Herman Ze German – Herman Ze German And Friends 1985 (Capitol/EMI, Japan 1993) Lossless+mp3

German drummer Herman ‘Ze German‘ Rarebell is best known for his tenure with the Scorpions during their most popular era – from 1977 to 1995 – playing on the band’s more influential albums. He was an important

composer in the history of the group, co-writing such classic songs as ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane,’ ‘Make It Real,’ ‘Dynamite,’ ‘Blackout,’ ‘Arizona,’ ‘Bad Boys Running Wild,’ or ‘Another Piece of Meat’ among others.
But Herman is a prolific songwriter, and many of his own songs didn’t found place in the Scorpions schedule. Then, in 1982, the drummer recorded his first solo album, ‘Nip in the Bud’ only in released in Germany in limited quantities.
In the lapse of the following two years Scorpions fame exploded worldwide, specially in the U.S., where the band met many colleagues touring coast to coast. Between the gigs Herman decided to re-record the songs of his debut, this time with the collaboration of rising stars of the new metal scene,with the help of Michael Wagener producing & mixing.

Released 1985, the album was titled ”HERMAN ZE GERMAN And Friends”.
For the beautiful semi-midtempo ballad “I’ll Say Goodbye” Don Dokken was called to track down the vocal parts. It’s a crime that the rest of the Scorpions members rejected this tune back in a day, as it would have surely been a worldwide hit for the band. In the fun hard rocker “Junk Funk” the vocals are handled by Great White’s Jack Russell, as well as on the tongue-in-cheek “Messing Around”.
Don Dokken appears again on one of the best tracks here; the melodic “Destiny”, which sounds more Dokken than ‘Dokken the band’ itself.

On the cheap n’ fun hard rocker and joke-like “Rock Your Balls” we have guesting Perdo Schemm (first Victory singer), and in “Having A Good Time” the legendary Steve Marriott of Humble Pie fame. The classic rocker “Do It” features German singer Charlie Huhn of Victory, while Don Dokken returns on the American Hard Rock of “Hard Sensation”.
Of course Herman includes two instrumentals for his drumming show, in the form of a cover of the classic old rock “Wipe-Out” and the interesting original “Pancake”, both featuring collaborations of Juan Croucier and Bobby Blotzer (Ratt), also providing backing vocals on some of the other tracks.

“Herman Ze German and Friends” is a cool, unpretentious and fun hard rock album with a style & sound impossible to re-create nowadays, as it has all that ‘analog vibe’ typical from the ’80s.
We have here some kind of ‘lost songs’ by Don Dokken (lead vocals on 3 tracks) and Jack Russell (lead on 2 track) at their peak of their vocal potency, surely a collector’s item for many rockers out there.
Highly Recommended

 

Tracklist:

1. I’ll Say Goodbye (04:10)
2. Junk Funk (03:04)
3. Destiny (03:16)
4. Rock Your Balls (03:34)
5. Wipe Out (02:23)
6. Hard Sensation (03:47)
7. Messing Around (03:17)
8. Having A Good (04:06)
9. Do It (02:58)
10. Pancake (03:19)

Band:

Darlene Love – backing vocals
Brian Soule – bass
Juan Croucier – bass
Randy Nauert – bass
Pedro Schemm – bass, vocals
Herman Rarebell – drums
Charlie Huhn – guitar, vocals
Chris Story – guitar
D.H. Cooper – guitar
Michael Thompson – guitar
Paul Collins – keyboards
Don Dokken – vocals
Jack Russell – vocals
Steve Marriott – vocals

MP3 FLAC