What's a Musical Blog Without Hair Metal?

Scorpions
Album: Taken by Force
Sails of Charon

Speaking of inherent bias, I have yet to meet anyone more biased about a musical genre than I am about hair metal.  I had the misfortune of being a young man during the least musical of all decades, the 80s, which was dominated by shitty synth pop (Yaz), watered down rock (Corey Hart) and, worst of all, hair metal (Poison).  Derivate, uninspiring, musically inert, a celebration of style over substance, hair metal is emblematic of just about everything I hate about commercial rock.

Not too long ago, a friend recommended Scorpions.  To his great credit, he continued to lobby on their behalf even after I told him to fuck off and get his head out of his ass.  I had always considered Scorpions just another hair metal band due to their world-wide, and completely generic, hit Rock You Like a Hurricane.  Much as I did with Stevie Wonder, I summarily tossed them on the immense scrap heap of artistically worthless musicians.   But my friend was persistent, and I finally relented and listened to "Sails of Charon."

Holy crap.  I was shocked to hear a metal song with soul, with an ability to swing, and with a wide variety of musical influences in evidence.  And their lead guitarist didn't just shred for the sake of jacking off onstage; rather his playing was tasteful, musical, groove-oriented, almost jazz-like...and somehow familiar.  I couldn't quite place it, but intuitively it seemed to me that the melodic arc had a distinguished pedigree.  It wasn't until later that I realized that his entire approach to "Charon" is an improvisation on Duke Ellington's jazz standard, Caravan.  Listen to the main theme in this arrangement for guitar and compare it with Roth's solo starting approximately one minute into our song; Roth skirts around the theme throughout his solo, but it is most apparent at this point.

Needless to say I began to see Scorpions in a new light, and I have certainly come to appreciate their earlier music.  But, for the record, I still hate hair metal.

p.s. If you want to have your socks blown off, listen to this version of "Caravan" by the Canadian jazz legend, Oscar Peterson.  The main theme starts about 15s in; listen to the right hand.  Amazing playing, hey?  And how about that kick ass bass solo?