Wednesday 12 February 2014

MSG (Michael Schenker Group): The First 2 Albums



For me, 'On and On' (above) from the second MSG album is still the most interesting track that MSG have ever done:  it just nicely combines a delicate 'winter-like' keyboard into with a solid guitar riff and surprisingly poetic lyrics (if analysed). 

Remember seeing MSG with the classic (Schenker, Powell, Raymond, Glen, Barden) line-up on the front row at Manchester Apollo in 1981, as a young teenager at the time, not realising that being crushed at the front of the stage is no fun.

For the first time in say 25-30 years, I played the second MSG album recently, and while some of the tunes now sounded somewhat dated ('Attack of the Mad Axeman'; 'Never Trust a Stranger' etc.), like 'On and On', 'But I Want More' (below) seems to have a more long-lasting quality:


Really enjoy going back to albums that I liked donkeys years ago, to see which tracks have 'lasted the test of time' (don't sound 'dated').

Also saw MSG at Manchester Apollo in 1980 after they'd just released the first 'Michael Schenker Group' album, and, for a 13-year-old schoolboy, Schenker just looked like a magician, a deity almost, especially when doing the canonical UFO stuff ('Doctor Doctor; 'Love To Love'; 'Rock Bottom' etc.). 

Having also played the first MSG album recently, the two tracks that have (for me) 'lasted the test of time' are predictably 'Lost Horizons' (probably Schenker's most canonised non-UFO tune):



and rather surprisingly the delicate acoustic tune 'Tales of Mystery' (had completely forgotten about this, but it in no way sounds 'dated'):


After the first two MSG albums and tours, I got to see MSG once or twice more (the memory really does fade) at Manchester Apollo, also in the early 1980s, but the only MSG track that I can now recognise or name after the first two albums is 'Captain Nemo':


Just think that MSG were a great band at the start of the 1980s, and, nowadays, some of what the band did back then is seriously underrated.

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