JoeLumb's Album Review Scorpions "Lovedrive" (1979)

 When the Scorpions released "Lovedrive" in 1979 the record is or was considered by which critic you ask to be the pinnacle of their long and storied career and they have been around since the mid 1960's. But here's the backstory behind the formation of The Scorpions. Formed in Hanover,Germany in 1965 by Rudolf Schenker,but it really didn't come fully together until 1970 when Rudolf's younger brother Michael joined as well as a singer by the name of Klaus Meine. The Scorpions released their first record "Lonesome Crow" in 1972,then Michael Schenker left the group so Rudolf turned to Michael's friend Uli  Roth to join Schenker,Meine,Bassist Francis Buchholz,Drummer Jurgen Rosenthal and a keyboard player named Aichim Kirschning and that lead to their second record 1974's "Fly to the Rainbow" which was more successful than "Lonesome Crow" soon their third and fourth albums "In Trance" and "Virgin Killer" were released in 1975 and 1976 respectively with two different drummers,then Herman Rarebell joined the band in 1977 for the release of "Taken By Force" it would be the last album for Uli Jon Roth as Michael Schenker returned only to be replaced by a newcomer named Matthias Jabs. The Scorpions were not only getting attention from rock radio stations all over Europe all over Japan but in the United States as well which lead to them leaving RCA for Mercury Records in 1978. Here's a thing about The Scorpions album covers nobody ever talks about. "In Trance" was a record that started a long time collaboration with producer Dieter Dierks. "In Trance's cover had a woman straddling over a guitar with one of her breasts exposed. In a different album cover showed the exposed breast being blacked out (Censored if you will) When "Virgin Killer" was released the following year the cover had a nude pre-teen girl naked behind a broken pane of glass. That came under fire in 2008 when the photo was and probably still is potentially illegal,Luckily a photo of the band had replaced the album cover. Then came "Taken By Force" where the album cover shows a scene from a cemetary with crucifix shaped headstones,that would be replaced by photos of the band. 

When it came down to "Lovedrive" Michael Schenker had left UFO replacing Uli Roth who did not like the direction Scorpions was going as he recorded guitar parts for songs like "Another Piece of Meat","Coast to Coast","Loving you Sunday Morning","Holiday" and the title track. So in the beginning of the band's German Tour Michael joined t hem on tour which lead to a reluctant parting of the ways with Matthias Jabs,however two months later following a tour of France Michael quit and Matthias rejoined.  Now as far as the artwork of Lovedrive went the original album cover saw a well dressed man and a pretty woman sitting in the back of a car with the women's right breast exposed as the man's hand connected to it like stretched bubblegum,the back cover saw the same two,but holding a photo of the band,with the woman's left breast exposed without any gum. That caused controversy in the U.S. upon it's release,Luckilly an alternate album cover of a blue scorpion with muscles on a black background,the original uncensored cover was restored in the remasters series. 

"Lovedrive" proved to be Scorpions' first breakthrough success in the U.S. reaching #55 on the Billboard 200 reaching Gold on May 28,1986 (7 years after it's release) "Lovedrive" also had breakthrough success in the U.K. reaching #36 on it's album charts.

My overall rating of "Lovedrive" is an 80/100 my favorite songs from the record are the title track "Loving you Sunday Morning" "Holiday" and "Another Piece of Meat" I ranked this #1 on the best Hard Rock Heavy Metal album of 1979 list.