Top 10: Michael Schenker Era UFO Songs

When UFO hired the services of 18 year old whiz kid guitarist Michael Schenker in 1973, they were a floundering space rock band on life support. Little did they know that not only would their new guitarist resuscitate the band, but completely reinvent them for the better. Gone were the post-psychedelia trip-outs and intergalactic lyricism; UFO became a lean, mean, headbanging machine, serving as the stylistic bridge between metal’s first wave and the NWOBHM. It isn’t until revisiting those classic mid ’70s albums that one realizes just how ahead of their time UFO were. While their peers were boogie rocking the night away, here was UFO dealing in the type of riff-driven aggression that wouldn’t become commonplace for another 5 years! With this in mind, we proudly present to you our Top 10 Michael Schenker Era UFO Songs.

10. “A Self-Made Man”

As I’ve cultivated a reputation for championing the underdog, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include at least one cut off UFO’s triumphant reunion album, Walk on Water (1995), on this list. In fact, I’ll go one further: This album goes toe to toe with any classic UFO release of the ’70s and early ’80s. Despite having not played together in nearly two decades, the Lights Out lineup reunited as if no time had passed at all, armed to the teeth with a muscular collection of hard and heavy bangers, the best of the bunch being “A Self-Made Man”. With its hard-nosed riffs, grinding rhythms, and the unmistakable voice of Phil Mogg, it’s ’70s trad metal perfection reconjured a generation later. Also, if you’ve never given Walk on Water a fair shake, consider this your wakeup call!

9. “Natural Thing”

Of all the futuristic aspects of UFO’s ’70s output, one that doesn’t get mentioned enough is Schenker’s guitar tone. Just listen to the way those opening riffs of “Natural Thing” shred through your speaker. Mind you, this was 1976! If I heard that tone blindly, I’d mistaken it for John Sykes in his Tygers of Pan Tang era or Kevin Heybourne of Angel Witch infamy. There is a bounce and swagger that gives the song a sense of depth, and let’s not kid ourselves: Mogg’s vocals boasted a sexiness that, in those days, was only rivaled by David Coverdale. Put all these ingredients together and you’ve got the recipe for an arena rock classic that’s still ringing in our ears to this day.

8. “Shoot Shoot”

Come 1975, when acts like Sabbath were venting their frustrations via grandiose proto-prog metal voyages and Zeppelin were trying to do anything BUT metal, a new crop of acts took charge, specializing in simple, straightforward, metallized pop tunes. In this department, KISS and Thin Lizzy immediately come to mind. However, when they wanted to, UFO were worthy contenders for gold medals. Look no further than “Shoot Shoot”. Sure, this was a band who could bring the proto-trad metal rage in spades when they wanted to (as we’ll soon explore). They could also, if need be, lay down a simple riff, pair it with a blatantly poppy hook, and be equally as compelling.

7. “Let It Roll”

Michael Schenker may not have invented the gallop riff (Blackmore and other forward thinking guitarists were using a variation of such beforehand), but he damn sure perfected it. For as groundbreaking as his six string sorcery was on 1974’s Phenomenon (again, we’re getting there), Schenker pushed himself even further for his sophomore effort with UFO, Force It. The album opens in a heavy, dramatic fashion with “Let It Roll”. Yet again, everybody from the future NWOBHM crop to the likes of Mercyful Fate were taking notes in their schoolbooks when this platter hit the turntable. Between its unrelenting gallop riff attack and clever balance of darkness and light, “Let It Roll” is a true trad metal primer.

6. “Can You Roll Her”

By 1976, Deep Purple were history: Their legacy etched in rock for all eternity as one of metal’s founding fathers. And while UFO had already forged their own sound by the release of 1976’s No Heavy Petting, I can’t help but think Purple served as an influence, whether it be intentional or not, on the ripping “Can You Roll Her”. Written primarily by short-lived keyboardist Danny Peyronel (and it shows), we’re treated to the type of guitar-keyboard interplay that was a trademark of Blackmore and Lord just a few short years earlier. And while Peyronel would be out of the UFO fold as fast as he joined, Schenker would further explore this vein with Paul Raymond on subsequent albums.

5. “Only You Can Rock Me”

Everyone remembers their first. For me, it was “Only You Can Rock Me”. I was 9 years old, horsing around in my grandmother’s basement doing lord knows what. I had just discovered metal and was already head over heels for Rush, Sabbath, and Priest. Little did my unsuspecting ears know I’d soon have a new favorite. With 97.9 The Loop at full volume, as I’d just finished prancing around and air guitaring to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, I caught my breath for split second, only to be greeted by THAT riff. “Only You Can Rock Me” wasn’t as epic as Rush, dark as Sabbath, or ferocious as Priest, but it was heavy, powerful, and catchy…so damn catchy. “Who was that?!” “That was UFO with “Only You Can Rock Me”!”, Chicago radio personality Byrd answered, as if to answer my prayers directly. For this moment alone, forever branded in my heavy metal brain, “Only You Can Rock Me” has to be on this list, even at #5.

4. “Doctor Doctor”

There’s a reason this song has played over the speaker before every Iron Maiden show from day one, and will continue to do so until those legends die with their boots on. Of all the groundbreaking bands who have cited UFO as an influence (Def Leppard, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, etc.), perhaps none displayed their love of the band as loudly and proudly as Maiden. Listen to the Schenker era of UFO, then listen to Di’Anno era Maiden. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure where the band took their cues from in terms of riffing, arrangements, and most importantly, energy. “Doctor Doctor” plays like a lost Maiden song, 5 years before Maiden’s debut demo, and is still as irresistible today as it was then.

3. “Lights Out”

Of all the things UFO were known for in their prime, one thing not regularly associated with the band was breaking the speed limit, at least not in comparison to Priest, Motörhead, or even Purple. Yet again, just like “Shoot Shoot” was an outlier that proved they were as good as the competition of the day, so was “Lights Out”: A proto-thrash rager with intense lyricism and mind-melting guitarwork, courtesy of the Blonde Bomber, of course. Those Schenker gallop riffs are more pronounced than ever, and the fast and frantic nature of the song easily earned it the honor of title track on UFO’s 1977 masterpiece: An album that, ironically, saw them begin to explore musical territory outside of the hard and heavy realm, as evidenced by…

2. “Love to Love”

While the ’80s might’ve been the decade of the power ballad, UFO perfected the artform 3 years earlier in 1977. Again, did I mention this was a band of trailblazers? Let’s just call a spade a spade, folks: At the end of the day, all the outside songwriters and MTV theatrics in the world couldn’t help the hairspray-headed, lipstick-faced crop pen a song a fraction as brilliant as “Love to Love”. It is a power ballad in the truest sense of the word, those heavy Schenker riffs and a dramatic orchestral arrangement pushing the song over the top. Mogg delivers perhaps thee most impassioned performance of his career, bleeding heart and soul into every word that escapes his mouth. Although criminally ignored by the lamestream “rock” press, “Love to Love” goes toe to toe with the finest ’70s epics of Zeppelin, Sabbath, and Queen, only to be topped by…

1. “Rock Bottom”

Think back, if you will, to when you were 18. What were you doing? Flipping burgers at McDonald’s? Barely passing high school? Sneaking beers with your degenerate friends on the weekend? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then congratulations, you were a typical 18 year old kid…unlike Michael Schenker, who at 18, cut arguably the greatest guitar solo ever captured on tape. I could only imagine the looks of bewildered amazement upon the faces of his older bandmates as they stepped back and, as the kids say, let him cook. Equally as brilliant is the song itself: A blistering slab of unadulterated traditional metal in 1974! Yes, you read that correctly: Traditional metal, tried and true. No hard rock to be found on this one! For these reasons and more, “Rock Bottom” rightfully sits at the top spot, the greatest UFO song of the Schenker years, and the greatest UFO song period for that matter!