Saturday with Scorpions

Or should I say: Samstag mit Scorpions?
Despite taking three years of high school German, I had always tried my best to avoid the SCORPIONS.
I always found the album covers to be RIDICULOUSLY MISOGYNISTIC, for one thing. Have you seen the cover of "Lovedrive?" A man appears to have his hand stuck in bubble gum that was affixed to some woman's breast. Have you seen the cover of "Animal Magnetism?" Well, there's this girl and a dog kneeling in front of some guy and...
Well, surely you see my point. This band routinely put girls in cages for their videos, and that always struck me as being more than a bit distasteful. Crazy Germans.
Notice how I mentioned I always *TRIED* to avoid the Scorpions? Well, I never could, completely, because THEIR SONGS WERE ALWAYS SO CATCHY!
Then, just when I was almost able to hear "Rock You Like a Hurricane" or "No One Like You" without involuntarily singing along, the band came up with "Wind of Change," and the ballad about political changes in Russia became linked instead with the fall of the BERLIN WALL.
"When the reunification happened, it became a very special song for Germans," guitarist RUDOLF SCHENKER explains in this month's "Guitar World" magazine. Schenker and fellow guitarist MATTHIAS JABS actually come across as a pair of humble, down-to-earth guys in the interview, which spans the band's lengthy (and continuing) career.
The pair discuss at length their experiences, many made while sporting a GIBSON EXPLORER (Jabs) or GIBSON FLYING V (Schenker) -- both pictured above (Jabs is on the left).
I have been reading the magazine and listening to the Scorpions throughout the day.
I still laugh at some of the rather stilted lyrics and I still cringe at the thought of the covers (akin to Spinal Tap's "Smell the Glove," perhaps?).
However, I also still sing along with their ÜBER-CATCHY TUNES.