Rock you like a Hurricane fan

If you head to the RBC Center on Saturday to watch the game on the Jumbotron, chances are you'll hear it in the parking lot, thumping from car-stereo speakers.

And when you do, perhaps you will stop, raise your fist and pump it to the beat. It is at this point that you will be rocking.

Like a hurricane.

Da da dum.

It's more than 20 years old, but the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" has hardly aged. With constant spins on classic-rock radio, the metal masterwork has evolved into a timeless tune, a song that kids and their parents appreciate together, the kind that gets played over and over again in sporting arenas.

It's practically the theme song of the Carolina Hurricanes, having been played untold times throughout the regular season and playoffs, ratcheting up the vibe in the RBC Center.

"It's a great song for ice hockey," said Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker, the man who wrote one of rock's most recognizable guitar riffs. "The game is very fast and it's very powerful. The song is the same thing."

Released in 1984 via the album "Love at First Sting," "Rock You Like a Hurricane" has endured as rock sounds and tastes have evolved and shifted. Schenker believes he knows why.

"I think it's a mixture of the riff, of course, because in rock, the basic foundation is the riff," he said, speaking from a recording studio in Germany. "But I also think it's a great lyric."

And here is where the Hurricanes' brand of family-friendly rock turns slightly from the song's original intent. With lyrics that we can't print here, lead vocalist Klaus Meine in the first verse seems to be singing about canoodling with a young lady.

Because Schenker and Meine are native German speakers and because listeners can misinterpret a songwriter's idea, we thought we should ask Schenker -- despite the lines "my body is burning/it starts to shout/desire is coming/it breaks out loud" -- what the song is all about.

"It's very easy," he said. "It's about a guy talking about a sexual kind of feeling."

So much for misinterpretation.

(Don't worry, Mom and Dad. A shorter version of the song, minus the first verse and its seminaughty lyrics, is played during Hurricanes games.)

The song's sexuality, however, pairs easily with hockey, Schenker said.

"Every game has a sexual kind of kick, you know?"

It turns out the Hurricanes aren't the only hockey team that uses "Rock You Like a Hurricane." The Hanover Scorpions, the ice hockey team in the band's German hometown, skate onto the ice as the song plays, Schenker said.

Which brought us to our last question: How hard, exactly, does a hurricane rock?

Schenker thought about this for a couple of moments, took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"With the Scorpions," he said, as if there was absolutely no other way to answer the question. "Very hard."

Like you. With your fist.