The Scorpions Plan To Raid Archives Before Final Farewell

The Scorpions Plan To Raid Archives Before Final Farewell

January 31, 2012

Rudolf Schenker says we will not have heard the last of the Scorpions even after the German headbangers finally complete their farewell tour later this year or in early 2013.

“We have a library in our warehouse where we have a lot of old songs, especially from the days where you had only the possibility of putting eight or nine songs on vinyl,” the guitarist, who co-founded the band in 1965, tells Billboard.com. “We always recorded 13 or 14 songs, so (the rest) are hanging out somewhere in our warehouse. We also have 800, 900 hours of film material from different festivals, from places like (Moscow’s) Red Square, the Amazon, the pyramids, going through Russia in 2002…

“Of course we want to give this material to the fans. It would be terrible for this material to be hanging in our warehouse and not get out. So when we are finished (touring), we’ll take our time and give people some special stuff.”

Meanwhile, Schenker and company have put out a couple new projects to keep stinging fans during Scorpions’ long goodbye. A new album, “Comeblack,” features re-recordings of six Scorps classics — including “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” “The Zoo” and “No One Like You” — and covers of band favorites such as the Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” the Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night,” Small Faces’ “Tin Soldier,” T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution” and “Tainted Love,” more the Gloria Jones original than the Soft Cell cover. Schenker says the re-recordings were inspired by younger fans who have turned up for the group’s shows during the past couple of years — “We wanted to give them the best Scorpions songs but make them sound more fresh and modern,” he explains — while the covers seemed like “something else that would be fun to do.”

“I’m very much inspired by the Stones, the Pretty Things, Elvis Presley — the old rock ‘n’ roll days,” Schenker says. “We tried 20 to 25 songs out and tried to find out which songs were really good for Klaus (Meine’s) vocals. I came up with ‘Tainted Love’ because I always liked the song. Then Klaus came up with ‘Children of the Revolution’ and Matthias (Jabs) came with the Stones song…and we were able to make them all sound right for Scorpions songs.”

Also out this week is “Get Your Sting and Blackout — Live in 3D,” a Blu-ray recorded last April in Saarbrucken, Germany, that features 20 songs, including material from 2010’s “Sting in Your Tail” album and a behind-the-scenes feature. “I had an idea to do a 3D (video) awhile ago,” Schenker says. “This is the perfect thing if you can’t come to the venue yourself to see us.”

And Schenker insists there will be no Scorpions to see at some point, although the group returns to Europe for a tour starting March 30 in France and is also planning another North American go-round as well as South America and Asia before calling it quits as planned. Final concert details, meanwhile, remain up in the air.

“That is the one thing we don’t know yet,” Schenker says. “We know we’re going around the world one more time, places we haven’t played, places we haven’t played, mostly, then end with a really big concert. There are a few offers, so we’ll take the best one, and we want to do another 3D DVD. The options are great, so we’ll see.”

Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com