And Speaking of Scorpions...: Autobiography of Former Scorpions Drummer Herman "Ze German" Rarebell (Michael Robert Krikorian's Collection)

The Scorpions are the most under-rated band in the history of music. Having said that, any insight to the band that created the best music ever is appreciated. I enjoyed the read and could picture where I was as the events were unfolding during the 80's. Herman, thank you for telling your story, I enjoyed it!

I didn't care much about Herman's personal life, in fact the only reason I bought this book was to get a first hand story about one of my favorite bands, Scorpions. Believe it or not, this is the only English language book written on such an amazing band. Unfortunately, if you are buying this book for the same reason that I did, prepare to be disappointed. There's so little about the band here -and much of what it's told here you can find elsewhere- that it's really not worth your time to give this amateurish effort a try.Ok I get it. It's a book written personally by Herman Rarebell, and English is not his mother tongue. However, that's no excuse because there are editors that can help with that. Reading this book is like reading the diary of a 18-year old boy which was written while being drunk or high. Seriously, the narrative is extremely inconsistent, gets constantly out of topic (and sometimes doesn't come back to the topic), and it's so full of random (and unfunny) puns that it's really hard to read. I found myself skipping through pages and pages of garbage to try and find the few references related to Scorpions albums, touring and anecdotes, and finding very little.The only chapters I liked were the last ones where he discusses the changes in the band after Dieter Dierks left, and how after the success of Wind of Change, Scorpions pretty much became Klaus and Rudolf "solo" act and not a team effort anymore. That explains a lot of things to me. Greed is a killer and it was not different with the Scorpions. Also, the Epilogue is worth the whole book! It was great to know that Herman believes in God and doesn't believe in evolution. He makes some excellent points about what's important in this world. I guess that even after a life of self-indulgence, it is still possible for a rock star to achieve peace of mind and find the truth.

Kind of difficult to follow some of it, but very informative about the best band in the whole world, Scorpions! Well, back in the day, anyway. I appreciate Herman's honesty. I have used this book for our Scorpions Fan page for trivia and such.

he wrote this about the Scorpions heyday. a lot of the clowning and carousing when they were fast forming a legendary sound. he tells it with a good memory of events that shaped their music-till his departure from the band. and he's right, they didn't and haven't sounded at all the same since his last contribution to the albums released. we miss you Mr Ze German...

I've always found Scorpions to be one of the greatest bands of their style. I saw them headline over Iron Maiden in 1982 and that basically lit the fire. When I heard Herman wrote a book, I couldn't wait, especially since he was going to include the early years with Uli. The problem is that I felt like Herman wrote the book in a tone where he was trying to be funny, yet he kept correcting his incorrectness throughout. I found that to be a bit irritating and a waste of good space for better stories. The other problem is that he didn't seem to know the members of his own band. There are very few mentions of any of them in regards to anything personal. The best story being Rudolph's drunken night in Dubuque, IA (the hotel was the Best Western Dubuque Inn, by the way). To know that's how Blackout came about was a good story. I wanted more detail like that. There was no mention of Rudolph getting arrested in Texas. I read about that in Kerrang in 1983, so he should remember that. What about Matthias Jabs, one of the best guitarists of the genre? There are only a few mentions of him, none that give any real insight into what he thought of him as a person, player, or anything else.To write a book like this has to have some dirt that goes deeper than the first layer. Herman didn't want to upset anyone, obviously, but he could have dove in deeper and gave us a better understanding of the band, how they related to each other, etc. Some of the book read like an apology letter, and I'm sure all great people who have had the life of excess, have some regrets, but save that for the epilogue. There is still much to know about Scorpions and I hope one of the other members of the band will write a more detailed book about life as one of the Scorpions, where they don't appear to be merely a stranger to the other four guys in the band.

A wonderfully entertaining story. I enjoyed the historical point of view as well as Rarebell's side note humor and interesting facts! A must read for any Scorpions fan!

What a great fun on the fly read!!! Viva Rarebell and all classy musicians like him---lots of fun, highly recommended!!!

Strange book to get into as its a transcript from an interview. Herman is still touring with Michael and Francis and still Rocks.

scorpions what can one say great 80's band herman was a driving force behind the scorps recommend to any scorpions fan

Almost unreadable. I ended up skipping across large sections of waffle. I've read an awful lot of rock biographies and this sits bottom of the pile.