Raised on Rock

This was the first single from Sting in the Tail, which the Scorpions announced would be their last album. The band was formed in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker, who told us: "Our manager heard the new album before it was mastered, and he was excited. We were excited. He said, 'You know, guys, you can't beat this. This is something very special. I think this could be the great thing to end on a high note.' We thought he was joking, but when we started thinking, we said, 'Hey, he is gonna be right.' Now we are talking about the end of our career, which is very emotional, and we are on top of the world. No question about this, we know when the last day comes up it will be not so funny. It will be a hard moment."

The first line of this song is "I was born in a hurricane." When we asked Schenker if this was a reference to their hit "Rock You Like A Hurricane," he explained: "'Raised On Rock,' is little kick from 'Rock You Like A Hurricane.' That's what we did on this album in general because of the Swedish guys that produced it, Michael (Nord Andersson) and Martin (Hansen). They said, 'The Scorpions are all about great guitarists, great melodies, and great vocals. We have to go back to this.' So, If you take the best song elements from the '80s albums, and put these on one album, you come up with the Sting in the Tail album. So in this case we tried to re-invent the Scorpions sound from the '80s, using the same DNA after putting in a modern twist, to make it sound like today's music.
And now classic rock is back. Even bands like Green Day and Nickelback play classic rock. That's what it is. In this case, we picked the perfect time to release an album. Here we are, Scorpions, with a new album, and every song has a special kind of, let's say, feeling. Rock music has been our soundtrack, and there's a reason why we have so many songs with titles like 'Spirit of Rock' and 'Let's Rock.' It's because we, after a 40 year career, can really say, 'Yeah, rock is great.' After the concept album Humanity Hour 1, with its big message, we said, 'Okay, we don't want to go for Humanity Hour 2. We'll go for let's rock!" (check out our full interview with Rudolf Schenker)