Scorpions (Band) / YMMV

Americans Hate Tingle: They took a long time until making a name for themselves in the US (which was pretty much around the 80s). Most likely due to lack of record company support. Their success started when they changed labels, although they commercialized their sound at the same time. Not an unheard-of story, sure, but it's happened to them too, and that's what matters.
Awesome Music:
- Blackout from start to finish. Love at First Sting too.
- "Wind of Change", their song to celebrate the reunification of Germany, which doubles as their Heartwarming Moment too.
- Taken by Force is Classic Metal perfection, particularly the epic “Sails of Charon”.
- "The Zoo"
- The criminally underrated "No One Like You", which contains a guitar solo that puts even "Rock You Like a Hurricane" to shame.
Broken Base: There are people who like the band overall (but are more favorable to their 80's phase), people who like only the 70's albums (with Uli Jon Roth on the guitar, no less), and people who like the ballads.
Covered Up: "Koujou no Tsuki" ("The Moon Over the Desolate Castle"), present on Tokyo Tapes, was composed in 1901 by Japanese pianist Rentarou Taki. But it's probable that the rest of the world didn't know about this.
Epic Riff: "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Big City Nights", “Sails of Charon”, “He’s a Woman, She’s a Man”, "No One Like You". Heck, even "Still Loving You"'s low-key, distortion-less riff counts.
Even Better Sequel: Arguably up until Love at First Sting. Then the studio albums got somewhat steady, only taking a downturn in Eye II Eye and getting back up with Unbreakable and pretty much staying at the same level it was around the late 70's until Animal Magnetism.
Fanon Discontinuity: "Eye II Eye" is not very fondly remembered to say the least.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- Okay, they are loved in their native Germany. But in places like Greece, Brazil, Russia and Japan, they're simply worshipped.
- "Winds of Change" is a popular crowd chant in Association Football matches, especially in South America.
Harsher in Hindsight: Their 1984 hit "Rock You Like a Hurricane" becomes less enjoyable regarding the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and the 2017 Hurricane Irma catastrophes, which struck the Caribbean island chain, Florida and the Mainland United States. Meanwhile, on September 7th of that year during a baseball game against Miami Marlins, the Atlanta Braves apologized for playing the said song right after the disaster has passed.
Heartwarming Moments: "Wind of Change", as mentioned above. It was written just as the Cold War was ending with the fall of the USSR and reunification of Germany, capturing all the hope the world felt going into the 90s like a snapshot in time with the lyrics "Distant memories are buried in the past forever" describing how far away it all felt in that moment
Never Live It Down: It doesn't matter how good the album itself is, Virgin Killer is always going to be best known for its cover.
Nightmare Fuel: "Humanity," with its musical theme and lyrics discussing the human race's self-destructive tendencies and insignificance in the universe, brings to mind the endtimes (to the point where might be a bit too on the nose in the age of "polycrisis").
Overshadowed by Controversy:
- The original album cover of Virgin Killer depicts a naked girl with her vagina covered by what appears to be cracked glass. The artwork quickly attracted accusations of disseminating child pornography and became a major source of regret for guitarist Uli Jon Roth. Even after the band replaced the cover with a portrait of themselves, the controversy surrounding the original artwork has eclipsed the actual music on the album in public discussion.
- "Wind of Change" got this in 2020 when a conspiracy theory, promoted by a podcast hosted by New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe, emerged, alleging that the song was written by the CIA (of which it wasn't, Klaus Meine has stated on several occasions beforehand that he wrote the song himself, and reportedly laughed off the whole thing when Keefe did an interview with him for the podcast).
Sequel Displacement:
- Only hardcore fans even know Lonesome Crow, the first album, and it is very different from everything the band has done since. It is a pretty good album, though, and the band occasionally plays "In Search Of The Peace Of Mind" from said album.
- All of the band's 1970s output would be this to a fan who only knew of their 1980s work. Roth's style was very Hendrixian and had Progressive Rock tendencies; the band began to resemble AC/DC and Judas Priest as soon as he left.
Signature Song: It tends to be split between "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Send Me An Angel", "Wind of Change", and "Still Loving You". The signature Roth-era song is undoubtedly "Sails of Charon".
So Bad, It's Good: "The cover for "Fly to the Rainbow""◊. When Uli John Roth was asked about the meaning behind it in an interview, he wouldn't even comment.
Suspiciously Similar Song:
- "Always Somewhere" sounds very similar to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man".
Tear Jerker: Wind of Change is as much of this as it is a Heartwarming Moment, given how much it reflected the hope of the end of the Cold War, and the overwhelming joy of peace people thought would come from it.
Values Resonance: The lyrics to "Media Overkill" are even more relevant today, as the "overkill" only got worse with the rise of the internet.

YMMV / Scorpions (Band)

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