Review Summary: 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!!!!!
After releasing their highly successful Love at First Sting, Scorpions were at the top of their game, songs like Rock You Like a Hurricane, Still Loving You or Big City Nights were huge world wide hits back in 1984, making this album their most successful release in the US (triple platinum) reaching also honourable places in the German, French or Swiss charts. The huge commercial success of Love at First Sting launched Scorpions into an intensive sold-out arena world tour, from January 23 until February 7 of 1985, performing over 200 shows for more than 2 million die hard fans, culminating with a memorable appearance on Rock In Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The German boys were really rocking like a hurricane, devastating stadiums and arenas all over the world with an impressive 48 tons of light and sound equipment and a professional road crew consisted of more than 60 people, from stage roadies and technicians to bus drivers or cooks. Love at First Sting World Tour still remains one of the most memorable and successful heavy metal tours ever done. So in the spring of 1985, using recordings from Paris, Cologne, San Diego and Los Angeles, The Scorpions released their second live album, World Wide Live, a perfect documentation from their 1979-1984 golden and most successful era.
The album starts with the epic intro Countdown, a short but intense interlude for the opening killer song Coming Home, taken from Love at First Sting. Coming Home was the ideal choice to start the album and a perfectly good example how to adapt a studio song into the dynamics of a live performance. Removing the acoustic and silent intro of the studio version and including additional new voracious leads from Matthias Jabs, Coming Home mutated almost into a brand new song, faster and definitely more intense than its original studio version. The ending lead theme remains one of the most impressive live performances from Matthias Jabs.
After the opening hurricane, Scorpions continue the intense performance with the furious Blackout, one of their most known killer songs, before moving into slightly calmer waters with Bad Boys Running Wild, Loving You Sunday Morning and Make It Real. The catchy Big City Nights and the memorable instrumental Coast to Coast were the logical interlude to the beautiful ballads Holiday and Still Loving You, that helped to create a good balance between the track list, moving the audience into more emotional fields.
The side three, of the classic 84 vinyl release, starts with an impressive live performance of Rock You Like a Hurricane, followed by the popular Can't Live Without You and the faster anthems Another Piece of Meat and Dynamite, taken from Lovedrive and Blackout, probably their heaviest album ever released. But one of the most memorable moments of World Wide Live is definitely No One Like You and its passionate live performance so brilliantly captured here.
The sound engineering is effective, producing an intense live feeling throughout the album and the musical performances are also untouchable, with honourable mentions to Klaus Meine's impressive high range vocals, Rudolf Schenker's memorable riffs and Matthias Jabs remarkable lead work.
Overall World Wide Live is an amazing live album that perfectly captures the spirit of a band at the top of their game, a memorable statement of a time where major hard rock/heavy metal acts ruled the charts and played sold-out shows all over the world, still remaining one of the best hard rock live albums ever released.
Pros:
Coming Home, Rock You Like a Hurricane and No One Like You
Solid musical performances
Great live ambience throughout the album
Cons:
The cool, but dispensable Six String Sting
