during the recording of the album, contributing to three songs.

While tracks like “Always Somewhere,” “Holiday” and “Loving You Sunday Morning” cemented a formula of charged-up rock and tender ballads that the Scorpions would utilize to reach great heights in the world of heavy metal, Lovedrive was also remarkable for its suggestive album cover. It wouldn’t be the first or the last time the Scorpions would stir up controversy with their album art.

“This was a very famous album cover [the creation of Storm Thorgerson of the design firm Hipgnosis],” said Rarebell. “It showed a woman sitting in the back of a car with a man, and on her breast was chewing gum. Of course, this is ’79 now. This cover was banned immediately … it became gold immediately, because everybody went out and bought it. I mean, Playboy made it cover of the year, and that [resulted in] even more copies [being bought], and then the music and the cover together, you know, did the rest. This was basically the first gold album we had in America and a breakthrough, the Lovedrive album. But the next one was just as provocative; it was the Animal Magnetism art, which everybody said, ‘Oh, this girl is kneeling down giving the guy a blow job.’ And we always answered, ‘Well, this is your dirty mind.’ You know, we see a girl looking as a dog.”

1981 saw the release of Blackout, which continued the Scorpions’ string of hit albums as the band overcame the throat problems, which eventually required surgery, of singer Klaus Meine. Featuring the title track, “Dynamite” and “No One Like You,” Blackout expanded the Scorpions’ mass appeal. They played Day 2 of the US Festival, performing in front of 375,000 fans. But the Scorpions were only getting started.

In 1984, the band unleashed Love at First Sting, the LP that made the Scorpions international superstars, thanks to the behemoth hit “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” Once again, the Scorpions courted controversy with the Helmut Newton photograph of a man kissing a woman while stroking her tattooed thigh that graced the cover. But nothing could derail the Scorpions after “Rock You Like a Hurricane” slammed into the shores of America, the post-coitus afterglow of its lyrics crafted by none other than Rarebell.

“I wrote the lyrics for that, and I’m very happy about that, obviously, you know, because when I get my publishing, I can see how many times the song has been played,” said Rarebell. “It’s ridiculous. I can tell you it’s played all over the world, as we speak right now, it’s probably on somewhere – at least 100 or 150 times every day.

As for the inspiration for the lyrics, it’s pretty obvious where they came from.
“Well, this is where the timing hits, because the music and the lyrics [came together],” said Rarebell. “As you can imagine, ‘ … it’s early morning and the sun comes out. Last night was shaking and bloody loud.’ What would that be, huh? ‘My cat is purring and scratches my skin. What is wrong with a night of sin?’ Of course it was about sex, where you get up in the morning, her room is smelling of love and sex, and you open up the curtains and the sun comes out. We’re sitting down, immediately, and I wrote those lines. And this is basically a song, you know, about the wild ‘80s, because you know, in those days there was no AIDs. It was party time every night, and this is what happened. That’s how the song was created, the lyrics at least.”

Hits flowed from the double-platinum Love at First Sting, with “Bad Boys Running Wild,” “Big City Nights” and the ballad “Still Loving You” all finding chart success, thanks to the series of MTV videos that accompanied them. In the aftermath, the Scorpions released the too-slick pop-metal disappoinment Savage Amusement in 1988. Though some fans were turned off by the record, the Scorpions’ juggernaut rolled on, as the band made that fateful Soviet Union tour that may have helped changed the Eastern European bloc forever.

They rebounded with Crazy World in 1990, as the Scorpions changed producers for the first time in years, losing “sixth Scorpion” Dieter Dierks and welcoming Keith Olson. Thanks to “Wind of Change,” Crazy World put the Scorpions back on top of charts around the world, the song’s hopeful socio-political message striking a chord with music fans everywhere. The sting of the Scorpions was being felt everywhere, and the band helped Roger Waters perform The Wall in its entirety in Berlin. Within the Scorpions’ ranks, however, things were about to change.

Veteran bassist Francis Buchholz left after touring for Crazy World, and after a series of lukewarm records, Rarebell departed in 1996 to start a record label. Interestingly, it was Rarebell who became the first Scorpion to venture out on his own and do a solo record while still with the band, 1982’s Nip in the Bud.

In 2010, Rarebell, recording as Herman Ze German, his longtime nickname, offered up another solo LP, Take it as it Comes, along with an engaging audio book, “My Life As A Scorpion.” Since leaving the Scorpions, Rarebell has involved himself in various interests, including art and humanitarian efforts in addition to music ventures. Now in his early 60s, he shows no signs of slowing down.

Herman Rarebell Official Site:http://www.hermanrarebell.com/
Herman Rarebell on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hermanrarebell

The Rock Gods & Metal Monsters Auction: Click Here for Info

Herman Rarebell and the fascinating tale of ‘Heya Heya’

Isn’t it strange how a little rock novelty ditty can rise up and become an unexpected smash in one country or region and be almost completely ignored by the rest of the world?

Such is the case of “He Ya” by the early ‘70s cult outfit Jeronimo (mislabeled on the cover on a Holland release as Geronimo). A huge hit in Germany and other European countries, “He Ya,” along with another success in “Na Na Hey Hey,” helped Jeronimo merge into hard rock’s fast lane, as the band shared stages with the likes of Deep Purple, Golden Earring and Steppenwolf, who once served as their touring partners.

In the U.S., though, Jeronimo was barely a blip on the radar screen. Being a native of Germany, Herman Rarebell remembers Jeronimo well … so well in fact that the former drummer for The Scorpions has reworked the song for his new Herman Ze German solo album, Take It as It Comes, out now on Dark Star Records. Ghostly Native American chanting and tribal drums give way to monstrously heavy guitars riffs from Horst Luksch, more chanting from the Children Choir of Unterensingen, Germany and dark electronic washes in Rarebell’s version, called “Heya Heya.” The total package is incredibly compelling.

Rarebell explains how “Heya Heya,” perhaps the most strikingly original track on the album, evolved.
“It’s an Indian tribe song and ‘Heya Heya,’ you know, is actually a cover song,” said Rarebell. “It was done in 1971 here in Germany and it became a big hit by a band called Jeronimo. It was written by two Americans, and they’d covered it in ’71 and it became #1 in Germany and it stayed #1 in Germany for nearly six months.

It was one of the longest #1s. But it never ever got outside of Germany. So, you know, my version is completely different, of course. As you can hear, it sounds really big, but basically, being a drummer, I always liked that Indian beat and I decided to make it really heavy. So it sounds really big, that kind of thing.”
Marquis De Schoelch plays keyboards and Jens Peter Abele trades off between bass and rhythm guitar on the track, which Rarebell recorded for one of his favorite charities, World Vision, an organization that seeks to assist children worldwide. But it is Luksch who plays a starring role on “Heya Heya.”

“When we did this, we did it for charity in the beginning for an organization called World Vision,” said Rarebell. “On World Vision, you literally can support a child in the Third World for about $25 a month. So basically, they really bring those kids up there, educate them. I have, for example, two kids that I’ve supported for over 25 years now; they are now doctors in Germany. So they go to school with that $25, they buy clothes, they buy their school books. They probably feed half their family with it too. And we had 30 children sing on it. We recorded it in Unterensingen. That’s where the studio is, near to Stuttgart. So when we recorded this in this place, this village actually, there was the school and the teacher. We told her this and she made the kids sing along with the song. She rehearsed it with them for about an hour and then she came down and we recorded it, because it was good fun to do this along when they’re singing “Heya heya heyay,” and when you go to YouTube, you can order the video. Yeah, I made a video of it, too.”

“Heya Heya” is not the only surprise Rarebell has in store for everyone. An interesting re-recording of the Scorpions’ biggest hit, “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” also makes an appearance on Take It As It Comes, the album title being a mantra of sorts for Rarebell.

“When you really look at the world nowadays, there’s not that much you can do about catastrophes and look at the thing that’s happening right now here in Europe and in Russia (wildfires were raging across the region at the time of this interview),” said Rarebell. “The whole of Russia is burning down at the moment, and then you look at east Germany right now, which is completely under water. What I’m talking about is if there’s a higher thing structuring you, natural catastrophes, you can only make the best out of them and look forward and take it as it comes. There’s not much you can do about it. And it literally could be your last days, so live it like this. And that’s my philosophy. You know, looking back on life nowadays how are you going to change it. See what I mean? Take it as it comes, think positive and it’s the same in America. You have recession there and it’s very difficult for a lot of people. You have to take it as it comes and look forward. Otherwise, you’ll never get out of this shit anymore. This is just what I think, you know? It’s better to think positive to the future rather than negative.”

Looking forward, and not back, seems to have worked out pretty well for Rarebell.

- Peter Lindblad

Official Herman Rarebell Website:  http://www.hermanrarebell.com/

CD Review: Herman Ze German "Take It As It Comes"

CD Review: Herman Ze German "Take It As It Comes"
Dark Star Records
All Access Review: B


Some dime-store philosophers and would-be poets choose to drown themselves in misery, and who can blame them? The nightly television news is a horror show of unimaginable human suffering. Great numbers of people in the United States are out of work and desperate to escape the financial straits they’re in. Massive earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, drought and a whole host of other natural disasters have been visited upon the third world, wiping out fragile infrastructure and causing death, disease and homelessness.

How could anyone with any sort of sensitivity and compassion not gaze upon it all and succumb to incurable melancholy? Big-hearted and a true humanitarian, former Scorpions drummer Herman Rareball, aka Herman Ze German, won’t turn a blind eye to such tragedies. Nor, however, will he simply throw his hands up and give in to despair, as the title of his latest solo LP indicates. Rarebell enjoys life. Our time on this earth is fleeting, after all, and to not have any fun and joy during our short stay would be a waste of such a precious gift.

Believing wholeheartedly in the words emblazoned in scary movie graphics across the album cover, Rarebell is anything but dour here. Blazing away with heavy doses of adrenalized pop-metal spiked with saxophone flourishes courtesy of wife, and actress, Claudia Raab, Rarebell points a double-barreled blast of rock straight at your heart in the somewhat bluesy title track and the life-affirming epiphany “Don’t Lose Your Trust.” The dirty underworld of phone sex operators is explored on the darkly erotic “Rough Job,” before the seductively sinister “Freak Show” tears into reality TV and its shameless pandering to the worst in all of us.

Of course, there’s the obligatory string-laden power ballad “Your Love is Hurting” and it’s not without its melodic charms, even if it is a somewhat predictable exercise at this point in Rarebell’s career. “Let Me Rock You,” espousing how great rock and roll is, is also a fairly obvious cliché. But when Rarebell experiments with moody atmospherics and exotic rhythms, like he does on the mysterious, heavy cover of the obscure “Heya Heya,” a hit in Germany by the long-forgotten German trio Jeronimo, or Geronimo as their name mistakenly appeared on record in Holland, he reveals a restless artistry that is continuing to expand and grow. With its Native American beats and chanting, not to mention the heavy guitar magic courtesy of wunderkind Horst Luksch, “Heya Heya” is a beast of a track and clearly the heavyweight champion of Take it as it Comes.

But what of the mix of black electronica, robotic metal and almost spoken-word lyrical delivery of the Rarebell’s new, and possibly controversial, cover of “Rock You like a Hurricane”? Well, it’s different, that’s for sure, and Rarebell certainly doesn’t play it safe in tackling this Scorpions’ classic. Perhaps he should have played it safe and left well enough alone. In its original state, “Rock You like a Hurricane,” often cited as one of the greatest hard-rock songs ever, was perfectly carnal, a rush of sexual heat and desire that dripped blood and other bodily fluids from its mouth. This one, while perhaps a little more evil and aggressive, feels somewhat disjointed and awkward. Still, give Rarebell credit for not simply rehashing an old chestnut. This version is interesting, and given time, and an open mind, you might just warm up to it.

There are moments of astonishing brilliance on Take it as it Comes. “Backattack,” with its frenzied harmonica and hell-spawned, country metal vibe, is really a unique and thoroughly satisfying blending of genres, and Rarebell’s ability to mesh modern-rock elements with old-school metal is work in progress that is undeniably compelling.

-        -  Peter Lindblad