Matthias Jabs

DrCornelius

Having a very crackly evening with my Scorpions vinyl as the wife and daughter are watching some dreadful make up program next door.

So far it’s been Lovedrive and love at first sting - not sure what to pick next as they are my two favourites.

Just wanted to ask if anyone else agrees with my beer aided assertion that he is one of the most tasteful hard rock players of the era - always seems to serve the song with very little mindless widdling for the sake of it.

Philly_Q

I'm a fan.  I think he's criminally underrated in comparison with his predecessors.  Maybe if he'd contributed more to the songwriting he'd be appreciated a little more.

Philly_Q

(For a horrible moment I thought this was in the Tributes section...)

StefB

Wonderful player, a perfect fit. 

No coincidence that the band’s fortunes took a major upturn when he replaced Uli Jon Roth. 

DrCornelius

StefB said:

Wonderful player, a perfect fit. 

No coincidence that the band’s fortunes took a major upturn when he replaced Uli Jon Roth. 

Yes as good as Uli was , he tended to ahem ‘overplay’ a touch :-)

prowla

I saw them on the Lovedrive tour (Sheffield City Hall) - it was one of the best gigs I've been to.

FelineGuitars

I do love Matthias Jabs and I think his playing really came on a long way on Blackout and Love At first sting

Remember at least 4 of the tracks on Lovedrive were Michael Schenker playing

 "Another Piece of Meat", "Coast to Coast", "Holiday", "Loving You Sunday Morning" and "Lovedrive"

DrCornelius

FelineGuitars said:

I do love Matthias Jabs and I think his playing really came on a long way on Blackout and Love At first sting

Remember at least 4 of the tracks on Lovedrive were Michael Schenker playing

 "Another Piece of Meat", "Coast to Coast", "Holiday", "Loving You Sunday Morning" and "Lovedrive"

Ah interesting thanks - I didn’t realise that.  Loving you Sunday morning is such an awesome track too.

Philly_Q

DrCornelius said:

StefB said:

Wonderful player, a perfect fit. 

No coincidence that the band’s fortunes took a major upturn when he replaced Uli Jon Roth. 

Yes as good as Uli was , he tended to ahem ‘overplay’ a touch :-)

I think of the main Scorpions periods almost as two separate bands (maybe even three, as the first album with Michael Schenker is very different again*).  The Uli albums are so different from the ones with Matthias.

I don't really prefer one period over the other, though.  In album terms they had an amazing run from Lovedrive to Love at First Sting (plus World Wide Live), but my other favourite is Fly to the Rainbow.

(* And yes, of course Michael also contributed to Lovedrive, but by then I think the key ingredient was the Klaus/Rudolf songwriting team - although Michael claims Rudolf stole all his ideas.)

octatonic

I thought this was a review of a German vaccination centre.

prowla

Philly_Q said:

DrCornelius said:

StefB said:

Wonderful player, a perfect fit. 

No coincidence that the band’s fortunes took a major upturn when he replaced Uli Jon Roth. 

Yes as good as Uli was , he tended to ahem ‘overplay’ a touch :-)

I think of the main Scorpions periods almost as two separate bands (maybe even three, as the first album with Michael Schenker is very different again*).  The Uli albums are so different from the ones with Matthias.

I don't really prefer one period over the other, though.  In album terms they had an amazing run from Lovedrive to Love at First Sting (plus World Wide Live), but my other favourite is Fly to the Rainbow.

(* And yes, of course Michael also contributed to Lovedrive, but by then I think the key ingredient was the Klaus/Rudolf songwriting team - although Michael claims Rudolf stole all his ideas.)

I view Lovedrive as Michael Schenker with The Scorpions and the follow-up Animal Magnetism as The Scorpions trying to do Michael Schenker.

Tokyo Tapes is a great album (with Uli Roth).

Reverend

Jabs plays great, melodic solos.

AS much as Schenker and Roth are gods, Jabs is fantastic

Philly_Q

prowla said:

Philly_Q said:

DrCornelius said:

StefB said:

Wonderful player, a perfect fit. 

No coincidence that the band’s fortunes took a major upturn when he replaced Uli Jon Roth. 

Yes as good as Uli was , he tended to ahem ‘overplay’ a touch :-)

I think of the main Scorpions periods almost as two separate bands (maybe even three, as the first album with Michael Schenker is very different again*).  The Uli albums are so different from the ones with Matthias.

I don't really prefer one period over the other, though.  In album terms they had an amazing run from Lovedrive to Love at First Sting (plus World Wide Live), but my other favourite is Fly to the Rainbow.

(* And yes, of course Michael also contributed to Lovedrive, but by then I think the key ingredient was the Klaus/Rudolf songwriting team - although Michael claims Rudolf stole all his ideas.)

I view Lovedrive as Michael Schenker with The Scorpions and the follow-up Animal Magnetism as The Scorpions trying to do Michael Schenker.

Tokyo Tapes is a great album (with Uli Roth).

I guess it all depends on your personal view of Michael Schenker. 

I like him - in fact I'm wearing a Michael Schenker T-shirt as I type this - but he often comes across in interviews as a bit of a dick and I've never seen him as a particularly great songwriter.  Rudolf may be in his brother's shadow as a guitarist (although I doubt he loses sleep over it) but he's written a lot more great songs.

Actually the very best thing about Scorpions may be Klaus's vocals, now that I think about it.

BGG

Hugely underrated, love him as a player and performer. 

Lucky enough to have seen him live four times, always a brilliant show. 

prowla

The problem Matthias Jabs he has is that he's always going to be third on the list after Michael Schenker & Uli Roth.

But heck, that is a pretty impressive list!

Flanging_Fred

I’m a huge Scorpions fan and love all three of Jabs, Schenker and Roth but as been said previously, for different reasons. I remember clearly hearing Blackout for the first time. I had just bought the cassette and put it on my Walkman. Walking down the high street, the solo kicked in and it just blew me away. Intense, melodic, punchy, it elevated the song but didn’t go on any longer than it needed. Just about the perfect rock guitar solo if you ask me.

markj

Superb player completely underrated. Met him a few yrs ago along with the rest of the band, super friendly and was willing to talk for as long as you wanted.

FelineGuitars

George Lynch  said that Jabs was keen to be shown a lot of techniques  by him during the recording of Blackout. 

The Scorps were recording in the studio next to where Dokken were recording.

They already had Don Dokken standing in and doing some guide vocals while Klaus was undergoing surgery/treatment for throat problems.

So Jabs and Lynch were hanging out and George was showing Matthias lots of techniques that were popular with LA based players - Van Halen type stuff 

And sure enough there was a shift in Matthias playing style when it came to some songs on Blackout (and using a Strat with one humbucker and a non fine tuning  floyd). It helped with the Americanisation of the Scorps which in some ways turned their fortunes around in the states  and helped their bank balances.

goldtop

I always thought the Jabs was a by-the-numbers lead guitarist, whereas MS and UJR were far more distinctive. That by-the-numbers thing, plus way better song-writing and production is the formula that made the Scorps huge in the '80s.

(And UJR might have gone on far too long with the solos, but at least when he was doing that, he wasn't 'singing'.)

prowla

goldtop said:

I always thought the Jabs was a by-the-numbers lead guitarist, whereas MS and UJR were far more distinctive. That by-the-numbers thing, plus way better song-writing and production is the formula that made the Scorps huge in the '80s.

(And UJR might have gone on far too long with the solos, but at least when he was doing that, he wasn't 'singing'.)

...you do have a point there!

phil_b

Philly_Q said:

(For a horrible moment I thought this was in the Tributes section...)

For a horrible moment I thought this was about a new covid vaccine