While watching a random MTV Europe Top 20 from 1995 (spoiler alert: two Rednex songs), I was struck by a gentleman wearing a very of-the-moment Chrome Hearts longsleeve while playing acoustic guitar.
“Struck” isn’t the most accurate way to put it.
More of a “yelling MY MAN IS CHROMED OUT! to an empty apartment” situation.
Do I wear Chrome Hearts? No.
Do I think Chrome Hearts is particularly cool? Besides the point.
Am I fascinated by their particular intersection of craft and hype? ‘80s Hollywood biker dress-up turned bigger-than-ever GQ must-have, 20k jeans reseller catnip and the only thing I can imagine Cher and Tyga talking about over dinner?
Of course.
Further testament to the brand’s bizarre power and reach: this music video was for The Scorpions.
What is there to say about The Scorpions?
They’ll rock you like a hurricane.
They (maybe) stole the Rollerball font.
They’re German.
Das it!
Just kidding. No one can love a Flying V and not salute these guys. Before I even held a guitar, I knew the whistling intro to “Wind Of Change.”
Scheisse ist hard!
“Wind Of Change” dropped in 1991 — the commercial peak (and last hurrah) of the power ballad.
Before “Wind,” there were only two lanes for a PB to cruise: the guilt of leaving your girl behind to rock and/or fuck elsewhere (“Beth,” “Patience,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “Home Sweet Home,” etc…) and whatever a silent lucidity is.
I put proto-PB “Stairway To Heaven” in the latter category. Because hobbits.
But this was a lighter-waver about the impending end of Russian communism.
14+ million singles worldwide. Best selling German song of all time. An entire podcast about whether or not the CIA was behind it!
And like all showbiz success stories, you gotta have a sequel.
I was not up on “White Dove,” a bonus studio track tacked onto The Scorpions’ 1994 tour album Live Bites — and the inciting incident for this post.
Why would I have been?
Moments — minutes! — after “Wind Of Change” dropped, Nirvana came through and crushed the buildings.
There was no way the mid-’90s MTV of my youth would slot The Scorpions’ latest in between “Sabotage” and “Black Hole Sun.”
But MTV Europe?
Whole ‘nother story.
Watch all of it, there’s gems throughout. A reggae rave puppet video!
But if you just want “White Dove,” have at it. Going by the b-roll, the Scorps have shifted their lyrical focus from glasnost to global hunger.
I think?
“White Dove” has no Wikipedia entry.
But its stub mentions that the song is actually a cover (well, “interpretation”) of “Gyöngyhajú lány” by Hungarian rockers Omega.
Wait for the fireworks 32 seconds in…
…aka the outro of “New Slaves” from Yeezus.
Now that one has a Wiki. Per “background”: Omega apparently sued (and settled) for the uncleared sampling. Great moment on a great album that’s now saddled with a gigantic, red-hatted asterisk.
I’m sure Ye has many opinions on Chrome Hearts.
“LOL.”
Would love to elegantly tie all these bits and pieces together, but this is Substack, we clown in this MF.
Here’s 42 Dugg and Roddy Rich over The Scorpions’ “No One Like You.”
I presume no one got C&D’d. They burn a confederate flag in the video while a girl rocks a pair of Gummo rabbit ears. Or more likely, Bob’s Burgers?
In the clip for its sample source, Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine wakes up in Alcatraz, where he’s tormented by a dude with bent forks for eyes. A blonde in a gimp mask drags him to a flaming electric chair. Spooky!
In the end we realize… it was all a dream.
Directed by Marty Callner, who would helm Cher’s iconic “If I Could Turn Back Time” a few years later. Her video does not have gimp masks.
A leather jacket is involved.
I can neither confirm nor deny its Chrome provenance. When the jacket sold for the price of a new Hyundai, Julien’s Auctions did not include a pic of the inside tag (amateur hour!) but the dates work out — and it feels emotionally correct.
When in doubt, print the legend.
Or as Klaus once sang, “take me to the magic of the moment.”
I knew we’d tie it up, America!