Written by No one could ever accuse Scorpions of taking the easy route to success. By the time the Germans were firmly established as one of the world’s biggest rock bands, they had put in nearly 20 years of active service.
But after many years of incremental progress, 1982’s Blackout album finally propelled guitarist Rudolf Schenker and his bandmates to the top of the burgeoning 80s heavy metal tree, with irresistible singles No One Like You and Can’t Live Without You turning the band into a major force on US rock radio.
Of course, momentum is everything, and so when the band began work on their next album, Rudolf knew instinctively that they needed some more huge, singalong anthems. But bigger ones.
“No One Like You was the most-played song on US radio in 1982,” Rudolf recalls. “That was pretty crazy. From there we were able to do our first headlining shows in the States, with Iron Maiden and Girlschool, and we did fantastically well.
“We were really riding on this high wave, and so I was thinking even bigger… what could I write next, you know?”
The recording sessions for Blackout had been plagued with problems, not least vocalist Klaus Meine’s temporary departure to deal with a serious vocal issue.
Even as band and long-time producer Dieter Dierks began work on the follow-up, Love At First Sting, things didn’t seem to have calmed down much.
We were really riding on this high wave, and so I was thinking even bigger.
Rudolf Schenker
Drummer Herman Rarebell and bassist Francis Buchholz were temporarily ejected from the band without their knowledge, allegedly because they were “tired” from touring (Rarebell later admitted that he was “a total alcoholic” at the time).
Both were eventually reinstated for the sessions, and it seemed the tough times had bought them closer together. Newly inspired, Rudolf presented the band with a new song that he’d begun to write while on the Blackout tour. It was big, brash and catchy as hell. All it needed was some lyrics.
“Dieter understood that this song needed the right lyrics. I understood, too, but I couldn’t find them!” he laughs. “In the end, we wrote the lyrics for the song nine times. Every time Dieter would say ‘No!’ or ‘That isn’t working!”
The task of nailing the lyrics fell to singer Klaus Meine and Herman Rarebell. “Klaus and Herman wrote the lyrics together,” says Schenker. “It was Klaus’s very romantic, harmonic mind and Herman’s very dirty mind.”
Rarebell had an idea for the song’s title. “The original title, for me at least, was Fuck You Like A Hurricane,’” the drummer later said, admitting it reflected his lifestyle at the time: “For me it was a wild time, it really was sex and drugs and rock’n’roll.”
The band’s panicked record label insisted that potty-mouthed title wouldn’t fly, so they toned it down. Fuck You Like A Hurricane became Rock You Like A Hurricane. But the drummer still managed to sneak some near-the-knuckle lyrics into the song.
While the album’s opening lines – “It’s early morning, the sun comes out/Last night was shaking and pretty loud” – were fairly tame, other lyrics wouldn’t wash today.
“Herman was always the guy for the double meanings and innuendos, and suddenly the song was there… ‘The bitch is hungry, she needs to tell, so give her inches and feed her well.’
“It was perfect for the song. It was sexual, it was crazy, it was rocking… it just felt right, you know? You have to remember that this was the 80s!”
While Rock You Like A Hurricane probably wouldn’t pass a political sensitivity taste these days, but there’s no denying that the song’s artful combination of mischievous smut and hooks the size of Jupiter made it a colossal hit around the world upon its release as a single in February 1984.
It was sexual, it was crazy, it was rocking. You have to remember that this was the 80s!
Rudolf Schenker
“When our agent heard the song live for the first time, he called me and said, ‘This is a hit!’” says Rudolf. “And he was right! We started to notice how strong the song was. It was on the radio in the States and it was in the top 20 charts worldwide.
American girls came up to us, saying, ‘We love you guys! Rock you like a hurricane!’ so it was obviously working. Suddenly you start to hear the song in a different way and you play it in a different way because then you understand the true power of the song.”
Widely regarded as one of the greatest 80s hard rock anthems, Rock You Like A Hurricane has been a permanent fixture in Scorpions’ live sets ever since.
It has also been used and abused by a never-ending succession of TV shows, films and advertisements; the unerring power of that riff and the ludicrous catchiness of that chorus ensuring that the song is as much part of mainstream culture as it is a revered heavy metal classic.
“I performed at an awards ceremony in Tokyo a while ago with a bunch of different musicians, and we played Rock You Like A Hurricane,” Rudolf notes.
“I noticed when we played the song that it’s still incredibly strong. It still has that power, even when I play it with other people. When the music and the lyrics meet and they’re perfect together, it’s synergy. You just can’t beat that.”
Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 310 (May 2018)
