Lady Starlight

I went through a major Scorpions phase between 1986-89. It was the only music band poster I bought in my entire life, I think, but I couldn't hang it up on the wall because my mom had a thing for whitewashed walls being damaged (My room back home still has stark walls).

Scorpions was also the first band who I saw live in concert in mid-Hudson Civic Center back in 1994-95 on a double bill with Alice Cooper. It was the weirdest experience. I went by myself since I couldn't find anyone interested to go with me. And I entered the room in my Bangladeshi print shirt and trousers, and got intimidated by a bunch of beer guzzling middle aged men in old tee shirts and dirty jeans with paint stains on them yelling (singing?) along with Alice Cooper. My friend Matthew Johnson was working at security that night, and he was so worried about me being alone in Poughkeepsie on a week night, I think he paid for the taxi ride back at 10pm, and the ride cost more than the concert ticket.

If I had to do it over again, I'm sure I could find my old Scorpions tee shirt, and now that I'm borderline middle aged (which border, you ask?), I'd fit right in.

I didn't realize that they were not that big in the US until I was standing on a subway station in Kuala Lumpur back in 2004 and got really excited about the promo for their concert in Malaysia and then realized that Paul has never even heard of the band.

Anyways, my dad went to Germany on an official tour in 1991 and bought a vinyl of Scorpions album, Animal Magnetism. It was one of the five/six LPs I owned, so I listened to it over and over again until I scratched it beyond playability.

I was browsing Youtube and found a homemade video of my favorite song from the album. It's called Lady Starlight, and listening to it brought me back to the days when I thought that learning to play a bass guitar like Michael Schenkman should be my ultimate passion, if I ever had the time or money. Here's the song.