Scorpions Discography

I know about half of this album, some since about 1983-ish and some just the past couple years. I wish I loved more of their early recordings, but for me they really took off musically with Virgin Killer.

I always really liked Lonesome Crow, it's got an awesome trippy atmosphere to it, and some great guitar lines. Inheritance & the title track flat out rock. Fly To The Rainbow is another great album, pure classic.

Scorpions - In Trance
Released September 17, 1975

Track List:

Side one
"Dark Lady" – 3:30 (Uli Jon Roth)
"In Trance" – 4:47 (Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine)
"Life's Like a River" – 3:54 (Roth, R. Schenker, Corina Fortmann)
"Top of the Bill" – 3:26 (Schenker, Meine)
"Living And Dying" – 3:24 (Schenker, Meine)

Side two
"Robot Man" – 2:47 (Schenker, Meine)
"Evening Wind" – 5:06 (Roth)
"Sun in My Hand" – 4:25 (Roth)
"Longing for Fire" – 2:44 (Schenker, Roth)
"Night Lights" [Instrumental] – 3:14 (Roth)

Following the release of 'Fly To The Rainbow', more changes where in store for the Scorpions. Drummer Jurgen Rosenthal was drafted by the German Army and left the band. Rudy Lenners was hired to take his place. The biggest change was the addition of German producer Dieter Dirks behind the knobs. The band and Dieter would have a long working relationship from this point. 'In Trance' was the album that the Scorpions really began to define who they are as a band. After flirting with Psychedelic Rock and Hard Rock, they found their sound.

'In Trance' is a full on platter of 1970's Heavy Metal. With awesome licks and amazing solos from Uli John Roth, this one just plain rocks!!! This is an excellent album and a must have for Scorpions fans. The album opens with a fast rocker, 'Dark Lady' that features Uli Jon Roth on vocals then launches into one of the better know early Scorps song, the title track. The song 'In Trace" gave a foreshadowing of the Scorpion's of the 80's. If you are looking to add the 70's Scorps to your collection, this is a great place to start and move on through, in order, the rest of the Uli Jon Roth era releases.

This would be the first Scorpions album to create a controversy because of the album cover. The album cover featured an attractive woman 'in trance' over Uli Jon Roth's strat. It showed some skin from her breast. The record company had to create a second cover so some stores would carry the album. The new cover darkened out the breast skin:



The album cover actually looks pretty tame based on today's standards, but in the 70's record companies had to worry about stores carrying the product.

As I mentioned, this is a must have for Scorpions fans and features some more amazing guitar work from Uli Jon Roth.

'In Trance' is an excellent album and the first one to start to capture the Scorpions sound.

Some great songs on this album including the title track, and loved the combination of Schenker's more melodic style to Uli Jon Roth's Hendrix inspired solos, 'Top of the Bill' is an excellent rocker as is 'Robot Man'

As a matter fact I like the entire album and I spin it frequently, this used to be a diffcult album to find on CD, and bought mine years ago from Amazon where they combined the two albums in one package , two CD set that came with the original art ( the other album was Virgin Killer, and I wish that the original cover for this album had not been included), a giant poster of the In Trance cover, and bonus tracks that were made up of 'Tokoyo Tapes' album.

Back to the album, the title track is one of my favorite Scorpions songs and the addition of producer Dieter Dirks was the most important decision this band may have made.

My favorite Scorpions record, In Trance is awesome! This is where they really knocked it out of the park, great crunchy metallic sound, full of energy great guitar playing, and one of the best album covers I've ever seen. I suppose this is really the first album where they had their "full" sound, and it's still the best.

I got that same set Manny, but the bonus tracks make up Fly To The Rainbow I believe.

DeathCult wrote:

My favorite Scorpions record, In Trance is awesome!

I got that same set Manny, but the bonus tracks make up Fly To The Rainbow I believe.

I stand corrected DC is right, it is not Tokoyo Tapes it is 'Fly to the Rainbow'

This is where things got really interesting, not my favorite but an excellent platter of music.

manny wrote:

DeathCult wrote:

My favorite Scorpions record, In Trance is awesome!

I got that same set Manny, but the bonus tracks make up Fly To The Rainbow I believe.

I stand corrected DC is right, it is not Tokoyo Tapes it is 'Fly to the Rainbow'

I recommend that set to everyone looking to get these albums, it's the next best thing to the Japenese presses, the albums sound great.

I love this early Scorps album! In Trance, Robot Man, Dark Lady and even the instrumental Night Lights.... I just about wore out this cassette(I had all the Scorps albums on tape). In Trance has that really beautiful melodic guitar solo that just kills.


When I saw them at the Shark Tank in the mid 90s they played a small 70s set and In Trance was one of the songs....... I went crazy, I thought that I would never hear that song live! Everyone else kinda looked confused......

Another one that's on the list. *sigh* Someday.

Never heard this one either. My Scorps collection begins with VIRGIN KILLER.

This thread will take off with Vigin Killer i'm guessing.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never heard this one either. My Scorps collection begins with VIRGIN KILLER.

FF,
If you like Virgin Killer you'll like In Trance... You gotta get it!

chewie wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never heard this one either. My Scorps collection begins with VIRGIN KILLER.

FF,
If you like Virgin Killer you'll like In Trance... You gotta get it!

Oh yeah, I wanna get all the early Scorps eventually... but at the moment "VIRGIN KILLER" is as far back as I go.

Fat Freddy wrote:

chewie wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never heard this one either. My Scorps collection begins with VIRGIN KILLER.

FF,
If you like Virgin Killer you'll like In Trance... You gotta get it!

Oh yeah, I wanna get all the early Scorps eventually... but at the moment "VIRGIN KILLER" is as far back as I go.

I will post that review on Monday then you can join in with the thoughts

You totally want to start with In Trance before the other two

Wow, where the hell have I been


I first heard "Lonesome Crow" in Bill Menchen's garage. (The summer of 76') He's one of the biggest Schenker fans that I have ever known. I have two different lp covers of this and also a picture disc that I bought in the 80's of the cover that Chewie posted.

"Fly To The Rainbow" my first experience with Scorpions. A cousin fresh back from Vietnam gave me a stack of lp's he'd gotten in Japan before returnin stateside. (Spring 75')

"In Trance" This is a step WAY up or two from "Fly...." The sound was coming together and the songwriting kicks @$$ !

I have been a fan of this band for a long, long time.

Lonesome Crow: never heard it, and judging by the reviews it probably won't be up my alley.

Fly to the Rainbow: love it! Speedy's Coming, This is my Song, Fly to the Rainbow... all of 'em are absolutely killer.

In Trance: same story as Fly to the Rainbow.

Lonesome Crow is the only Scorpions album that I don't have up until "Face The Heat". I suppose the "Rocka Rolla" comparison is a good one, as I could never get into Priest's first album either. For posterity, I will probably nab their debut at some point.

"Fly to the Rainbow" is solid, but I don't think the Scorpions hit their mark until "In Trance", which is killer. On Fly, I love the title track and of course Speedy's Coming. Everything else, not so much.

"In Trance", like I stated, is killer. I think this album showcases Uli Jon Roth more so than Fly. There is a nice eclectic mix of songs, as you go from hard hitting songs like the title track and "Top of the Bill" to moody songs like "Living & Dying" and the beautiful ballad "Life's Like a River". What a great album, which I didn't discover until 2008.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never heard this one either. My Scorps collection begins with VIRGIN KILLER.

You have to get "In Trance"... Solid album.

In Trance is Classic all the way!!!

Love that album....

chewie wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never heard this one either. My Scorps collection begins with VIRGIN KILLER.

FF,
If you like Virgin Killer you'll like In Trance... You gotta get it!

Earlier I said they really took off with Virgin Killer, I forgot about this album. I always thought this one came after Virgin Killer. But yeah, this is a good album, they really started to rock out here, more of that German heavy metal sound they would soon perfect.

Scorpions - Virgin Killer
Released 1976

Track List:

Side one
"Pictured Life" (Meine, Roth, Schenker) – 3:21
"Catch Your Train" (Meine, Schenker) – 3:32
"In Your Park" (Meine, Schenker) – 3:39
"Backstage Queen" (Meine, Schenker) – 3:10
"Virgin Killer" (Roth) – 3:41

Side two
"Hell Cat" (Roth) – 2:54
"Crying Days" (Meine, Schenker) – 4:36
"Polar Nights" (Roth) – 5:04
"Yellow Raven" (Roth) – 4:58

Scorpions returned to the studio in 1976 to record 'Virgin Killer' and for the first time there where no changes in the band and they kept the same producer. You can't discuss the album without first discussing the cover art. The art I posted is the alternate cover. The original cover feature a pre-pubescent girl with a crack window obscuring her privates. The girl was the daughter of the person who created the album cover. It was banned in many countries, hence the alternate cover. It was also sold in a black cover in some places to obscure the photo. At the time, the band didn't think the cover was a big deal. Over time the band realized that maybe it wasn't the best cover to release. Uli Jon Roth has said that the cover now make him "cringe" and that he was too immature to see it at the time. Personally, I consider it kiddie porn. I have the alternate cover on my ipod because of that. I think the pic is just wrong for an album cover Even today there is controversy as the original cover pic is posted on wikipedia and some groups have blasted Wikipedia for posting it.

With that out of the way, on to the music. Throughout their short career thus far, Scorpions have kept improving with every album and 'Virgin Killer' was no exception. This is another full on 1970's heavy metal album. Every track is killer (pun intended). The album opener, 'Pictured Life' remains one of the Scorpion's most popular songs from the 70's and is an AWESOME track!!! 'Backstage Queen' is another killer track as is the title track. Uli Jon Roth wrote the title track. The band had just finished supporting KISS on tour (wow - that must have been one helluva show!!!!!) and Uli was messing around on guitar and sang "Cause he's a Virgin Killer" a la Paul Stanley style. Klaus loved it and Uli then had to write a song around it. Hell Cat is another great track that features Uli on vocals.

Music wise, the album is excellent. Uli Jon Roth delivers another phenomenal performance. He just know how to make a guitar sing - even though you can hear the Hendrix influences throughout his playing, he has a style all his own. He was quickly becoming a guitar hero to the underground 70's metal/hard rock scene.

The album received much praise from the critics and fans. This is a must have album for all Scorpions collections. If you don't have it, get it.

I only picked up VIRGIN KILLER about a year ago so I'm probably not as familiar with it as others 'round here. I find it to be a cool listen (specially like those first two tracks) but it took some getting used to as it wasn't quite as heavy-duty as the later era Scorps that I've been listening to for ages.

To me it sounds like a band that is slowly finding their way towards "their" sound, if that makes any sense. They're not quite there, but they're close. Still a cool record though.

About the cover controversy: I used to see the "dirty" cover in stores back in the day and I never gave it much thought (other than probably "Damn, that's one hell of an ugly girl," haha). I guess it must've seemed like a good idea to someone at the time. If the story about the girl in the pic being the daughter of the photographer/album designer is true, I wonder whether or not she talks to her Dad anymore.

Not much to add except this an excellent album and is definitley an album that holds up well to this very day.

Only weak song on this album is 'Hell Cat' the music is good but Uli Jon Roth vocals are an acquired taste.

"Catch Your Train' is as catchy as an STD as is 'Backstage Queen'

Also the album features also moody rockers such as the Yellow Raven, and it is too bad that original sh!tty cover stole some of its albums original thunder, this album has way more to offer then the shock value of the cover that has thankfully been replaced.

Another great album! Though I still prefer In Trance to it. Scorps were on top of their game here! Also, I never really saw the big deal about the cover. Not that it's anything appeaseing, but the most questionable part of the photo is covered. And what is on display doesn't strike me any worse than Zep's Houses Of The holy