Motorhead: C or D

The album suffers from a very weak sound, so it's the live recordings that make this song so great.

The remaster work is much improved over the old CD master of "No Remorse" that I had until it got lost. (My first copy of No Remorse was a cassette that I bought at a truck stop on a road trip.)

Motorhead make riding a big Harley hog and doing mounds of speed seem like a good idea.

Also, what's their best recenbt album? Recommendations?

Overkill is great, maybe just a hair below Ace of Spades as an album. Bomber isn't quite as great, but it is still pretty good.
Both were produced by Jimmy Miller, which was a bit of a surprise.

I'm sure all of Motorhead's early records were done on a tight budget. Lemmy plays chords with a distorted bass tone on quite a few tunes, which tends to blend with the guitar into a big overdriven pudding.

The thing I dig about the albums compared to Motorhead comps is that they leave off many good mid-tempo boogie numbers.

'Damage Case' may be the best Motorhead song

but

'Killed by Death' is the best video clip in the history of hard rock. It has Lemmy and the gang riding around with chicks on motorcycles and dirt buggies, then a bunch of cops shoot Lemmy with shotguns, then it cuts to Lemmy's funeral, where he rides out of his grave on a motorcycle.

The thing with Motorhead is that every single one of their albums has at least three songs, and sometimes four or five, that are totally mind-destroyingly brilliant. Hammered, the most recent one, is no exception, but of their "recent" stuff (since 1991, say), I'd pick Overnight Sensation. Not just for the title track and "Love Can't Buy You Money," but for "I Don't Believe A Word," which is, I think, even better than "Orgasmatron" for total everybody-sucks-and-there's-no-hope fatalism.

I really actually love 1916, even thought it's maybe a bit of a "leftfield" album for them....How is that album regarded by hardcore MH fans?

No Voices in the Sky, the title track, Ramones, and a bunch of others are pretty great imo.

http://www.motorhead.ru/art11damagecase.htm

I couldn't sleep last night and stumbled across the Classic Albums episode on Ace Of Spades. There's some extras which made it onto YouTube - the one to check out is the semi-reunion (Clarke is in a different studio) of Lemmy, Clarke, and Taylor who blast through "We Are The Road Crew" as an instrumental. Amazingly fantastic even with Clarke effectively pasted in.

I've been listening to the reissues today and I love how inverted the early records are compared with subsequent metal albums. Guitar solos aren't mixed up higher, bass solos are (check out the reissue version of "Stay Clean"!). Drums sound more like Keith Moon or Chuck Biscuits rather than the same Bonham mix every metal band goes for. For all the press that Jimmy Miller gets for his work with the Stones, I think Overkill and Bomber are his best production jobs.

Anyone who says "dud" should be ripped apart by famished hyaenas.

Soooo true then. Soooooo true now.

alex in nyc otm

i don't much go for metal, but i love those two records (and have the reissue versions)

lemmy is the only bass player that makes playing full voiced chords through the whole song fucking ROCK.

Anyone else heard Motörizer yet? I haven't listened to anything since 1916, which was a long, long time ago. In other words, I don't know if they were still this great the whole time, but it's amazing how much 2008 Motörhead is every bit as kickass as 1978 Motörhead.

Which of the late-period albums are worth looking for?

Inferno is as solid a Motorhead album as there's been since Orgasmatron.

I quite like Sacrifice too, and the last one Kiss of Death was good fun.

Hammered is another good one.

I hate that this is going to sound like snark, because I honestly love the shit out of Motorhead, but here goes... you can tell the difference between albums?

Heh, it's a fair point, but some of them just don't seem to grab me that much - I don't really like much of Bastards or We Are Motorhead (which I think was one of those "stunning return to form" records at the time, but I never got into it).

I have "Motorhead," "Bomber," "Overkill," "Ace of Spades," "Orgasmatron," "1916," and the "No Remorse" comp, and it's no big heresy to put 'em all on shuffle. Sez me.

>you can tell the difference between albums?

This is actually a fair question. Motörhead albums don't tend to stick in my head; individual songs do, and sometimes it's hard to remember which album a particular favorite song is on. They're a rock 'n' roll band, and they structure their albums in the old-school "hits 'n' filler" way: They open strong, plod along a bit, pick up momentum around the midpoint (where you'd switch sides in vinyl days) and rocket to the end. So I'll rarely listen to a whole album - I'll listen to the good songs off each one.

Another thing: The current lineup is the best lineup. They've been together for over 15 years now (Phil Campbell's been in the band 24 years!), and they're tight enough and comfortable enough with each other that they can experiment and make it work. The so-called "classic" lineup would never have had the guts or ability to write or record songs like "I Don't Believe A Word," "I Am The Sword," "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me," "1916," or any of a dozen or more other "hey, that doesn't sound like Motörhead!" tracks they've put out since the early '90s.

I'm seeing them in two weeks at PNC in NJ. It's gonna be my eight-year-old nephew's first concert. Can't wait.

I wasn't actually aware Motorhead had a new album out until this thread got revived, and hey presto it appears in my blog reader a couple of hours later ;)

Thanks all. I might just do some random cherrypicking of recent albums and see what happens.

Another thing: The current lineup is the best lineup. They've been together for over 15 years now (Phil Campbell's been in the band 24 years!), and they're tight enough and comfortable enough with each other that they can experiment and make it work.

Completely agree. And they sound massive live as well.

you can tell the difference between albums?

I can definitely tell the difference between every album up to, say, 1916, that's for sure. Sonically, pretty much each of those records are actually quite distinctly different.

Surely Lemmy is allowed to smoke on stage? FFS.
Riot. Anarchy. tear the walls down etc

A couple of tours ago they only played two songs from their normal 'greatest hits' setlist, the rest was all taken from their 85-00 albums. Fucking awesome that was, all sounded like bonafide classics. Really made me reassess those albums. The fact that they can pull this off where every other 30+ year old classic rock band would be booed off if they didn't deliver the hits.

I picked this up while record shopping Friday - http://www.rock-n-roll-action-figures.com/lolekimoacfi.html - I want it to come to life and do my bidding.

I can't wait for the documentary to come out!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0501437/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg0mjnFkeqw

Lemmy is SO cool.

I wish I could find more of those reissues around here, it doesn't even seem like Amazon has them. I picked up the Ace of Spades and Another Perfect Day ones, but I'm hungry for more.

Meanwhile I've been working my way backwards through the recent albums - Motorizer, Kiss of Death, Inferno, and Hammered. And yeah, I've pretty much discovered that each of them has anywhere between 3-6 songs I absolutely love - and a lot of interchangeable filler.

I still listen to Hammered a fair bit - it's a good one, except for that poem at the end, which is totally shit but still good somehow. Highlights on that album are the two songs where he's appreciating two sexy women - Dr Love and and Mine All Mine (?). I love Lemmy when he's giving appreciative props to hot biker chicks - clearly the viagra is working.

The newer Motorhead albums are slower, fatter and warmer, to my ears. The songs are as good as ever, and there is the odd surprise - the band will experiment from time to time with multitracked vocals, pitchshifting, death metal
riffs, psychedelic guitar solos, etc.

Another band I think is worth getting back into is Venom - once again, solid, fat riffs, no huge surprises, a smattering of small surprises.

LOVE ME LIKE A REPTILE

LOVE ME LIKE A REPTILE

Anybody buy the stupidly overpriced deluxe editions of the early albums? I looked at 'em but couldn't justify it.

no, i'm pretty much with max

People say it about many (underserving) bands, but Motorhead really never fell off.

RIP http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/fast-eddie-clarke-dead-motorhead-aged-67-dies-died-cause-best-songs-albums-a8153266.html

Oh no! They're all dead now! RIP Eddie.

yeah the last of the original line-up :-(

awwww man

rip Fast Eddie

RIP :(

no!! the 2nd gig i ever went to was motorhead on the 'ace up your sleeve tour'. a forever cherished memory seeing those three play together and hard to believe they are all gone now. so long, eddie.

let er rip
https://youtu.be/D5_oPyavUaw

i know it’s the motorhead thread, hopefully allowance made for a fastway classik given the circumstances? :D

sadly I only have one motorhead record at home at present: killed by death

rip mr eddie

Fast Eddie's lead vocal turn with Motorhead on "Step Down" from Bomber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDwQ7VMg2Sg

aw man, RIP. I can always appreciate any Motorhead, but the Fast Eddie-era was always my favourite, particularly for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RUEKIWfEg8

RIP Eddie. Step Down is a jam btw, but then so was pretty much everything he did with Motorhead.

BTW I only recently discovered Eddie played lead on the two Curtis Knight (&) Zeus albums! Tasty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3xZAGWUDM

Step Down is cool, it's one tune where you can really hear the Hendrix in his playing.

Yeah that Curtis Knight connection in a good rock and roll happenstance, considering Hendrix was a side man with that guy too and Lemmy roadied for Jimi.

So for various reasons over the years I had never really listened to Motorhead. Obviously I've heard them, I mean I've read Lemmy's book & watched the doc, but I never owned a record or sat and really listened. Even though I am pretty good friends with a Motorhead fanatic (actually that might explain some of it) and I generally love greasy, English 70s freak rock (Pink Fairies, Stack Waddy, Deviants, I love Mick Farren, etc).

Anyway, a gap in my knowledge.

So I sort of randomly decided on the 28th, since I was on vacation I would listen to Motorhead and I listened to a lot! They were pretty good! They have way better songs then anyone gives them credit for and more, I don't want to say "groove" exactly but there is something going on in the rhythm section. "On Parole" and "Overkill" are my faves.

Motorhead, check them out!

My wife coming home from work last Saturday night: "Have you just been listening to Motorhead all day?"
Me: "Yes"

They have way better songs then anyone gives them credit for

Well... in actuality, lots of people give Motorhead immense credit for having written many, many great songs.
And Lemmy is regarded by the cognoscenti as having been one of the all-time great rock bassists.

I've been contemplating that the 1981 Who track "The Quiet One" was Entwistle taking on Motorhead, the way "Rough Boys" and other Townshend tracks of the era are directed to the punks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E8as7xpR34

If I was a big music manager mogul working for Ozzy Osbourne, I would tell him to make a cover of "Till the End" off the last Motorhead record.

"The Quiet One" would have been an excellent song for Motorhead to cover.

Lots of excellent tracks on the last few albums, always underrated as a songwriter.

That fairly recent covers collection was good too: Lemmy was a fair judge of other people's songs as well.

Lemmy would have been 74 today. I'm listening to a live concert from 1983, included as a bonus disc with the deluxe edition of the very underrated Another Perfect Day. Brian Robertson was a great choice to be their guitarist; it's a shame he didn't want to fully commit to the Motörhead weltanschauung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ju9QRonoY0

yeah was listening to Another Perfect Day for the first time a couple weeks ago

really a great album, he added a lot on guitar

Lemmy died 5 years ago today

:(

Considering the number of musicians who dies in 2016, I'm reminded of his comment on the line "I don't wanna live forever" from 'Ace Of Spades': "I'd like to die the year before forever, to avoid the rush."

Yes was just thinking of the count in 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDWJYYBkl8A ass for spayeds was cool!

WIll depend on Rollins tolerance but this long tribute podcast is really good: https://www.henryrollins.com/podcasts/2018/8/29/henry-heidi-podcast-lemmy

I still have the flyer for their scheduled Feb 2016 show (with Saxon & Girlschool!) on my refrigerator door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy6NcxDdDWo

On Leno in 1992. I love Lemmy goes over to the house band and gives Branford something before his short interview with Jay.

I forgot that the quartet lineup lasted almost a decade.