Scorpions Tokyo Tapes 1978 (RCA)
Heavy Metal
I wake up in the morning and I'm in trance.
Tokyo Tapes is basically the album in the Scorpion’s discography, that draws to a close the first phase of the band. As is often the case, the band were on the verge of virtual stardom as one of their key members decided to seek out pastures anew. After having already dished through five studio albums, this pivotal line-up change saw the indispensable Uli Roth pack his bags and leave to form the more neo-classical Electric Sun, which makes
Tokyo Tapes a superb live documentation of the Uli Roth era of the band. In many ways this sprawling double set serves as a ‘best of release’ by the band, as the material carefully documents all of the band’s previous studio albums and as per usual there are a number of non-album tracks as well. The album was recorded over three nights and the majority of the early tracks heard come from the
Virgin Killer album, as the band then cover the rest of their albums. The album is highlighted with songs to the level of “In Trance” “We’ll Burn the Sky” “Speedy’s Coming” “Top of the Bill” and “Robot Man”. One of the gripes from the band regarding this album, is that from the three nights that they performed at the Nakaya Sun Plaza, the first night according to the band was their best performance overall, but those performances were largely ignored in favour of the other nights by the label. When
Tokyo Tapes was initially released, it did suffer from a somewhat chopped release and it wasn’t until much later, when the double cd of the album came out and offered us the complete concert that we finally got the full picture. Also a third remastered version of the album, came at the expense of certain tracks to make room for others, as by then the concert had been made to fit on just one cd. I must admit that whenever I hear of a 1970s and 1980s live album that was recorded in Japan, it automatically intrigues me and I’m never disappointed, because to be really cool back then you needed a live Japanese release in your discography! But this is probably because of my addiction to Cheap Trick’s
at Budokan still the best live album ever recorded in my opinion! So despite my biasness towards Japanese live settings,
Tokyo Tapes is a still a pounding live release and a must listen for the live heavy connoisseur.
Klaus Meine- Vocals
Ulrich Roth- Guitar
Rudolf Schenker- Rhythm
Francis Buchholz- Bass
Hermann Rarebell- Drums
Production- Dieter Dierks
Nakana Sun Plaza, Tokyo 1978