Here Today... Gone To Hell!

For the first time, Michael Schenker revisits his classic years with UFO. The Schenker era, from 1972 to 1978, is revered as the period when UFO achieved international success with hits like "Doctor Doctor," "Rock Bottom," and "Lights Out." In 2024, to celebrate the 50th anniversary, Schenker re-records 11 of his UFO hits from this era, featuring guest stars such as Axl Rose, Slash, and Dee Snider.

    "Natural Thing" featuring Dee Snider and Joel Hoekstra
    "Only You Can Rock Me" featuring Joey Tempest and Roger Glover
    "Doctor, Doctor" featuring Joe Lynn Turner and Carmine Appice
    "Mother Mary" featuring Slash and Erik Grönwall
    "This Kids" featuring Biff Byford
    "Love to Love" featuring Axl Rose
    "Lights Out" featuring Jeff Scott Soto and John Norum
    "Rock Bottom" featuring Kai Hansen
    "Too Hot to Handle" featuring Joe Lynn Turner, Adrian Vandenberg, and Carmine Appice
    "Let It Roll" featuring Michael Voss
    "Shoot, Shoot" featuring Stephen Pearcy


https://www.amazon.com/Years-Ufo-Michael-Schenker-Group/dp/B0D6GZGD3D/


Released in September (?)




/jarmo

So after "Rock the Rock", "Love to Love".

Love to Love is one of the greatest songs ever recorded. Go listen.

I had never heard that song and I'm from that era of rock music.  I know the band name but none of those songs register with me. 

Interesting comment by FlashFlood over at Evo, is Axl playing piano on this?

I'll ask Mr Schenker, but just a one off. I've stopped doing that now (He sings) edited

UFO are ok, lots of ups and downs, but love to love is a great song

Mother Mary is perfect for Slash. Super excited for this. September!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ6DSEAt-4E&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z94FeCcvmrc

MICHAEL SCHENKER - Mother Mary feat. SLASH & ERIK GRÖNWALL





/jarmo

After multiple listens, MOTHER MARY officially ROCKS!!!

https://www.loudersound.com/news/michael-schenker-axl-rose-ufo-three-songs




So he sang on three of them and gave final approval for Love to Love.

Really looking forward to that!

A true professional! I am guessing he really wanted to pull off all 3 songs. Touring really takes a toll. Too bad they weren't able to do the songs at a later date.

Could you imagine an album - even though they are covers - with three songs with Axl on lead vocals and some with Slash? Geez. If we didn't have streaming today and you still pretty much had to buy the hard copies, it would have certainly gone gold quickly and probably platinum not long after. In a way it would be a semi GNR EP. Regardless, I look forward to hearing his take on the song. And just to show my age, Michael Schenker was technically the first concert I ever saw. I say technically because he opened for Rush on the Hold Your Fire tour, so he went on first. It was called the Michael Schenker Group at the time and I had no idea who the 'ef he was other than he was bad ass.

I had a similar experience, the not knowing bit, but when he toured with Judas Priest about 8 years ago, great support band.

Haha that's awesome! I almost went to see a show on that tour but it going to be on a Tuesday and I would have missed two days of work because it was about four hours away.

Out on Friday!  8)





/jarmo

it's apparently very close to the original, barely possible to recognize Axl Rose's trademark voice

Good thing I don't know the original! :D





/jarmo

https://bravewords.com/news/michael-schenker-to-tour-europe-in-2025-with-vocalist-erik-gronwall-axl-rose-is-interested-in-doing-japan-with-us-audio

FALSE, thankfully. It's Axl alright and he sounds closer to his original late 80s/early 90s than CD.


I LOVE IT!!!


I'm interested in hearing others' opinions on whether or not auto-tune was used.


This Axl version matches the original UFO version in that the instrumental portions of the song are much longer than the vocals.

I like it, but I like the song.

It sounds like Axl and the song sounds similar to the original, maybe more drums. Axl also screams and holds 'stay' at the end into the guitar solo. Sounds all fine.to me

It's tubular bells with power chords and Axl  

The more I listen, the more I love it. I'm excited to hear how this will translate to vinyl.

And yeah, that scream is old-school Axl.

Guys were are you hering it? Cant find. Thanks!

It's gonna be out on Friday. If you managed to wait since last year, surely a few more days won't be that tough?


I wonder how many fans are actually gonna listen to it legally.





/jarmo

That was nice.  :D

 :hihi: lol tough it was out as another teaser. Beer already in the fridge for friday

Try this after midnight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h376ncH4ZlM





/jarmo

I think it sounds great! Somehow if you add Axl's voice to a song it generally makes it more interesting than if you didn't.

Just released on iTunes..I thought it was amazing.

In my opinion it leaves me with no doubt a new album with GNR would be exceptional…zero doubt about vocals.

I don’t post a lot but this has really left an impression…I don’t know what people expect…he tried to stay true to the original.   

solid cover of a hidden gem I didn't know before this project taken place, not that familiar with UFO.
I'm not sure I understand the artistic choice behind the effects on the vocals, it's a bit too much
(reverb?) but it's well sang and Axl is serving the song without doing a vocal demonstration,
I listen to it on repeat.

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/se/album/my-years-with-ufo-50th-anniversary-celebration-1972-1978/1749084983?l=en-GB


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6cQNcXKpUKdjbln31ZUv9I?si=UzwDjLL-Sq-1bHp6HaLRFA







/jarmo

It’s good to hear, but honestly I’m bummed that they haven’t released a song that rhymes with Natlas Bugged yet. From what I’ve heard it’s pretty awesome.

with all the troubles axl might be having singing: you can tell that he bows down to ufo and tries to make it right ... i think not giving a raspy scream (or a trademark "yeah"!) at the end is not just a question of limitation but of respect and trying to deliver what is needed. i especially like the emotional tone throughout the clean passages ...

This is a nice treat. Axl sounds great love the song.

themelissareese

I was so honored that Axl asked me and trusted me to produce his vocals, play the string arrangements, and do the orchestration for his contribution to this record. Of course this was all possible because of the dream team - my composing/producing partner Brain Mantia and the insane and brilliant mixing skills of @duganchris. Thank you to Ax, @betalebeis @santista17 @michaelschenkerrocks @kidroommusic and everyone who was involved in making this amazing thing happen 🙏. Released today on music streaming platforms 🌟.


https://www.instagram.com/p/DAJcOyxvZDJ/



-----





/jarmo

"love to love"....I just listened. Great song. Axl sounds good. No complaints here

Seven minute song he sings 90 seconds?

Really?

Didn't time it, but he sings the song. Do you suggest he should've just improvised the rest of the song?  Make up some parts that it doesn't have just to fill up some time quota?





/jarmo

What? So you think he would have come up with his own lyric. Some times I do not understand other folks 😉

The song is pretty dam good  : ok:

The final verse is Classic-Axl. Gives me chills every time I listen!

Axl nails it. Very good in my opinion. Apart from Axl I don't like it that much. It's OK but nothing special. Not very much into UFO though.

I cannot stop listening to Love to Love.

I can't remember that last time I've loved a song this much.

The buildup for me, with Axl being my favorite singer since 1987 with no close second, is equivalent to the buildup within Stairway to Heaven.

Not comparing L2L with STH, but the buildup to the final Axl verse compares to the buildup in Stairway....for me.

Fk'n Phenomenal !!!

I really want to like it but it's so extremely auto-tuned. I really don't understand why they do that.....

Is there any auto-tune?

Very much so, yes. Not the T-pain autotune but it definitely has a strong pitch correction on it. Which is fine, it's also done a lot on Chinese Democracy, but I personally hate what it does to the authenticity of an artist's voice.

no autotune or pitch correction for me, but rather some reverb (a little too much...) and slightly emphasized compression...

I imagine it has something to do with the fact that Melissa produced the vocals, let's say a 'modern' approach.
as I mentioned earlier, it doesn't affect my appreciation of the track, but I think a little less of these effects would have benefited the song.

You....you know this is a cover/remake of an existing UFO song, right?

I'm not sure what you would expect given he's singing the lyrics that were written for the song by Phil almost 50 years ago?

In addition...I think it sounds great.  I think Axl sounds amazing. Lots of vocal fry buried in there and the falsetto is pretty strong.

Visualizer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qs2E9PMdPg




/jarmo