Scorpions : top of the bill

by Martin Popoff

No question that Scorpions, Germany’s loudest and proudest rock band ever, have done much for heavy metal over the years, and it’s high time a book on them hit the shelves. Well, the wait is over with the arrival of Scorpions: Top Of The Bill, which looks at every song on every album the Teutonic tone-masters ever crafted, beginning with Lonesome Crow back in ‘72 through to the band’s triumphant "retirement" album Sting In The Tail (and beyond into Comeblack - long story!).
Speedy’s Coming, Dark Lady, Catch Your Train, Virgin Killer, Another Piece Of Meat, Animal Magnetism, Lovedrive, Holiday, The Zoo, Blackout, No One Like You, Rock You Like A Hurricane, Still Loving You, Wind Of Change... these are hits and deep album tracks built into the very fabric of heavy metal, and the stories of their making are all here.
Come join Martin as he embarks on conversation and analysis with all of the principals and beyond, including Klaus Meine, Uli Jon Roth, Herman Rarebell, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs, along with the likes of David Krebs, Ralph Rieckermann, Francis Buchholz and legendary manager David Krebs.

Genres: Music

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

At approximately 7900 (with over 7000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was Editor-In-Chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost metal publication for 14 years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com, with many record label band bios and liner notes to his credit as well. Additionally, Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked for two years as researcher on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, on the writing and research team for the 11-episode Metal Evolution and on the ten-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic. Additionally, Martin is the writer of the original metal genre chart used in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and throughout the Metal Evolution episodes. Martin currently resides in Toronto and can be reached through martinp@inforamp.net or www.martinpopoff.com.

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the history, but it gets repetitive as a bunch of snippets of interviews over the years.