Customer Reviews

World Wide Live

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I love WORLD WIDE LIVE. Musically, I give it 5 stars, but the remastered version only deserves one. Why? The remastering job stinks. The once powerful guitars are now buried in the mix. It sounds lame. Get a copy of an old tape instead. Once you do that, you'll see how awesome this album really is. All the songs really come alive here.

"Do you see the microphones up in the air? Do you see them? Do you know what we're doing tonight? We're doing a live recording tonight!"

Those words spoken by Scorpions' lead singer Klaus Meine are ingrained in my mind and my ears. Hearing him address his captivated audience always brings a smile to my face as I attempt to mimic his German accent by repeating his lines. When I think of the greatest live albums from the Silver Age of Heavy Metal (the 80's), only two come to mind, Iron Maiden's Live After Death and the Scorpions' World Wide Live. I've already given Live After Death its due, so now it's time to lend my thoughts on the other stellar live album by the most famous hard rock band to come out of Germany.

Following the release of their previous studio effort, Love At First Sting, the Scorpions embarked on their most successful world tour to date. Although not quite as extensive as Iron Maiden's legendary World Slavery Tour, the '84-85 Sting Tour was still impressive. Spanning 152 dates, the Scorpions performed for thousands of fans throughout Europe, Japan, South America, Canada and 41 states in the USA. World Wide Live captures not only the intense energy of this quintet but the enthralled fans as well. The entire tour is encapsulated on this one record.

"Year after year out on the road
It's great to be here to see you all
I know for me it is like coming home"

Released in the same year as Live After Death in 1985, World Wide Live touches on all the most popular tracks from the Scorpions four best albums; Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, and Love At First Sting. The period during which those four records were made (between 1979 and 1984), the Scorpions created their most lasting music and established themselves as one of the true hard rock heavyweights of the 80's. Each track is a lesson in Simple Songwriting 101 - melodic rhythms marked by memorable lyrics that will stick in people's minds ("Rock You Like A Hurricane", anyone?). Their sizzling grooves and irresistible hooks are executed to perfection and highlighted by the cheering crowds. Their showmanship is nearly upstaged by the excitement of their fans.

"Day after day out on the road
There's no place too far that we wouldn't go
We go wherever you like to rock'n roll"

More than just a cassette tape...

When I was in high school, this was the tape my friends and I would to take down to Riverside Park next to the Mississippi River. We'd hang out all night, shoot the breeze and listen to World Wide Live on continuous playback. As the prototypical teenagers cutting our teeth on various post-puberty crises, we were indestructible and on top of the world. Our anxieties were always more important than anything else and the only things that mattered more were our self-declared independence and our music. In 1985, World Wide Live become the soundtrack for our lives and took us away to place we would only dream about.

"Year after year out on the road
It's great to be here to rock you all
I know, for me it is like coming home
Like coming home..."

We wanted to be rock stars like the Scorpions. We wanted to come home to the stage like they did night after night. We wanted an entire audience in Paris, France singing the lyrics to "Holiday" back to us. In a way, the Scorpions allowed us to live our fantasy through them. Though unrealized, World Wide Live kept our dream alive and gave us hope. When I hear this album now, I am quickly returned to that park pavilion where the moon dances off the slick picnic tables providing the only light. My friends entertain with cigarette tricks as the music blares from the first generation jam box. For a few moments, we are rock stars.

"Let me take you far away
You'd like a holiday
Exchange the cold days for the sun
Good times and fun
Let me take you far away
You'd like a holiday"

Scorpions' fans know that World Wide Live capped off a series of their finest work. This album is as good as it gets and will have a permanent place in the heavy metal history books. Sadly, this record will be dog-eared because it ended a marvelous run that the Scorpions would never come close to duplicating. Although, it should be remembered for more. The Scorpions will be forever defined by their 80's brand of AOR hard rock/heavy metal and the enthusiasm of their fans world over. World Wide Live demonstrates both equally. I cannot recommend this album high enough to fans of 80's hard rock and heavy metal.

This is the San Diego original and it rocks! "The Zoo" sounds awesome! I feel like I am back in high school. Great condition, fast shipping! I bought it for my husband for our anniversary. We both had this album when it first came out. So glad the seller kept his. Will buy from this seller again! Keep Rockin!!!

I have always found live recordings to be superior to the Scorpions' studio offerings. Perhaps it is because they feed off the enthusiasm of their fans and render their best performances.

I would have given this a 4.5 if I could because some of the things people have been critical about are not completely off base, but since they really slammed the CD much too hard, I will bump it up to 5.

Yes, the crowd is very loud. This is a CONCERT! A SCORPIONS CONCERT, no less! I love the way they recorded the crowd noise. It pumps me up. It's part of the energy of WWL. Who wants to go to a concert where the crowd is apathetic or lethargic? It would be World Wide Dead. I think they had this spot-on. It's just like I'm there at the concert.

Granted, some of the songs had different phrasing than the studio versions or were even a little sloppy. Given the process the Scorps used to use to record in the studio, the live thing was a different world for them. Some of their studio material could not be fully translated live. And I don't think anyone with any musical ability and experience would argue that Herman Rarebell and Francis Buchholz were anything but placeholders for the most part, but they were part of the Scorpions, and we loved them for it!

After reading the other reviews, here's the bottom line: NO ONE listens to the Scorps for technical virtuosity (though Schenker can definitely wail away). You listen to them for the energy they convey and for their unique songwriting style. To this point, Rudy said, in an MTV interview at his house (back when they actually played and cared about MUSIC!) right about the time this album came out: "I don't want to be known as one of the greatest guitarists in the world; I want to be known as one of the greatest songwriters in the world." The Scorps have a sound all their own. That sound, and that energy, and that unique songwriting comes out on this CD.

Let's also be honest: as great as their previous albums were content-wise, they were not recorded well. If I remember correctly, WWL was the first live CD I ever bought that was an all-digital recording, and it made a difference, even though they weren't in the studio. WWL breathed some life into older studio material that just wasn't as potent. In fact, some of my friends and I actually began to prefer the WWL versions of some songs because of the weaker recording quality of the older songs. Also, there are some bands who rock out in the studio and then they sound like something totally different live - the Scorpions are not one of them.

For newer fans of the Scorps, maybe you want to stick with Live Bites, or maybe even Acoustica, but for anyone who wants to re-live (or experience for the first time) the glory days of 80's metal in the form of a pulse-pounding concert by those great German rockers, the Scorpions, this is it. Get the CD, let your hair down, crank it up, and get ready to pound your dashboard into oblivion!

My brother and I have a disagreement over which Scorpions live album is better; this or Live Bites. I am partial towards this album. It perfectly captures Scorpions at the pinnacle of their success right after the release of Love at First Sting during their 84-85 world mega tour. In World Wide Live, the sound is rawer and you hear the echoes from the huge stadiums the Scorps were playing in at the time. Live Bites is a very good album in its own right, but it feels "less live" and more "perfect" than World Wide Live for me. The album is more polished and you can hear each one of the musicians perfectly. That is what my brother really likes about the album, the amazing quality and clarity of scorpions on this album which is in stark contrast to World Wide Live, where the sound was much rawer but the clarity is not there. It is just a difference in preference of styles. My brother has his own band and is really into high quality sound which is why he likes Live Bites more. Me, I'm more impressed by the feelings that huge crowds and stadiums in World Wide Live inspire; they make you feel like you are at a mega show.

The crowd is very present in all the songs on this live cd. Some people will find that very attractive while others will be put off by it. I really like hearing the crowd because you can hear the interaction between Scorpions and their fans. Hearing the people in Paris sing Holliday will totally blow you away. Its a shame they only play the acoustic intro to the song, but the French fans are amazing singing the lyrics to the song and more impressively the Ahh-ahh-aaa-hhh-ahhhh part of the song.

Most of the other songs were recorded in large venues in California. It seems like the Scorps had a blast in California because Klaus Meine even tells the fans that they love to play in California because "you people really like to party." Other great songs on the cd are Blackout (played heavy both on guitar/base and on drums), The Zoo (a Scorpions classic played with a heavy bass and beat, along with the crowd interaction), Dynamite (Klaus Meine's vibrato on some of the high notes is also quite remarkable, even better than in the album version, and you also get a pause near the end of the song with the music coming roaring back in). There are of course the really famous songs, Rock you Like a Hurricane, Still Loving You and No One Like You but the best song on the album is Make It Real. The normal album version off Animal Magnetism is a decent song, but in this version they turn it into a song that will just blow your mind away. The bass is so heavy it just makes you move to the beat of the song.

One final note, Klaus Meine speaks incredibly fast. Its actually funny because some times he says things to the crowd and I think they don't understand what he is saying because he is talking too fast (you can tell because when he speaks really fast, they tend not to cheer, most probably because he spoke way to fast for them to understand, for example at one point in Can't Live Without You he tells the crowd "did you have a good time out there... here is Can't Live Without You and I want you out there to fall in love with me alright", and when they don't seem to understand he tells them "hey do you hear what I am saying"). If you get his cd, listen to the Can't Get Enough Part II. It took me a long time to understand what he says to the crowd in San Diego (San Diego you were a fantastic audience and I really love you, have a good time, we can't get enough)

It is a good one

This is probably my favorite metal album ever, studio or live. And is absolutely the best live album ive ever had of any genre of music. Ive been listening to it for 22 years, first as a tape, then as a cd. The songs are outstanding, the crowd is outstanding. the scorpions music truly comes to life outside of the studio.
im not a fan of klaus meine's accent, so thats how good these songs had to be for me to like them. when he talks to the audience, you just have to talk along with him for a laugh. "its great to be here in ca-leee-fwroaarrr-nnnnyyyyyyiiaaa!"
"you know where we are? you know what were doin here tonite? you see those microphones in the air?...you see them?" no klaus...no i dont see them....
but i digress...what an album,,,almost an hour long i think. its just the friggin best. in part because it precede's the era where they started doing lame songs that got preachy and tried to unite the world.

Although a lot of bands are generally bad in their live recordings, Scorpions has always been a great live band. I have been to three of their concerts and they always sound pretty close to studio quality believe it or not. I haven't heard many bands that sound that good on stage except maybe for AC/DC and Judas Priest. This has all of their best stuff really because Love at First Sting was their last great album. Just great lead guitar work by Mathias Jabbs: simply one of the most underrated lead guitarists from that period. You can't go wrong with this live album by Scorpions.

I got this at the same time I got the "TOKYO TAPES" CD and its as good as I remember it. However, I could not find the original double (vinyl) album so I could compare the songs for accuracy, but I believe they are all there! Songs like COAST TO COAST, ANOTHER PIECE OF MEAT, STILL LOVING YOU & CAN'T GET ENOUGH get me through my workouts at the gym!

I saw this tour in Austin, TX, which was my third time seeing them live and the first time I saw them as headliners. If I had to say anything negative about the album, it would be that they left out classic songs like HE'S A WOMAN, SHE'S A MAN and LOVEDRIVE, but I still got my money's worth!

Go get this album!