Orchestral rock and Scorpions music from Uli Jon Roth
On his current Pictures of Destiny tour, Uli Jon Roth balances the music he made with Scorpions and his solo material by playing two full shows in three hours. He begins with the classical rock he began making after he left the group, with his original films and artwork on a screen behind him. The set often ends with a new arrangement of “Sails of Charon.”
Perhaps his best-known song with the German hard rocker band, it’s also a bridge to the fan-pleasing second half. With his full band, Roth does a front-to-back performance of Virgin Killer, to help celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, followed by a best-of from his time in Scorpions. Usually there’s a faithful take of “Sails of Charon.”
Roth is realistic that the Scorpions material made his name, while the more complex work that followed didn’t cross into the mainstream.
“I have a new Uli audience who are more into the new stuff,” he said from a tour stop in Denver. “Then there are those brought up with Tokyo Tapes and that kind of stuff. My performances reflect that.”
For many years Roth chafed at the nostalgia of it all, but he now leans into pleasing Scorpions fans.
“Actually, I do enjoy playing it,” he said — particularly 1976’s Virgin Killer. “It feels really fresh. We are doing it slightly differently from the originals, and it feels like it was written now in some strange way.”
The key, it seems, has been learning to bring his current sensibility to the older songs rather than merely recreating them — “Sails of Charon” is a good example. “That’s undergone lots of transformations over the years,” he said. “Simply because I was never satisfied with the original arrangement; I always thought it was slightly unfinished.”
At his upcoming Tupelo Music Hall show Roth will preview material from Requiem for an Angel, a project he returned to recently after shelving it for two decades. Over the past year strings, percussion, drums and guitar tracks were recorded in the studio, and parts of it were performed on a recent Japan tour.
Requiem for an Angel is a large-scale orchestral tribute to Monica Dannemann, an artist Roth met in the mid-1970s. The two were life partners until her death in 1996. Dannemann was crucial to his creative growth, creating artwork for his records and co-writing songs.
“She was always an inspiration; I was really privileged to have even met her,” Roth recalled. “She is still part of my life, because when she passed away, she’s basically irreplaceable — not just for me, but for all of our circle of friends. She is one of these people who is really sorely missed.”
For the first half of the show Roth relies on computer-backed orchestral music. That’s due both to modern music industry economics and personal preference going back years.
“I’m utilizing technology to the max; I always have,” he said. “We can’t carry an orchestra around with us, but I am playing everything live.”
A multimedia show utilizing film, his projected paintings (also on display in the lobby), and time-synced visual footage allows Roth to bring a hundred-piece orchestra’s worth of ambition to small venues like Tupelo. Not that he wouldn’t like the real thing.
“It would be a lot of fun,” he said. “But nobody would pay for it.”
Roth is equally unbothered by AI’s encroachment on creative fields.
“Unlike most of my peers, I’m not afraid of AI — I love it,” he said, adding that he uses it to refine compositions for his videos and assist in the early stages of his paintings before committing to oil on canvas.
He’s also not worried about things like the recent Spotify dustup when an AI “artist” built up big streaming numbers with human-free music. He welcomes it.
“If the day comes that AI creates a better piece of music, then so be it,” he said. “You know, let the best computer win.”
There is one genre that Roth is not at all interested in, machine made or otherwise.
“I’m really not a heavy metal fan,” he said. “The worst is death metal and black metal. I can’t stand it because there’s no wholesomeness in it. It’s just a bunch of question marks and no answers.”
Uli Jon Roth
When: Friday, April 24, 7 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $50 at tupelohall.com
Featured photo: Uli Jon Roth. Courtesy photo.