Scorpion has been played on NTS in shows including Brown Acid Trippin' w/ Lance Barresi of Permanent Records, featured first on 20 June 2024. Songs played include Can't Get Blood From A Stone.

There are multiple artists tracked as “Scorpion” on Last.fm.

A strong local Detroit, Michigan, band's only album (Scorpion - 1969) containing psych rock with a funky edge.

If ever there were a vinyl testament to the power of the wah wah pedal, Scorpion’s 1969 self-titled album on the Tower label stands tall like a granite pedestal to Vox Industries. Unlike the Electric Prunes, whose wah wah pedal radio spot is somewhat legendary but only actually used the pedal sparingly, Scorpion cranks up the wah wah as often as they can, carving deep blue ripples into the liquidy funk abyss. Like the first few Funkadelic albums, this is psychedelic funk personified – stoned grooves where fuzz meets funk, and mind-melting Jimi Hendrix inspired underwater guitar solos wail over some of the fattest basslines you’ll ever hear.

It helps to know that the members of Scorpion aren’t just some unknown bar band from Des Moines – these are some heavyweight players in the annals of funk and soul. Bassist Bob Babbitt was a member of Motown’s in-house band the Funk Brothers, and consequently played on over TWO HUNDRED Top 40 Billboard singles! You may not know him by name, but you’ve certainly heard his rubbery funk bass on songs like the Temptations “Ball of Confusion”, the Undisputed Truth’s “Smiling Faces Sometimes”, Edwin Starr’s “War” and Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology).” Those are some heavy credentials, boys and girls. Guitarist Ray Monette also played with Rare Earth, whose “Celebrate” is a funk rock classic. He’s also the guy who laid down the EPIC guitar solo in Funkadelic’s “I Got A Thing, You Got a Thing,” so he kept some pretty funky friends too. And vocalist Mike Campbell…well, he later changed his name to Michael Champion and became an actor, starring in “Total Recall” and “Beverly Hills Cop.” He also appeared in one episode of “B.J. and the Bear” and one episode of “T.J. Hooker”, and that’s about as funky as funky gets.

So now, you’re probably asking, with all these mega-funk credentials, how good is the album? Well, as a stoned funk long-player with Funkadelic aspirations and the biggest paean to the wah wah pedal since Jimi Hendrix’s “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”, it’s pretty darn good. Opener “Wildflower” wastes NO time telling you right where these cats are at – a trippy backwards guitar leads into a stone cold KILLER funk riff, and the very first words ring like a manifesto through the grooves: “I’m stoned! I’m stoned!” “Take a Look at Yourself” opens with a monster Hendrix fuzz riff that swoops and dives from left to right speaker and back again, while some serious classical piano and giant cathedral organ sound like they’re setting the stage for something really big. Here, Scorpion take their music to the pews of a Harlem revival meeting, with a big dramatic slice of religious psych rock that’s sure to shake the rafters while also prying loose some floorboards with those monster bass grooves. But, as Ezekiel 23:12 says, “Thou shalt knoweth that thy Lord is a major fan of the slapback”, God himself loved the wah wah pedal, so the Scorpion boys cut loose at the end of this hymnal with a flurry of funky wah wah and thrashing drums to bring this prayer to a monstrous wall of noise conclusion that’s six times more effective than the standard “Amen.”

But not all the songs here worship at the altar of Funk – surprisingly, the gospel-titled “Touched By An Angel” is one of the few songs that deviate from the template. Riding a light raga rhythm, this one plows proto-glam rock territory, believe it or not, with double-tracked trippy vocals and a big dramatic piano riff like an acid-riddled demo version of Bowie’s “Lady Grinning Soul.” Of course, there’s more than enough ripping fuzz guitar to keep the axe-lovers happy, and short controlled shock-and-awe bursts of wah wah because…c’mon, this is still SCORPION we’re talking about here. But it’s produced strangely…instruments are oddly mixed in the glam fuzz miasma…so it comes off sounding strangely unfinished, like something Bowie might have quickly committed to tape in his bedroom right after Lou Reed left without even saying goodbye.

But fear not, Funkadelics, for things return to normal quickly thereafter, when the storming “Please Make My Mind Right” blazes out of the gate with some of the deepest, darkest, funkiest wah wah riffs this side of the “Petey Wheatstraw” soundtrack. Like the finale of the best Macy’s Day Fourth of July fireworks display you’ve ever seen, Scorpion throw everything they’ve got into their grand finale. And by that I mean total, unrestrained, absolute wah wah sensory overload. Their final act perfectly encapsulates everything they’ve strived for, and turns your mind to goo like the disembodied band members’ heads dripping down from the band logo on the front cover. File Scorpion alongside the psychedelic Temptations, the Undisputed Truth, Sly and the Family Stone and Funkadelic. And note that, if they don’t exactly top those bands, at least they out-wah wah ‘em.

A Swedish 70's psychedelic hard rock band. Members: Bo Anders Larson (vocals), Hasse Jonsson (bass), Lars Erichsen (bass), Lasse Summanen (guitar), Pelle Holm (drums), Ted Ström (organ), Sam Ellison, Rolf Adolfsson. Scorpion recorded album "I Am The Scorpion" in 1970. It's a rare record.

A German electronic, especially techno DJ and producer. Scorpion recorded a few albums in the last years, for example "In Search In Other Dimensions" and "Navigator To Other Dimensions".