Musical Throwback Thursday #4 - SCORPIONS And The Deadly Magnificence Boosted With A Touch Of Classic
By Unknown 7/25/2013 02:41:00 pm music
Another Thursday comes, let's jump right in to another "classic" dose of music, shall we?
Have I mentioned that I was kinda having a girl crush on Matthias Jabs (the guy in light blue shirt and the stripped Explorer guitar)? Look... those leather pants and his smile, aahh! Actually that crush lasted for a good few years until I realize that nobody's perfect, but I indeed took his style and was wearing a bandana almost all the time. Now I miss those years, the years of great music, naive soul and simple happiness. My love for this particular song is definitely unchanged, but instead of the simple joy I had back then, now every time I listen to it, it brings a sheer sad sentiment and a lingering nostalgia.
Today I'm all into Scorpions, a German band that's been active for over 40 years. Impressive, isn't it? I'm still amazed by how they can have such a long and successful career (I'm still not over their decision of retire and then act totally opposite it, though). This particular live act is taken from they project back in 2000: combine rock and classical music. People may readily compare Scorpions with Metallica's S&M, which is absolutely inevitable. It is worth mentioning that the conductor Christian Kolonovits came up with this idea back in 1995-6 I believe. Both projects employ the same twist, however whereas Metallica just adds a slight touch of classical to their songs (which, the most stand-out song for me is No Leaf Clover), Scorpions uses much more classical elements and they songs sound a lot softer and more sophisticated. They are basically old songs that got remixed in different levels except Moment Of Glory - also taken as the project & album title - was composed exclusively for this project.
I first watched this performance when I was going to be in high school, which was ages ago (7 years I think?) after having watched some songs from their other project Acoustica on TV. At that time we still just had a B&W TV and once a week we'd have 30 minutes for music from other countries. Back then I didn't have many other amusements but to wait for those precious 30 minutes. I was so surprised at how they executed the songs and added so many beautiful elements to their music, it was totally different from what I was used to - old boring country music, that is. However I couldn't have any way to approach them but to try to memorize the melodies. Then once I visited my sisters in the city just to stumble upon a set of VCDs of this Moment Of Glory thing. I didn't know what it was about but the label Scorpions caught my eyes. Luckily later on we upgraded to a colour TV and my adventure began.
This song consists of two separate sets: Crossfire and Deadly Sting Suite but I prefer calling them just Deadly Sting Suite. The song opens with a sad cold atmosphere of the well-known classic "Midnight In Moscow", then followed by their original songs: Crossfire, He's A Woman She's A Man and finished off with Dynamite (the singing part). It's just... WOW! It just gets stronger and stronger and climaxes until the final note is executed. I was so utterly awestruck, literally. I can remember myself sitting in our old wooden sofa watching this act and my hands couldn't stop from imitating the violinists' and guitarists' action, it was just such a moment of realization and illumination. Like, seriously, who on earth will not appreciate this? It's a perfect blend of rock and classic, of heartwarming and bombastic elements that I still enjoy tremendously today.
Have I mentioned that I was kinda having a girl crush on Matthias Jabs (the guy in light blue shirt and the stripped Explorer guitar)? Look... those leather pants and his smile, aahh! Actually that crush lasted for a good few years until I realize that nobody's perfect, but I indeed took his style and was wearing a bandana almost all the time. Now I miss those years, the years of great music, naive soul and simple happiness. My love for this particular song is definitely unchanged, but instead of the simple joy I had back then, now every time I listen to it, it brings a sheer sad sentiment and a lingering nostalgia.
