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Rating: Third official live album by the Scorpions, this "Live Bites" of 1995 was essentially released to fill record and idea gaps. Indeed, it doesn't add much to the band's history, however, underneath, it's not that bad.
It's a real live collage with performances ranging from 1988 to 1994 captured in different concerts worldwide (Germany, Mexico, the United States, Russia), and then assembled together as if it were a single show. The output volume of the recordings is quite high, the sound clear and crisp, and the performances overall, despite lacking particularly inspired insights, are technically perfect; yes, but perhaps too perfect, in some ways they seem like studio versions with the audience in the background, in short, I think there's quite a bit of overdubbing, but oh well.
The setlist largely consists of tracks from the more recent albums like "Face the Heat" and "Crazy World" and generally from the '80s-'90s period; the lineup is the same as the last album, except for a couple of songs, "Living For Tomorrow" and "Rhythm Of Love", which still feature bassist Francis Buchholz instead of his successor Ralph Rieckermann. The first part of the CD is perhaps the most emotional, with "Tease Me Please Me" properly heating up the atmosphere, "Is There Anybody There", a compelling "Rhythm of Love", and then reaching its peak with a dive into the '70s, "In Trance", which I would say is very convincing in its sonic compactness and masterfully sung by Meine. After these first tracks, we begin to travel through highs and lows. "Living For Tomorrow", performed in Leningrad in '92, is one of the best moments, a pity that the exact same version was already published a few years before in the ballads collection "Still Loving You". A good cover of the popular Mexican "Ave Maria No Morro", where Klaus Meine exhibits decent Spanish over a convincing acoustic guitar backdrop set up by Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs. The rest is represented by very hard performances, with drummer Herman Rarebell (in his last participation with the Scorpions here) going heavy-handed, but also by a plethora of somewhat repetitive riffs and predictable solos ("Concerto in V", "Alien Nation", "Hit Between The Eyes", "Crazy World").
However, it is also the first live where the famous "Wind Of Change" appears in the track list, entrusted to close the concert, a great song, but played and sung without infamy and without praise, very similar to the studio original, in short, the desire to take risks and improvise is zero, and this is the flaw that characterizes the whole live. In addition to the 13 live tracks, there are two unreleased studio recordings, actually one, because "White Dove" was already released as a single a year before and is actually a cover of a song by the Hungarian group Omega, a decent ballad with a pacifist, catchy lyrics, but nothing to go down in history for; the other is "Heroes don't Cry", another slow piece, this one decidedly more boring, with overly intrusive and poppy choruses.
What to say, an album without many pretensions, the classic commercial move placed there just to keep the band's name in the spotlight. A decent performance, certainly far from the times of "Tokyo Tapes", those of the brilliant guitarist Uli Jon Roth, but also inferior to "World Wide Live", saved, however, by a good, albeit not very honest, job in post-production and editing, a job capable of providing the right compactness and sonic power, aspects that are nonetheless important in the metal genre. An album originally intended for the band's most die-hard fans, but now you can find it around at bargain prices, so if you like melodic metal, consider it, after all, there's much worse out there.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Tease Me Please Me (04:51)
I've been around the world
I've known a lot of girls
Livin' and lovin'
It's hard to keep them all in line
I've seen a lot of sights
Many crazy nights
Cruisin' and boozin'
It's a wonder that I'm still alive
Never wasted any time
Never missed a beat
Total satisfaction
Always guaranteed
Tease me
Please me
No one needs to know
Tease me
Please me
Before I have to go
Spead the world around
The boys are back in town
Reelin' and rockin'
We're rollin' with it win or lose
The girls are dressed to kill
Lookin' for a thrill
Slidin' and glidin'
Sometimes they make it hard to choose
So hard to choose
I never wasted any time
Never missed a beat
Total satisfaction
Always guaranteed
Tease me
Please me
No one needs to know
Tease me
Please me
Before I have to go
Tease me
Please me
We'll take it nice and slow
nice and slow
Tease me
Please me
Just let the feeling grow
let it grow
I never wasted any time
Never missed a beat
Total satisfaction
Always guaranteed
(2x)
Tease me
Please me
No one needs to know
Tease me
Please me
Before I have to go
Tease me
Please me
We'll take it nice and slow
nice and slow
Tease me
Please me
Just let the feeling grow
04 In Trance (04:06)
I wake up in the morning
and the sun begins to shine
the day did sneak up on the night
I see your face and I see myself
and I get a little taste of life
I try to stand it for a while
But I'm in a trance
Hey baby tell me can't you hear me calling
I'm in a trance
I take too much in the Saturday night
Hey... Hey
Hey baby tell me can't you hear me calling
I'm in a trance
I wanna try to stop this life
I feel so sad I'm feeling down
On the radio the music plays
I'm in love with her and I feel fine
I close my eyes
I think today is getting better with a sip of wine
and I can stand it for a while
When I'm in a trance
Hey baby tell me can't you hear me calling
I'm in a trance
I take too much in the Saturday night
Hey... Hey
Hey baby tell me can't you hear me calling
I'm in a trance
I wanna try to stop this life
I'm in a trance
Hey baby tell me can't you hear me caling
I'm in a trance
I take too much in the Saturday night
Hey...Hey
Hey baby tell me can't you hear me calling
I'm in a trance
I wanna try to stop this life
05 No Pain No Gain (04:06)
1.
Face in the gutter, eyes on the floor.
Knocked down twice, can't take it no more.
You got no vision in your head.
You got no vision, better dead.
Get on your feet, open the door.
Walk on down, you know the score.
It's a dead-end street back to the wall
You get it together you can get it all!
The weak will fall the strong remain
No pain no gain (yeah)
No pain no gain (yeah)
2.
No time for losers, you make the call.
Believe in yourself, stand tall.
Another day, it's in your hand.
You can be the winner in the end!
The weak will fall the strong remain
No pain no gain (yeah)
No pain no gain
No pain no gain (yeah)
No pain no gain (yeah, yeah)
Bridge.
Keep runnin', don't look back.
Keep movin', paint it black.
Keep goin', don't ever stop.
There's time to rest the day you'll drop.
You roll the dice you play the game
The weak will fall the strong remain
No pain no gain
No pain no gain
06 When the Smoke Is Going Down (02:36)
Just when you make your way back home
I find some time to be alone
I go to see the place once more
Just like a thousand nights before
I climb the stage again this night
Cause the place seems still alive
When the smoke is going down
This is the place where I belong
I really love to turn you on
I've got your sound still in my ears
While your traces disappear
I climb the stage again this night
Cause the place seems still alive
When the smoke is going down
I climb the stage again this night
Cause the place seems still alive
When the smoke is going down
When the smoke is going down
When the smoke is going down
09 Alien Nation (05:28)
In the heat of the violence
The night's exploding everywhere
When hate pulls the trigger
The devil comes to take his share
In the garden of Eden
The time is running out so fast
Into heart of the demon
With no escape our die is cast
In the city of angels
Death is just a moment away
In the city of angels
Your future won't see the light of the day
Beware of the alien nation
Beware of the truth that they seek
They pray for eternal salvation
They pray for your soul to keep
On the eve of destruction
A reign of terror rules the street
When the heads start rolling
The devil comes to let it bleed
In the city of angels
Death is just a moment away
In the city of angels
Your future won't see the light of the day
Walk on past the alien nation
Walk on to the end of your reach
No fear of the alien nation
No fear of the hatred they preach
Don't run, there's no place to hide
Today or tomorrow it will get you
Don't move, the knife is right at your throat
And whatever you do, there's no way out
When the shroud comes down on this place
To bury us all alive
We'll know the time has come, to face the heat
Beware of the alien nation
Beware of the truth that they seek
They pray for eternal salvation
They pray for your soul to keep
Walk on past the alien nation
Walk on to the end of your reach
They pray for eternal damnation
They pray for your soul to keep
10 Crazy World (05:33)
I get up in the morning
For my dose of the news
Crawl right back in the sack girl
Had enough of the truth
Spend your dollars and rubels
Buy a piece of the wall
Build it up in your backyard
I'm so sick of it all
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Drivin' down to the city
Doin' 155
Better late than never
I'm more dead than alive
We can find the Titanic
Put a man on the moon
But we can't fix out backyard
Man we better start soon
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
I don't want to hear about it
I wish it would be worlds away
You know the more I think about it
The more I feel we need to change
I get up (In a crazy, crazy world)
We all live (In a crazy, crazy world)
Ooh yeah (It's a crazy, crazy world)
I gotta get out (Of this crazy, crazy world)
Goin' home to my baby
It's been another hard day
Bust my balls for the tax man
So what else can I say
They spent our money on missiles
For the third world war
Now they're stacked in my backyard
We don't need them no more
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
Ooh, it's a crazy world
11 Wind of Change (05:46)
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the winds of change
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the winds of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the winds of change
Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the winds of change
The wind of change blows straight
Into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring
The freedom bell for peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the winds of change
14 White Dove (04:20)
A place without a name
Under a burning sky
There's no milk and honey here
In the land of God
Someone holds a sign
It says we are human, too
And while the sun goes down
The world goes by
White dove
Fly with the wind
Take our hope under your wings
For the world to know
That hope will not die
Where the children cry
Waves, big like a house
They're stranded on a piece of wood
To leave it all behind
To start again
But instead of a new life
All they find is a door that's closed
And they keep looking for
A place called hope
White dove
Fly with the wind
Take our hope under your wings
For the world to know
That hope will not die
Where the children cry
Na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na na na na
Na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na
Can anyone tell me why (can anyone tell me why)
The children of the world (children of the world)
Have to pay the price (pay the price)
And now you're telling me
You've seen it all before
I know that's right but still
It breaks my heart
Well, the golden lamb we've sent
Makes us feel better now
But you know it's just a drop
In a sea of tears
White dove
Fly with the wind
Take our hope under your wings
For the world to know
That hope will not die
Where the children cry
White dove
Fly with the wind
Take our hope under your wings
For the world to know
That hope will not die
Where the children cry
Na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na na na na
Na na
Na na na na
Na na na na na
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