MTV Unplugged – Live in Athens is the sixth live album by the German hard rock and heavy metal band Scorpions, released in 2013 by Sony Music. In late 2012, MTV proposed that the band take part in the MTV Unplugged concert series, an offer the members had previously declined on two occasions for various reasons. Once the project was confirmed, both parties agreed to hold the first open-air show in the series' history, for which they chose the theater on Mount Lycabettus in Athens. The decision to hold it in this city was due to several factors, although the main reason was that the band wanted to somehow reciprocate the unwavering support of their Greek fans.
During pre-production, guitarist Matthias Jabs and record producers Mikael Andersson and Martin Hansen selected and arranged the songs. The inclusion of new instruments allowed them to change the sound, tempo and musical genre of some of them. In total, three concerts were scheduled for 11, 12 and 14 September 2013, but only the first two were recorded. For the event, the band was supported by over a dozen musicians, including the producers, a string section and three guest vocalists.
Upon its release in several formats, including a double CD and DVD, it received generally positive reviews from the music press. The most highly praised aspects were the musicians' performances, the arrangements, the sound, Klaus Meine's vocal quality and the set list. In contrast, some reviewers had mixed opinions about the participation of the guest vocalists. Commercially, it achieved moderate positions on major music charts worldwide. Its success was primarily in Germany, where it reached number 5 on the Media Control Charts. Additionally, both the audio and video recordings received gold certification from the Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
As part of the album's promotion, Sony released three promotional singles in certain countries: the live versions of "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Still Loving You" and the studio version of "Passion Rules the Game". Furthermore, they released music videos on YouTube for "Dancing with the Moonlight", "Where the River Flows", "Passion Rules the Game" and "Rock You Like a Hurricane", although the latter featured brief footage from the making-of. Due to the album's success in Germany, the band performed the acoustic show live in 2014 only in Kempten, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg and Stuttgart.
Background
On 24 January 2010, Scorpions announced that they would end their career and bid farewell to the public with the Get Your Sting and Blackout World Tour. Starting on 15 March in Prague, it allowed them to visit several countries over the following months, and was initially scheduled to include live performances until 2011. Due to its success, the performance on 15 April 2011 in Saarbrücken, Germany, was recorded for the subsequent live album and 3D DVD, Live 2011: Get Your Sting and Blackout. Furthermore, with the idea of having new recorded material to extend the tour, Sony Music requested the band record a new album. Thus, Scorpions recorded the cover and re-recording album Comeblack, which was released on 4 November 2011 in Europe, coinciding with the new tour extension called Final Sting, which increased the number of concerts until 17 December 2012. In January 2013, the band unexpectedly cancelled their retirement plans, because, in the words of vocalist Klaus Meine: "It's one thing to say, 'This is going to be the end of the Scorpions,' and another thing to do it." Meine claimed the decision changed gradually during the tour.
Around late 2012, MTV offered the band the chance to be part of the MTV Unplugged series. The television channel had already proposed this idea to them in 1988, but Scorpions refused because they were recording the album Savage Amusement (1988) at the time. Later, MTV tried to contact the members again, although on this occasion they had to decline because they were on the promotional tour for Crazy World (1990). The concept of doing an acoustic event remained on the agenda for years, but for various reasons it never materialized. It wasn't until 2001, following a positive mood from experimenting with side projects after the crossover album Moment of Glory (2000), that the band independently released the unplugged album Acoustica, published on 14 May 2001 by East West Records. In a later interview, Meine noted that MTV's offer was like the "icing on the cake" after a long career and that they felt honored to be part of the "MTV Unplugged family".
Recording
At the time, MTV Unplugged shows were held indoors in front of a small audience, so both the band and the television channel agreed to challenge themselves and create the first open-air show in the series' history. To do this, they looked for an open-air venue, and it was the Greek producer and promoter Alex Alexopoulos who convinced MTV and Sony to hold it in a theater in Greece. Initially, they considered the Acropolis of Athens, but the space was limited, the sound quality was poor, and there were many restrictions from the government. Finally, they chose the theater on Mount Lycabettus in Athens. The choice was due to several factors, one of which was the weather, as for September, the month chosen for the recording, Greece is one of the few European countries that still maintains a pleasant temperature for this type of concert. Furthermore, the location was taken into consideration, as being situated at the highest point of the city provided a "beautiful setting", according to Meine. However, the main reason was that the band wanted to reciprocate the unwavering support of their Greek fans, as, up to that point, their last three studio albums —Unbreakable (2004), Humanity: Hour I (2007) and Sting in the Tail (2010)— had reached number one on the national music chart. Furthermore, according to Blabbermouth.net, for several years the Greek public had voted Scorpions as one of the most popular artists, their compilation album Best was one of the best-selling, and, until 2009, more than 150,000 people had attended their concerts in Greece.
In total, three concerts were scheduled for 11, 12 and 14 September 2013, although only the first two were recorded. The shows started at 8:30 pm (local time) and tickets had a general price of €38, plus a limited number of €30 tickets for students and children. Held at an ambient temperature of 27 °C, most of the material featured on the album was taken from the 12th. MTV executives wanted to maintain the tradition of the series' intimate atmosphere, so it wasn't supposed to be a big rock show. The goal was for both the musicians and the audience to remain seated, and for the true focus of the concert to be the music. However, Meine commented that it was impossible to keep the audience in their seats, as they were "crazy", and stated that "it was a fantastic setting". For the recording days, the theater's capacity was reduced to three thousand people, although it was still a considerable number for an event of this type. For the concert on 14 September, the band played to the full capacity of eight thousand spectators. The production of both the audio and audiovisual recording was handled by the Swedes Mikael Andersson and Martin Hansen, while Mats Lindorfs performed the audio mastering at Cutting Room Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Sven Offen was responsible for directing the audiovisual recording, with Jörg Jungwrirth as production representative.
The band was supported by several musicians on stage, including Mikael Andersson, who played guitar, mandolin, slide guitar, Weissenborn guitar and backing vocals, and Martin Hansen, who handled guitar, piano, harmonica and backing vocals. Additionally, guests included Ola Hjelm (guitar and backing vocals), Pitti Hecht (percussion and backing vocals), Ingo Powitzer (guitar and baritone guitar) and Hans Gardemar (accordion, piano and backing vocals), as well as a string section called Strings for Heaven, comprising violinists Irina Shalenkova, Elena Shalenkova and Ewa Moszynska, cellists Alexandros Botinis and Marcela Bassiou-Bineri, and violists Lilia Giousoupova and George Gaitanos. Furthermore, for the song "Born to Touch Your Feelings", they featured the Greek actress Dimitra Kokkori, who recites the final poem of the track.
For certain songs, Scorpions considered having special guests, such as friends, acquaintances or contemporary artists connected to the world of hard rock and heavy metal. Although there were no official proposals, in later interviews Meine and Schenker mentioned they had thought of musicians like Steven Tyler, David Coverdale, Jon Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Slash, Richie Sambora or Lemmy Kilmister. However, since MTV Germany was in charge, the channel's executives demanded the inclusion of local emerging artists to take advantage of the project and serve as a showcase for them. For this reason, singer Cäthe appeared on "In Trance", while Revolverheld vocalist Johannes Strate appeared on "Rock You Like a Hurricane". Regarding the latter, Schenker recounted that they had met him half a year earlier in a Russian city, when their manager contacted them because Strate wanted to attend one of their concerts, so they gave him some passes and ended up talking with him backstage. Meanwhile, A-ha vocalist Morten Harket sang on "Wind of Change". All three vocalists performed the respective songs as duets with Meine.
Composition
After reaching an agreement with MTV, the band had six months to prepare the concert. Firstly, the members wrote a list of the songs they wanted to perform, focusing on those they had never played live, but they also planned to create exclusive compositions. With this idea in mind, they initially did not want to include their biggest hits, like "Wind of Change" or "Rock You Like a Hurricane", since they had already been worked on for the 2001 album Acoustica, although they eventually added them at the insistence of the executives. According to Schenker, MTV told them: "No, they are very important songs and you have to put them on the album." In turn, the channel asked them to include covers of other artists, but the band rejected the idea after realizing, upon trying some, that they didn't work with the rest of the material. Aiming for a dynamic show, they avoided having too many slow songs, so they decided to arrange several rockers. Among them, they added some they had never considered playing with acoustic guitars, such as the metal songs "Blackout" and "Hit Between the Eyes".
In late February 2013, guitarist Matthias Jabs traveled to Stockholm to meet with the producers, and the three of them selected the songs that would be part of the event. Over a week they arranged eight tracks together with the Swedish musician Hans Gardemar, a process that "was easy, but for some of the songs that everyone knows, it represented a much bigger challenge," according to Jabs. To achieve a "bigger sound", the arrangements were designed to have five guitars tuned in different keys, including open tunings and the use of capos. For this reason, they had fifty-six guitars on stage. At first, they thought of creating an octet, a musical group of eight musicians, but for some songs they ended up with arrangements for eighteen people, for instruments like harp, mandolin, accordion, piano or harmonica. After a week in Stockholm, the producers and Jabs traveled to Germany to present the arrangements to Meine and Schenker, so they could hear them and determine what they liked or what needed modification. In total, during the preparation process, they reworked between thirty and forty songs, but for the production they chose twenty-five.