"Ace of Spades" ( Ian Kilmister, Eddie Clarke, Phil Taylor) – 2:49. In 2009, it was named the 10th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at No. 27 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, stating "This song has an intro which wouldn't be out of place ushering in the end of the world". The song is considered to be the definitive Motörhead anthem, and "put a choke on the English music charts and proved to all that a band could succeed without sacrificing its blunt power and speed". In the live versions and the Rock Band 2 remake, the last lines are "I don't want to live forever/But, apparently I am". In the studio version, the last lines of the bridge are "I don't want to live forever/And don't forget the Joker". The following month, on 6 and 20 October, the band played the song on BBC TV show Top of the Pops. On 6 September 1980 Lemmy was interviewed by Graham Neale on BBC Radio 1's Rock On Saturday show, " Bomber", "Ace of Spades" and "Love Me Like a Reptile" were played. For the lyrics, he said he "used gambling metaphors, mostly cards and dice – when it comes to that sort of thing, I'm more into the one-arm bandits actually, but you can't really sing about spinning fruit, and the wheels coming down". The song opens with an overdriven bass solo played by Lemmy. One sided test pressings (not mis-presses, but used in the trade) escaped the pressing plant and are on the market. īronze also issued German and Spanish 7" vinyl versions which had a different sleeves, as well as a Japanese release, with a colour picture insert with song lyrics in English and Japanese. The picture of the band in Santa outfits used on the cover was taken at the AylesburyFair, while the band were on tour. Initially issued as a 7" vinyl single on 27 October 1980 as a preview to the album Ace of Spades and autumn tour, Bronze Records also released a 12" vinyl pressing in special Christmas picture sleeves, limited to 50,000 copies. To read the entire article, purchase this issue from our online store. Not surprisingly, Ace debuted on the UK charts at number four and went on to be the band’s biggest-selling album, the one that would finally help them grab a foothold in the US. Yeah, the title track is perhaps the greatest metal anthem ever written, but there are a half dozen on here-“(We Are) the Road Crew,” “The Hammer,” “Jailbait,” “Fast and Loose,” etc.-that are just as ass-kicking and memorable. Ace of Spades finally, definitively, captured this unkempt band’s sound, a sonic force so unruly and crass that it appealed to punk and metal crowds equally. And best of all, they sounded exactly like they looked. What you saw-three gnarly, long-haired, biker-lookin’ dudes with questionable hygiene habits-was what you got. They may have been reviled by the press, their peers and much of the population at large at the time, but the punters loved ’em.Īnd why wouldn’t they? Motörhead were a people’s band, as authentic as they came. The five previous years spent cranking out one album after another and tirelessly slogging it out on the road, paid off in, well, spades. Ace of Spades, inarguably, was this lineup’s finest moment, an album released during the ascension of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal though, ironically, the band really had no association with that movement. We are not, however, inducting Motörhead’s fourth album just on the merits of that song alone (though there’s an argument to be made for that…). The band-bassist/vocalist Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor-put out three albums before they wrote that song, and many since (most without Taylor and Clarke), but there is no escaping the impact that one song had, and continues to have 30 years later. It has, in many ways, come to define Motörhead. There are, of course, “classic” songs on most all of them, but none of the magnitude of “Ace of Spades,” a tune that transcends the metal genre and has become a part of pop culture at large. The making of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” released: November 1980 label: Bronze -–Īfter 60-plus Hall of Fame inductions, one thing that stands out is that precious few of those albums contain and are best known for a single truly classic song.
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