📸✈️From Berlin, #Germany 🇩🇪 to #SanMarco square, Venice, for the first time... a great evening #WalkingTour... and a picture 📸 in reverse 😁
Venice Rocks, always! 🤟
#myguests

📌14 January 1977

David Bowie
📀 Low

45 years ago David Bowie released his 11th studio album Low. It's a complete change of sound in his music, reflecting a complete change in personal life! After years of drug abuse in the US #DavidBowie and his friend #IggyPop had just relocated first in France and at the end of 1976 in Berlin.
Low, recorded in France and completed in #Germany, is the first album of the so called Berlin Trilogy, where Bowie and Iggy collaborated and appeared in the respective albums and tours. In Low Bowie flirts with #ExperimentalRock and #Ambient, thanks to the work of his longtime producer #TonyVisconti and his longtime friend #BrianEno, the genius who was actually inventing ambient music at the time! 🤟
The sound is also deeply influenced by German acts such as #Neu! and #Kraftwerk.
The album contains the single "Sound And Vision", one of the biggest Bowie successes (not intended by him who did nothing to promote it) thanks to BBC usage of the song in commercials.
#ArtRock #14January

📌1972 (precise date uncertain)

Popol Vuh
📀 Hosianna Mantra

50 years ago Popol Vuh a musical collective from Munich, #Germany released their 3rd studio album, Hosianna Mantra.

According to critics and passionate of the so called German #KrautRock (the genre that developed in late 1960s / early 1970s), this album is #PopolVuh masterpiece and an absolute gem in the Progressive Rock golden age, mainly thanks to the work on piano 🎹 of band leader and producer Florian Fricke, the work on guitars 🎸of Conny Veit, the celestial vocals 🎼 of Korean soprano Djong Yun.

#HosiannaMantra is an experiment of music genres that were in their embryonic stage at the time, like #NewAge, #Ambient, #ChamberPop, probably one of the closest to perfection!

📌 January 1972

NEU!
📀 NEU!

50 years ago an obscure duo of innovative musicians from Düsseldorf, #Germany released their eponymous debut album: NEU!
NEU is the German word for NEW and no word more than this one fits the music of Michael Rother (guitar, bass), Klaus Dinger (drums, guitar, taishōgoto), Konrad "Conny" Plank (producer, engineer).
The 3 had just left another German innovative band, #Kraftwerk, and recorded NEU! at the end of 1971.

If this album would be released today, I'm 100% sure it would be considered one of the best Post Rock / Electronic works of our time... the thing is, it was released in 1972 when "traditional" rock'n'roll was all around, still growing and developing 😳

#NEU! had poor response, perhaps it was too weird and ahead, put into the usual #Krautrock pot like everything that came from Germany in those years.

From the repetitive 4/4 drumbeat of the initial "Hallogallo", to the hallucinated whispers of the final "Lieber Honig"... a timeless experience! #ExperimentalRock

📌 January 1972

Kraftwerk
📀 Kraftwerk 2
#AvantGarde #Ambient #MusiqueConcrete #KrautRock

50 years ago Kraftwerk from #Germany released their second studio album.

Kraftwerk 2 was entirely written and performed by founding members Ralf Hütter (organ, electric piano, guitar, bass, rhythm machine, xylophone, harmonica) and Florian Schneider (flutes, violin, guitar, effects, xylophone) in late 1971, production by Conny Plank.

There are no words to describe this album... just think it was 50 years ago!

"Nobody wanted to play with us because we did all kinds of strange things..."
Ralf Hütter

🎼9 February 1972.
Don't know whether someone can recognize the guys in the picture 📸☝️.
They are the German band Scorpions in 1972 ! 😳
And exactly 50 years ago they released their debut album Lonesome Crow with a sound totally different from the one we are used to hear from them!
#Scorpions #9February

👉 Click here to Review Lonesome Crow

📌 March 1977

Kraftwerk
📀 Trans-Europe Express
#Electronic #Synthpop #ExperimentalPop #Avantgarde

45 years ago Kraftwerk from #Germany released their 6th studio album which they entitled to celebrate the titular European railway service and Europe as a whole.
Trans-Europe Express was the highest international charting album by #Kraftwerk to date, also thanks to a change of sound, now more focused on a melodic electronic style, sequenced rhythms, minimalism and occasionally manipulated vocals.

This album had success and consideration also among the late 1970s /early 1980s growing punk and new wave generation of musicians and is often cited as an influence. The titletrack reproducing electronically a running train is epic, one of the most known Kraftwerk's numbers for sure!

Listen to Trans-Europe Express 👉 here

📌18 March 1977

Iggy Pop
📀 The Idiot
#ArtRock #ExperimentalRock #PostPunk

45 years ago Iggy Pop released his debut solo album The Idiot.
Those were the Berlin years for Iggy: as happened for his friend David Bowie's album
👉 Low 2 month earlier, The Idiot was written initially in France and recorded in #Germany, this time in Munich at 👉 Giorgio Moroder's Musicland studios.

The Idiot could well be considered a Pop/Bowie album because all songs were written and performed by #IggyPop (vocals) and #DavidBowie (keyboards, synthesizer, guitar, piano, saxophone, xylophone, backing vocals) who also produced the album in collaboration with #TonyVisconti.
The song "China Girl" would become a successful single years later, re-recorded and performed by David Bowie in 1983.
#18March

🎧Listen to The Idiot 👉 here

🎼6 April 1952. Happy 70th Birthday to Udo Dirkschneider, born in Wuppertal, #Germany.
A True Metal⚡️Heart!
#Udo #Accept #6April

https://youtu.be/TN0z8nnl52k

🤦‍♂#RockEpicFails
1987, 35 years ago a Heavy⚡️Metal band from #Germany called Torment released one of the worst album covers ever 😬

The album was entitled "Bestial Sex" btw... 😂🙈
#RockMoments

⚡️#TheMondayRecharger
Dear old #Germany...

You all have a nice Monday!

P.s. how this video ends... I've always wondered why these 2 guys 🤔🤦‍♂

https://youtu.be/x6q0ciiqyG0

A good Rock one für meine Nordrhein-Westfalen Freunde ... and for my actual guest from Köln, #Germany !
Aachen (Aquisgrana) Rocks 😉🤘

Thanks Lory for sharing 😘

📌23 April 1988

Scorpions
📀 Savage Amusement
#HeavyMetal #HardRock

35 years ago Scorpions from Hannover, #Germany released their 10th studio album.

Savage Amusement peaked n.5 in US and entered top 10 charts in most European countries, confirming the Germans as one of the leading bands of the genre in the 80s.
The first single "Rhythm Of Love" was a huge success.

It was my first #Scorpions album back in the days, still have the cassette in #VeniceRocksRoom☝️

In this album:
#KlausMeine – lead vocals
#RudolfSchenker – guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals
#MatthiasJabs – guitar, voice box, backing vocals
#FrancisBuchholz – bass, backing vocals
#HermanRarebell – drums, backing vocals

Additional musicians
#LeeAaron – backing vocals
#PeterBaltes – intro vocals
#23April

🎧Listen to Savage Amusement 👉 here

📀 Album of the Week
     @Venice_Rocks

📌29 August 1988

Helloween
📀 Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II
#HeavyMetal #PowerMetal

35 years ago Helloween from Hamburg, #Germany, released their 3rd studio album (my original cassette in #VeniceRocksRoom☝️).

The second part of the
👉 Keeper of the Seven Keys concept, this album was a commercial success and marked the international breakthrough for #Helloween who became one of the world's leading Heavy Metal bands.

Power Metal Masterpiece🤘

In this album:
#MichaelKiske - vocals
#KaiHansen - guitar, backing vocals
#MichaelWeikath - guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, cover concept
#MarkusGrosskopf - bass, fretless bass
#IngoSchwichtenberg - drums
#29August

🎧Listen to Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II 👉 here

📀 Album of the Week
     @Venice_Rocks

📌February 1975

NEU!
📀 NEU! 75
#ExperimentalRock #Ambient #SpaceRock #Kosmische #PsychedelicRock #ProtoPunk #PostRock

50 years ago NEU! from Düsseldorf, #Germany released their 3rd studio album.

NEU! 75 is #NEU final album in the 70s, they disbanded after the release and shortly came back only in middle 1990s.

I have no words to describe the beauty of this album, I use those of a reviewer who wrote: "The sounds you have in your mind and didn't know already existed"... actual and timeless masterpiece ❤️‍🔥

In this album:
#MichaelRother – guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals
#KlausDinger – guitar, drums, percussion, vocals, electronics
"Conny" #KonradPlank – producer, engineer
#ThomasDinger, #HansLumpe – drums

🎧Listen to NEU! 75 👉 here

📀 Album of the Week
     @Venice_Rocks

📌4 April 1995

Blind Guardian
📀 Imaginations From The Other Side
#HeavyMetal #PowerMetal

30 years ago Blind Guardian from Krefeld, #Germany released their 5th studio album.

Few words to describe Imaginations From The Other Side: simply one of the most iconic Heavy Metal albums of that decade and one of the best Power Metal ever🤘❤️‍🔥

#BlindGuardian in this album:
#HansiKürsch – vocals and bass
#AndréOlbrich – lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars
#MarcusSiepen – rhythm guitar
#ThomenStauch – drums, percussion

Guest musicians
#MathiasWiesner – effects
#JacobMoth – acoustic guitar
#BillyKing, #HackyHackmann, #RolfKöhler, #PietSielck, #RonnieAtkins – backing vocals
#4April

🎧Listen to Imaginations From The Other Side 👉 here

📀 Album of the Week
     @Venice_Rocks

📌1 May 1995

Axel Rudi Pell
📀 Made In Germany
#HeavyMetal

30 years ago Axel Rudi Pell, guitar hero from Bochum, #Germany released the first live album with his band.

Recorded in Hamburg and Bochum on 4-5 February 1995, Made in Germany is possibly one of the last genuine Heavy Metal live albums, released with no overdubs in pure early 1980s style.

Made of the best material taken from Pell first 4 albums, it also features a fantastic cover of #DeepPurple "Mistreated", with vocalist Jeff Scott Soto at his best🤘

In this album:
#AxelRudiPell - guitar
#JeffScottSoto - vocals
#JulieGreaux - keyboards
#VolkerKrawczak - bass
#JörgMichael - drums
#1May

🎧Listen to Made In Germany
👉 here

📀 Album of the Week
     @Venice_Rocks

📌18 November 1985

Helloween
📀 Walls Of Jericho
#HeavyMetal #SpeedMetal #PowerMetal

40 years ago Helloween from Hamburg, #Germany released their debut full-length studio album.

Walls Of Jericho is the last #Helloween recording with guitarist Kai Hansen on lead vocals (he also served on
👉 their first EP), as frontman Michael Kiske would join the band few months later.

The album contains several Helloween classics and is an absolute banger, Teutonic (and European) Power / Speed Metal at its highest level !!!

"Heavy Metal Is The Law"🤘

In this album:
#KaiHansen – vocals, guitar
#MichaelWeikath – guitar
#MarkusGrosskopf – bass
#IngoSchwichtenberg – drums

Additional musicians
#ChrisBoltendahl – backing vocals
#JamesHardway – keyboards, E-mu Emulator II
#18November

🎧Listen to Walls Of Jericho
👉 here

CCCP - Fedeli Alla Linea

The band was founded in 1982 when leaders Giovanni Lindo Ferretti and Massimo Zamboni met in Berlin, #Germany. Both were fascinated by this city, phisically split in 2 political opposite sides.
They started there to compose songs and play their first concerts: the band was named after the Cyrillic script for USSR (= CCCP), acronym of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, although pronounced according to Italian phonetics.
They added Fedeli Alla Linea following an encounter with a Berlin border officer who pronounced the phrase "Der Linie Treu" ("True To The Line") after hearing their band's name.

With overtly anti-capitalism and ostentatiously Bolshevik lyrics, #CCCP gained at the same time ostracism from the music industry and a cult following all over Europe.

📀 Album of the Week
     @Venice_Rocks

📌29 February 1996

Helloween
📀 The Time Of The Oath
#HeavyMetal #PowerMetal

30 years ago Helloween from Hamburg, #Germany, released their 7th studio album.

A concept album based on Nostradamus predictions, The Time Of The Oath was dedicated to the memory of former member and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg who committed suicide in 1995.
The song "Steel Tormentor" is a tribute to Judas Priest.

Amazing album, one of my favorite Heavy Metal of the 1990s 🤘🔥

In this album:
#AndiDeris - vocals
#MichaelWeikath - guitar
#RolandGrapow - guitar
#MarkusGrosskopf - bass
#UliKusch - drums

Additional musicians
#JörnEllerbrock, #TommyHansen - keyboards
#29February

🎧Listen to The Time Of The Oath 👉 here