THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,009) Scorpion — “Hey la, la, la”
Good time rock n’ roll, straight outta Sweden? Yeah, and this “freakbeat rumbler”(SwedishProggBlog, http://swedishprogg.blogspot.com/2013/07/scorpion-i-am-scorpion-mnw-1970.html) really hits the spot. I’m not saying that it inspired Outkast’s “Hey Ya!”, but I’m not saying it didn’t!
Of the album — I Am the Scorpion — SwedishProggBlog tells us that:
One of the most legendary albums to come out of the Swedish progg scene, and also one of the earliest. It’s almost mythical to collectors, being extremely hard to find and fetching ridiculous prices any rare time it’s offered for sale. It was ninth album release on MNW, one of the most important labels of the Swedish 70’s, putting out many stellar albums of the era. Scorpion was in fact MNW head honcho Bo Anders Larsson’s own one-off project. Larsson had previously been in Tintacs who had two singles out in the late 60’s. Tintacs soon became Ron Faust . . . . Both incarnations of the band also featured Lorne de Wolfe who later made a mark in history as a member of Contact, Vargen, and . . . Hansson de Wolfe United. The entire Contact back Larsson on ”I Am the Scorpion”, and being produced by Kim Fowley, it’s like the evil cousin to Contact’s – much more subdued – debut album ”Nobody Wants to Be Sixteen”. . . . “I Am the Scorpion” is a partly wild affair, sometimes reminiscent of the Stooges or any other late 60’s/early 70’s Detroit band of your choice. Side A of the album is hard-boiled psych rock with frantic fuzz guitars. . . . With the first side of the album having the guitars going on the red and the drums pounding on your eardrums, side B [where you can find “Hey, la, la, la”] might come as an unpleasant surprise. Much mellower, and in parts downright terrible. It begins with one of the lousiest tracks ever recorded in Sweden, ”Michoican” . . . . Why this jolly-jolly-ho-ho-ho-thumbs-up-yeehah crap was chosen as a single – A side at that! – is a complete mystery. . . . The rest of the second side is much better, but a far cry from the stunning first one. . . . Side A . . . is as heavy and rough as music got in 1970, up there with the best and rawest US garage rock of the era.
http://swedishprogg.blogspot.com/2013/07/scorpion-i-am-scorpion-mnw-1970.html
Hey, I like the second side better than the first side!
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