40 Years After the Release of the Scorpions' Taken by Force, Guitarist Uli Jon Roth Looks Back at the Making of That Classic Album and Explains What Caused Him to Leave the Group Just as It Was Poised for Worldwide Superstardom.
IT FELT LIKE THE END OF AN ERA,” says Uli Jon Roth, talking about the three shows he played with the Scorpions at Nakano Plaza Sun Hall in Tokyo, Japan, in April 1978. And indeed it was. Shortly after those dates—from which were culled the performances that comprise the definitive Scorpions live document, Tokyo Tapes—Roth left the German hard rockers to step out on his own. By that point, he and the band had released four albums (plus one prior to Roth’s joining) of ferocious, riffy hard rock, all of it shot through with Uli’s virtuosic, classical-music-influenced shredding, and gained a substantial following throughout Europe and Asia. After Roth’s exit, he and the Scorpions followed very divergent paths—the guitarist explored Hendrix-y psychedelic rock with his own Electric Sun project and spent years immersing himself in classical and symphonic composition, while the Scorpions rode a more mainstream hard rock and heavy metal sound to global superstardom.
More recently, however, Roth has come back around to his Scorpions past, first with his 2015 album, Scorpions Revisited, and now with the live set Tokyo Tapes Revisited. For the new package, which has been released in a variety of configurations ranging from a 2-CD/DVD offering to a super deluxe limited edition box set boasting eight discs (CD and Blu-ray), four vinyl albums, an 80-page hardcover book and other goodies, Roth returned to the very place where the original Tokyo Tapes was recorded—Japan’s Nakano Hall. As for how it felt to go back to the venue that, in his words, hosted the Scorpions “at the peak of our live powers together”? “It felt good,” the guitarist, now 62, says. “I walked in, and it was the same place. But of course it was also different…because it was almost 40 years on!”
Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Guitar World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Guitar World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Kittie - Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara Mcleod discuss the canadian metal powerhouse's unexpected rebirth — by fire!
Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara McLeod explain that making new music was “not on their bingo card” when the band regrouped in 2022 for a few festival appearances, preferring to think of the sets as more of a “final lap” than a new beginning. But drilling into old favorites — whether the nu-flavored teenage slams of 1999’s Spit or the more venomously groove-thrashed tunes of their late-’00s period — revealed that despite not having raged together in years, there was something undeniably special about Kittie’s musical connection. “Playing with these girls is like putting on an old pair of pants,” Lander says. “It’s very comfortable — and it looks good too.”
McKinley James - Why all you really need is a guitar, a drummer and some serious low-end six-string skills
Nashville-based blues rocker McKinley James came flying out of the gate in 2022 with his Dan Auerbachproduced EP, Still Standing By. His momentum screeched to a halt, however, when his keyboardist split, leaving only him and his drummer, Jason Smay (who also happens to be his father). “For a moment, I was like, ‘What are we going to do?” James says. “But then I thought, ‘Well, other bands have succeeded as a duo. Maybe we can, too.”
TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay
THE MID EIGHTIES was a golden age for digital delay, thanks to the proliferation of pro- and studio-quality rack effects units from Eventide, Korg, Lexicon, Roland and Yamaha.
Danelectro Doubleneck
WHEN I THINK back to the Seventies, the famously coined “Me” decade, it seems the only surefire way you could leave audiences awestruck was to strap on a doubleneck guitar.
CARLOS ALOMAR
The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) \"Fame\" with John Lennon
GEORGE TERRY
It turns out Eric Clapton's Seventies guitarist (and co-writer of \"Lay Down Sally\") also played on ABBA's \"Voulez-Vous.\" Below, he looks back on a decade-plus of E.C., Bee Gees, Diana Ross and more
FRANK MARINO
The Mahogany Rush frontman charts the band's Seventies lows and highs, plus SG's, pickups and how he was definitely not visited by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix
DEWAYNE "BLACKBYRD" MCKNIGHT
The jazz/funk/fusion veteran on his smooth segue from Herbie Hancock sideman to full-on Funkdaledic member -plus his '70s gear and what he learned from Shuggie Otis
PAT TRAVERS
The Canadian-born virtuoso discusses the rise and fall of the Pat Travers Band, witnessing the U.K. punk revolution and the riotous roots of \"Snortin' Whiskey\"
JOE PERRY
The iconic guitarist looks back on Aerosmith in the Seventies, the decade that literally made and temporarily broke apart those Bad Boys from Boston
