Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Scorpions - Blackout


The Scorpions - Blackout.  This might be the best side of any one rock album released in the first half of the eighties.   Five monster songs are on Side One: the title track Blackout, the utterly monsterful Can't Live Without You, followed by (There's) No One Like You, then You Give me All I Need, and finally - Now!  During the first half of the eighties - we had Pyromania.  And Bon Jovi's breakout debut album (my personal fav of theirs).  Yet Aerosmith put nothing out worth noting her during this period of time.  What am I missing from say 1980 - 1985?   It seems like the the early eighties (when I was in college), was the advent of the MTV era - and we had Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Thriller, Stevie Nicks' great solo albums, the Thompson Twins, the Fixx, Toto, blah blah blah.  But during these six years (80-85) who was putting out the hard stuff?  More on that later, but back to the Scropes.  What a completely unique band they were.  In 1979 they won Playboy magazine's award for Best artwork of the year for their Lovedrive album cover - which I don't own.  Rats.  I really need to get that one.  There is a great song on that album - called Loving You Sunday Morning.  And a huge thank-you here to my neighbor and fellow musicologist Jim for donating this record to my collection.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with your thoughts on side one, but check out Arizona on side two, it's probably my favorite track on the album.

    Regarding hard rock in the 80-85 timeframe, Motley Crue was bringing it with Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil, as was Judas Priest with British Steel, Point of Entry, and Screaming For Vengence.

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  2. Jim, thanks. I knew there were some things in that half decade I was missing...good references.

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  3. And Rush had "Moving Pictures" during this time frame along with some other "softer" releases...
    Spencer

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