Michael Schenker – ‘My Years With UFO’

Heavy Rock

earMusic

Release Date – September 20th 2024

Review By Smudge Smith

Michael Schenker – heavy rock legend. Guitar genius and a major influence on thousands of guitarists playing today. Here we have the first of three albums requested by earMusic. This record are re-recordings of classic UFO numbers featuring some very special guests. The constants on most of the tracks are Barry Sparks on bass, Brian Tichy on drums and Derek Sherinian on keyboards. All the tracks are ones that appeared on ‘Strangers In The Night’ so they’re all pretty familiar.

Kicking off with ‘Natural Thing’ featuring Dee Snider and Joel Hoekstra it really sets the tone for the whole album. Snider gives it large, and Hoekstra shows his dexterity and having witnessed what he can do with Accept recently – this guy can play anything. ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ with the wonderful pipes of Joey Tempest and the grooving bass of Deep Purple’s Roger Glover brings the party before Joe Lynn Turner serves up the first of two on ‘Doctor Doctor’ with Carmine Appice behind the kit. ‘Mother Mary’ is a tour de force with Erik Gronwall and Slash helping out then for me the track of the album – ‘This Kid’s’ featuring Biff from Saxon. By crikey they make it sound so vibrant and fresh and Biff’s performance is on another level. The epic ‘Love To Love’ was snatched by Axl Rose and he makes a pretty good fist of it before Jeff Scott Soto and John Norum share the billing on ‘Lights Out’. Kai Hansen does some amazing stuff on ‘Rock Bottom’ before JLT and Appice return this time with Adrian Vandenberg on ‘Too Hot To Handle’. Schenker’s erstwhile producer Michael Voss wanted to get in on the act with a cracking ‘Let It Roll’ then to finish Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy is given ‘Shoot Shoot’. I will admit that Pearcy is not my favourite singer, but he does a pretty good job on this number.

Classic UFO songs dusted down and given today’s treatment by the original guitarist and a bunch of shit hot musician friends. They’re not better versions – just different. One thing I will say is that with the new production these songs come alive. Schenker has said that he has recorded these songs again so the new generation can discover and appreciate them, well the old generation can appreciate them too.

Track List –

1 – Natural Thing

2 – Only You Can Rock Me

3 – Doctor Doctor

4 – Mother Mary

5 – This Kids

6 – Love To Love

7 – Lights Out

8 – Rock Bottom

9 – Too Hot To Handle

10 – Let It Roll

11 – Shoot Shoot