Klaus Meine left school after 10th grade - as did Rudolf Schenker. They were kids when they started playing together in the sixties. Both of them did not go through the 13 year type of school that focuses much on foreign language in the last three years. In the early Scorpions (btw: in their sixties beat band days they still called themselves "The Scorpions",
pre-Klaus Meine (The) Scorpions in 1965 (though frankly this pic looks a little later to me, I don't remember flares in Germany as early as 1965), Rudolf on the right, no doubt getting ready to rock ze wörld like a hurricane, but still sans trademark Flying V ... to add further confusion, there was also another German sixties beat band called "The Scorpions" that even recorded but had nothing to do with the Meine/Schenker outfit), the people who came from Uli Roth's Dawn probably had that background (Francis Buchholz had I know for a fact) and the drummer on Fly to the Rainbow would later on write the lyrics for German proggies Eloy, which were stilted but at least mostly in proper English.
I'm sure that Klaus Meine's English has improved over the years, but judging from interviews in English I've heard in recent years it is still only ok on a superfical level, not much vocabulary, no nuances. Mind you, he is no intellectual when he speaks German either though I like the guy. He is still wide-eyed about being an international rock star, but not full of it. Jabs' English is much better, but then again he went to school for 13 years and even studied law at one point (in his Lady days). Meine is just not very good lyrically, in either German or English (which explains why the Scorps never recorded an album in their own language which would have most likely done well), he's had outside help on many albums, inter alia from the Bryan Adams lyricist. A lot of the Scorpions lyrics sound so inane and little tongue in cheek because they have a hard time expressing themselves in English. Given that the Scorps are held in high esteem in metal circles, I always wondered why they didn't ask singers/lyricists of other bands to write a lyric for them. I'm sure someone like Rob Halford or Paul Stanley would have been chuffed to do that. Of course, their ex-Kingdom Come yank drummer can prevent the worst excesses nowadays.
Uli Roth was an artist and a great inspiration to, say, Malmsteen and Impelliteri. You mentioned the one who may not be named in every thread, there are similarities and they have a common background to. And if you like Blackmore's playing you probably like Roth's and vice versa. They both have that lyrical style. Ever since Roth plays those weird "how-many-octaves-can-you-get-on-a single-fretboard" own design guitars, his playing has become a bit too mannered for my taste, I liked the way he sounded on a Strat or a Firebird. Live with the Scorps he mostly played with his eyes closed not moving much (but not quite as introvert as his predecessor Michael Schenker), but looking good and suitably otherworldly with his fake feline fur bolero jacket he mostly wore, when he played, you couldn't help but watch him no matter what gyrations Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker made.
Virgin Killer was a great album too, the production more in your face than In Trance (which again was a major step from Fly to the Rainbow in terms of production), I saw them on that tour for the first time when they were playing a former sports gymnasium in Darmstadt before a few hundred people. Other than the Grabber Francis Buchholz played at the time,
Roth's solos and stage presence stick in my mind the most. He was different to them all and no German rock lead guitarist could touch him at that time, I'd say he was even a tad more skillful than Michael Schenker. Or maybe his Hendrixy style appealed to me more. He's a mild-mannered modest man (and has meanwhile mastered the English language after living in England until the death of his wife for many years) sporting the most unusual friends ... or did you think Billy Corgan playing Robot Man with Uli very likely, unplugged at 6.15 and live with the Pumpkins at 7.45 with another Hannoveraner and his Flying V to the left?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQhMxJ2pm0&feature=relmfuIf Billy Corgan sings them, the lyrics to Robot Man must be deep poetry, LOL, I always thought they sang "grave communication"!
Crave communication
See me this is my life in the crazy robot man reservation
Do you feel him, the cold vibration
Comes from everywhere, produce a crazy science fiction creation
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a robot man
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a loser
I say oooh, oooh
I'm a robot man
Well, that's my mind
That's my life
That's my soul
Babe, it's a magic station
Where we live what we do with our magic from my generation
I say babe, it's not a vision
It's reality, this is a robot scene what we live in.
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a robot man
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a loser
I say oooh, oooh
I'm a robot man
That's my mind
That's my life
That's my soul
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a robot man
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a loser
I say oooh, oooh
I'm a robot man
And I say oooh, oooh
I'm a loser
...As if one coudn't write good (albeit escapist rubbish) lyrics to the robot/machine revolution/Iron Man sci fi theme (though I take it that Klaus wasn't so much singing about robots as such as about human life becoming robotic; avoiding the grind of a 9 to 5 life is a regular theme with him, see also "Catch your train")!
We've taken too much for granted
And all the time it had grown
From techno seeds we first planted
Evolved a mind of its own
Marching in the streets
Dragging iron feet
Laser beaming hearts
Ripping men apart
From what had been our perfection
Where we could do as we please
In secrecy this infection
Was spreading like a disease
Hiding underground
Knowing we'd be found
Fearing for our lives
Reaped by robots' scythes
Metal gods
Metal gods
Metal gods
Metal gods
Machines are taking all over
With mankind in their command
In time they'd learn to discover
How they can make their demand
Better be the slaves
To their wicked ways
Than meeting with our death
Engulfed in molten breathIf you are gonna do Marvel Comic lyrics, mortal, then do them properly, wretched one!