So, what have you been listening to lately?

[uwe]

That's a very good boxed set, I have it too and enjoyed listening to it, there is not a bad show among it though UFO are not the most improvisational outfit, with Schenker being the only soloist of note in the band. But even he 'just' knows his game and sticks to it most of the time.

BTW: In a hard rock context, Mogg's baritone voice worked (even live) better than, say, Phil Lynott's to my ears. Through all of Schenker's riffage, he always found a way to weave in his vocals without having to scream over or against the music or strain, yet remained clearly audible (Lynott was more convincing putting his voice above the music in the studio than live). No mean feat. And while Schenker always complained that Mogg didn't do enough melodic embellishments with his voice, his more simplistic and matter of fact vocal lines defined the UFO sound together with Schenker's Wunderkind-guitar.

[lowend1]

That's a very good boxed set, I have it too and enjoyed listening to it, there is not a bad show among it though UFO are not the most improvisational outfit, with Schenker being the only soloist of note in the band. But even he 'just' knows his game and sticks to it most of the time.

BTW: In a hard rock context, Mogg's baritone voice worked (even live) better than, say, Phil Lynott's to my ears. Through all of Schenker's riffage, he always found a way to weave in his vocals without having to scream over or against the music or strain, yet remained clearly audible (Lynott was more convincing putting his voice above the music in the studio than live). No mean feat. And while Schenker always complained that Mogg didn't do enough melodic embellishments with his voice, his more simplistic and matter of fact vocal lines defined the UFO sound together with Schenker's Wunderkind-guitar.

[uwe]

Wenn schon, denn schon: Die komplette Szene bitte! 



While my countryman never reaped the benefit of the UFO guys teaching him pröper English, he sure elevated them from their stoner rock beginnings!

I'm as usual the odd man out, my favorite Schenker-era UFO album is the one with Danny Peyronel: No Heavy Petting (which no upstanding UFO fan seems to like), great stuff on that! I believe a still inscure Schenker felt intimidated by Peyronel's considerable songwriting prowess and wanted UFO for himself.

[lowend1]

Wenn schon, denn schon: Die komplette Szene bitte! 

My apologies - I sometimes incorrectly assume that my audience has too short of an attention span for lengthy videos. I am an American, after all.
I will attempt to compensate for the brevity with my personal UFO tale, to wit:
I first heard of them in 1976 in an odd sort of way. I had brought the first Yesterday & Today album over to a friends house for him to preview. He said "These guys are good - they kind of sound like UFO." Ummmmm... who? So, when Lights Out was released, I went out to buy it and fell in love (to love). Not long thereafter, I had the opportunity to see them in a seedy NJ club. I had my fake ID. I had a table at the front of the stage, right in Schenker's orbit. I was all set - until out walked a slightly chubby, sweaty guy in black leather... Paul Chapman, called in to fill in for the recently vanished blonde axeman. The band was good enough, but I was distraught and felt cheated. Fast forward a year or so - I secured tickets to another NJ show, a theater this time. Two weeks before the show, I was diagnosed with mononucleosis and was rendered flat on my back for eight weeks. My friend, who I had purchased the tickets with, went to the show and assured me that Schenker was present, accounted for and predictably amazing. Eventually, I healed up and resumed attending shows. Again, fast forward a year - UFO was opening for Cheap Trick at The Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. I had seats near the front and was prepared for an onslaught of Teutonic guitar greatness. The lights dimmed, the SITN introduction almost a carbon copy of the album... and then a hauntingly familiar, already moist figure emerged from the shadows. Good Lord, NO!!! If I was distraught the first time, this had to be something more - perhaps sadness mixed with rage at my own horrendous luck. I attempted to extract an explanation from Phil Mogg by screaming out "Where's Schenker?" at him between songs. Repeatedly. Finally, in between "Cherry" and "Love To Love" my query got the best of its target, who uttered a single word - "Dead." - in response. This brief exchange (barely audible and immortalized at around the 11:20 mark), ultimately caused me to submit and accept my destiny. I eventually got to see Schenker in the first incarnation of MSG, but I am forever tortured by what preceded. The presence of Cozy and Paul Raymond onstage were small compensation - I hated Gary Barden and there is no substitute for Pete Way in his prime. Enjoy.

[uwe]

Ok, that's admittedly tragic. Console yourself that I never got to see UFO with der blonde Axtmensch either, only with Atomic Tommy (and ex-Damned Paul Gray on bass) in the mid 80ies and sometime in the last 10 years or so with Vinnie Moore. I preferred Atomic Tommy, he was a cardboard Manga shredder, but he was fun und put his heart in it. 'Tonka' Chapman was, well workmanlike and reliable as a guitarist, but Schenker had overdone his ad hoc departures by then, so you can't really blame the band, they were looking for stability.

People who saw UFO in the mid-70ies in Germany with Schenker (where at the peak of their success they could fill a mid size hall in some areas - at least if an American garrison and pay day was near) tell me they were a force to be reckoned with. I've seen Schenker a few times since then with MSG or whatever his backing outfit was called at the time. Oh, and once with the Scorpions on the Love Drive tour when he had shortly returned only to be AWOL soon again. It was palpable how much he hated playing his brother's songs and Uli Roth's lead lines at the time, he was so withdrawn on stage, he might as well have been a touring musician only. A pale shadow of the virtuoso presence Uli Roth had been wiff ze Scorps.

I'm with you re Gary Barden, affected voice and prancing around on stage. Mogg was manly and a cool cat. He should have sucker punched his Kraut guitarist a little less often though, Michael didn't handle that well at all.

[lowend1]

Oh, and once with the Scorpions on the Love Drive tour when he had shortly returned only to be AWOL soon again. It was palpable how much he hated playing his brother's songs and Uli Roth's lead lines at the time, he was so withdrawn on stage, he might as well have been a touring musician only. A pale shadow of the virtuoso presence Uli Roth had been wiff ze Scorps.

Believe it or not, I had a Scorpions poster in my room as a youngun that's was from that period, as it featured der brothers. Also, I neglected to mention that I managed to get both Michael and Cozy's autograph at that MSG show, so there was some small amount of redemption.

[uwe]

Lonesome Crow (the first Scorpions album) is formative, but has Krautrock charm.



(Dunno, but I guess Klaus was applying for a role as an extra in Das Boot at the time ...)


But then young Michael was poached by these nasty Engländers and Uli Jon Roth (legend has it he was recommended to the Scorpions by Michael) merged his Dawn trio into the Scorpions, putting his stamp on ze Scorps for the next four studio albums (Fly to the Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killer, Taken by Force). Even where the songs were written by Rudolf and Klaus, his solos determined the Scorpions sound. And when the baby brother returned for Love Drive he found it hard to be saddled with all the baggage from the Roth years.

Roger Glover's production gave that first MSG album a good sound though - and I preferred Simon Phillips to Cozy. Do you like Ronnie Romero (on loan from Rainbow) better than Gary B?





He can even do a credible Mogg, the Chilean kid discovered by Ms Blackmore on YouTube:



That extreme bending he does in Doctor Doctor's guitar melody has always impressed me. Even he doesn't get it always right live and there is sometimes a dud note, but still ...

[lowend1]

He is preferable, yes. I would have liked to see more of Derek St Holmes as well, but he was primarily there as a second vocalist.

[uwe]

St. Holmes? Whenever he opened his mouth, he put Gary Barden to shame, like here at 02:03:



To be fair, that Graham Bonnet stuff is excruciating to sing, all singers have issues doing Bonnet material, it has been the curse of Rainbow.

Credit to the Chilean kid for getting even the Bonnet parts right like he does here:

[lowend1]

St. Holmes? Whenever he opened his mouth, he put Gary Barden to shame

Derek is in that category of singers who seem to defy age, vocally. Say what people will about Ted, when he aligns himself with a lead singer, it's
usually somebody unknown but very accomplished. Oddly, as good as Derek was/is, though, none of his post-Nuge projects have yielded much in the way of commercial success. I saw Whitfiord-St Holmes a few years back opening for Whitesnake and they were good, but lacked the "feel" of being a band.

[uwe]

I know what you mean, they have the feel of a couple of old weathered geezers getting together for  the moment - which after all is what they are. And Whitford - though I prefer his terse yet succinct solos within Aerosmith to his fellow guitarist's sometimes throwaway playing masked by the latter's rock'n'roll pose - is no Joe Perry on stage.



Whitford and Holmes are forever the talented, yet less visible "middle children" living in the shadow of their more flamboyant siblings, meaning Uncle Ted and the Tyler/Perry duo.

Much like Blackmore, Nugent knows a good musician when he sees one, whether the latter is known or not. He seeks out people with huge talent and little ego (to protet his own status). People being people that only works for a while though until their ego catches up and clashes with his.

When Holmes was with MSG, Michael wasn't - as usual - in a very good place. And for some reason, Schenker has this solitary vision that a lead singer in his band doesn't play additional guitar, perhaps because he wants that covered to this day by a part time keyboarder in the Paul Raymond mode  (just as he doesn't want a "real" keyboarder playing all the time). That might account for why he never really stopped to think and give Derek the lead vocalist status, preferring to limp on with Gary Barden who was at no time uncontested in his role within MSG. St. Holmes was invited to MSG at the instigation of MSG's then American management, they obviously envisaged a more prominent role for him, but Schenker was obstinate as usual.

With St. Holmes on lead vocals (at the demand of the management):



Same song with Gary Barden on lead vocals, he sounds flat and at the end of his range:

[Basvarken]

Credit to the Chilean kid for getting even the Bonnet parts right like he does here:

I find him hard to listen to. He always sounds to me like he has no idea of what he's singing. Weird pronunciation of words, or sometimes wrong words even.

[uwe]

I know exactly what you mean and it used to be much, much worse, but he still has some way to go, yet he's learning (at those first Rainbow gigs in 2016 it bordered on the hilarious with his then strictly phonetic singing). Not that Michael Schenker (after 50 years of living in English-speaking countries, mein Gott, er macht uns alle zu Narren!) is a master of ze Engleesh langwich who could help him a lot.

I just didn't raise it this time because I didn't want to be Mr Arrogant pointing fingers at someone's accent and maybe less than complete grasp of English (I did that once at the Dudepit with Rudy Sarzo's then very heavy Cubano-English and it has haunted me ever since, it was a real cheap shot from me), especially when he has put in some hard work as Ronnie obviously has. But you as a Dutchman with your fearsome no-frills national directness eschewing any type of diplomacy and naming all pink elephants in the room went straight for it of course ...  Diese Holländer ... But you're right, he'd probably be much better if he sang in Spanish, his mother tongue.

Arnel Pineda of modern day Journey had a similar issue, I wasn't all that sure whether he really understood what he was singing about with those Steve Perry lyrics initially either. But he's perked up considerably (and his English was from the start better than Ronnie Romero's), listen to him now:



Then again I sometimes think that you and I as non-native speakers obsess about stuff like that while mother tongue Yanks or Limeys just shrug it off. I alwys thought Klaus Meine's English cringeworthy (most Germans do) and feared the Scorpions would be laughed at in the States, but no such thing ever happened (zere vould be zome jökes about it in ze Eeengleesh rock press, but not really mean-spirited). I've raised it often with American rock fans and they seem pretty oblivious to the whole accent- and "does he really know what he is singing about"-thing. And then there are acts like ABBA where the "singing/sång in Swedenglish" is part of their undeniable charm. The "where they play the right myoo-zick"


at 00:55-57 (and repeated more often in the course of the song) makes Edith and me crack up every time to this day, but we wouldn't want it any other way. 



But even Agnetha and Frida were more convincing in svenska.



When they sang in English they always sounded a bit removed from the subject matter, which they probably were given that the  flickor/girls had zero input with the lyrics.

Sigh, Agnetha's blue glam outfit is still iconic after all these years ... Jag älskar dig! 

[Basvarken]

Well, this is not an international political conference is it? So let's leave false diplomacy out please.

I have no problems with artists singing English with a bit of an accent (like Abba or even Scorpions). As long as they understand what they're singing about and translate that into the right emotion.
But Romero seems to have no clue. (Hence the soulless singing maybe?)

I saw a Japanese Thin Lizzy tribute once in Dublin. They spoke zero English. And it was hilarious how they sang the songs phonetically. 

Word has it that Bert Heerink of Vandenberg had no clue what he sang either (on most of the songs) when they recorded the first album. He learned a large part of the words phonetically. But it did work in the end.

With Schenker it seems his accent has deteriorated. He used to speak better English then he does these days.

[lowend1]

I just didn't raise it this time because I didn't want to be Mr Arrogant pointing fingers at someone's accent and maybe less than complete grasp of English (I did that once at the Dudepit with Rudy Sarzo's then very heavy Cubano-English and it has haunted me ever since, it was a real cheap shot from me), especially when he has put in some hard work as Ronnie obviously has.

Making fun of accents? How positively American of you! That used to be pretty much a national pastime here until we became so thin-skinned, sigh...
Even those of us 'mericans who claim English as our native tongue butcher the language in one way or another - depending on the region or state that we hail from - and are routinely skewered for it by those in other areas whose linguistics are even worse. My own sons have poked fun at my guttural NJ accent and pronunciation over the years.