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By that time in mid 1978, after auditioning around 140 guitarists, Scorpions recruited new guitarist Matthias Jabs. Tokyo Tapes was released in the US and Europe six months after its Japanese release. Although he performed on the band’s Japan tour, he departed to form his own band, Electric Sun prior to the release of the resultant double live album Tokyo Tapes. Roth was not happy with the commercial direction the band was taking. The album’s single, “Steamrock Fever”, was added to some of RCA’s radio promotional records. The following year, Rudy Lenners resigned due to health reasons and was replaced by Herman Rarebell.įor the follow-up Taken by Force, RCA Records made a determined effort to promote the album in stores and on the radio. Despite the controversy, the album itself garnered significant praise for its music from critics and fans alike. The cover brought the band considerable criticism and was pulled or replaced in several countries. The cover art was designed by Stefan Bohle who was the product manager for RCA Records, their label at the time. The album’s cover featured a nude prepubescent girl covered with broken glass. In 1976, Scorpions released Virgin Killer. Cuts such as “Dark Lady”, “Robot Man” and the title track are still considered classics by fans today. The album was a huge step forward for Scorpions and firmly established their hard rock formula, while at the same time garnering a substantial fan base, both at home and abroad. In 1975 the band hit their stride with the release of In Trance, which marked the beginning of Scorpions’ long collaboration with German producer Dieter Dierks. He was replaced by a Belgian drummer, Rudy Lenners. Later, in 1976, he would join a German progressive rock band called Eloy and record three albums with them. Soon after, Jürgen Rosenthal had to leave as he was being drafted into the army. Achim Kirschning decided to leave after the recordings. The album proved to be more successful than Lonesome Crow and songs such as “Speedy’s Coming” and the title track began to establish the band’s sound. In 1974 the new line-up of Scorpions released Fly to the Rainbow. While there were more members of Dawn Road than Scorpions in the band, they decided to use the Scorpions name because it was well-known in the German hard rock scene and an album had been released under that name Roth and Buchholz persuaded Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join, which he soon did. He attended some of Dawn Road’s rehearsals and ultimately decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboards) and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums). Schenker eventually decided that he wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to resurrect the last Scorpions lineup. In 1973, Uli Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the role as lead guitarist, but turned the band down, preferring instead to remain in the band Dawn Road. The departure of Michael Schenker led to the breakup of the band.
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Uli Roth, a friend of the Schenker brothers, was then called in temporarily to finish off the tour. Near the end of the tour, the members of UFO offered guitarist Michael Schenker the lead guitar job an offer which he soon accepted. During the Lonesome Crow tour, the Scorpions opened for upcoming British band UFO. In 1972, the group recorded and released their debut album Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. Things began to come together in 1969 when Schenker’s younger brother Michael and vocalist Klaus Meine joined the band. At first, the band had beat influences and Schenker himself did the vocals.
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Rudolf Schenker, the band’s rhythm guitarist launched the band in 1965.