Chilling Solo's: Love to Love
UFO has had several iterations, but the mid to late 70's produced some of my most memorable guitar solos.
UFO is a band that got its start in the late 1960’s, blending some psychedelia, some covers, and achieved modest success. But, in 1974, needing a new guitar player, they turned to the young Michael Schenker, plucking him from The Scorpions. It turns out that this was a very good thing for both sides of the equation. UFO went on to huge commercial success, arena tours, and stardom. The Scorpions went quirky, replacing Schenker with Uli Jon Roth, a player with flair and a deep fusion of rock and classical scales and motifs.
But while the UFO sound expanded with the addition of Schenker, they also became more focused on straight up rock and roll, veering into the harder edged sounds. But they also were polished enough to capture some significant airtime, and in the 70’s that was essential for fame.
While I have several songs that I love from this era (ahem - Rock Bottom) there is one live recording where the solo sends shivers down my spine.
I am talking about a ballad titles “Love to Love”. It was a song on the breakout album “Lights Out” that was not the best track. But live? It just reaches out and grabs you by the gonads. Don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself:
This was recorded in late 1978, from a US tour in the mid-west. There is a box set of 6 of the shows, and then the official double live album (there was some engineering wizardry on the mix down for the album) that captures this series of shows.
Alas, this was the last tour with Michael Schenker, who departed to return to the Scorpions for the Lovedrive album, spring-boarding to his solo career.
Paul Chapman replaced Michael, and while he is a pretty good guitar player, he never held a candle to Schenker.
Pardon me while I slip on my headphones and crank the volume.