Ah to be back in deep with the world of NAMM. It was a long day yesterday. Tons and tons of walking. Meeting, greeting, shaking hands, and speaking above a normal level of talk in order to be heard over the noise of the hall. Seeing lots and lots of new product and some very interesting things for players of other instruments. Bumping into friends, and seeing great musical performances. It all adds up to a very fun and exhausting day. Especially when you continue afterwards into the night with the after parties at the Hilton and the House of Blues.
In a short while I’ll be picking up my cohort for the day, Femke and we’ll be heading down to the convention to continue the madness and fun for today.
The Zoo. That’s what NAMM turns into today. For some reason Saturday ends up being the most busy day. Most smart NAMM goers usually do not go on Saturday or Sunday. Unless there’s a reason. Why? NAMM is so huge that its a lot of walking, with more people and being packed to the point of herding cattle it becomes an even greater battle to get where you’d like to. And you have to wait longer to talk to people you want to do something with in any capacity.
I know I had heard The Zoo by the Scorpions before. I couldn’t find my CD of it this morning, thus I linked the video. Besides, it’s been a while since I showed a video. Granted it’s not an official Scorpions video and most likely when I return from NAMM tonight my copy of the greatest hits will likely be sitting in a very obvious spot. However, I’m in need of speed for this post today.
The Scorpions are one of the early masters of the metal genre. Hailing out of Germany, and featuring several guitarists (Michael Schenker, Rudy Schenker, and others) that were considered some of the best guitarists of the era, they had a sound that helped define it all. I had an older friend, more like a mentor cause he was much older, as I was growing up who was a guitar player who loved the metal stuff, particularly the Scorpions. That’s how I found out about them. What I like about this particular song is the plodding nature of the beat set forth by the guitars. Very much like a march of the animals as the stomp around in a cage.
Match that with the vocals of Klaus and you’ve got something unique that probably won’t come back around in the world of music. I recommend all metal heads that aren’t well versed in the Scorpions to get off their duff and go explore. Do it now. Because I’m seeing lots of those metal gods of yesteryear walking around NAMM.