The Last Rites staff would like to extend their sincere condolences to the family, friends and fellow Motörheaders who were lucky enough to have Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor in their lives. A champion has left our Earth, but his heart, energy and humor will always live on. Rest in peace, Philthy. We’ll always love you, and we’ll always play the music louder than everyone else.
“I’m an artist, I’m sensitive as shit!” ~ Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor
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“We are Motörhead, and we play Rock n’ Roll.” If you’ve ever attended a Motörhead concert – and I pity you if you haven’t – you’ve likely heard Lemmy Kilmister make that declaration at or near the beginning of the set. The statement itself is true, but it certainly does not tell the whole story: From hardcore punk to speed metal and thrash, almost every band that plays fast and loud as holy fuck can trace its roots back to Motörhead. Motörhead is practically the god particle of modern extreme music. As a direct influence on such notable acts as Venom, Metallica, Sodom, and Celtic Frost to name just a few, Motörhead’s musical descendants are beyond counting.
Equally impressive is the fact that Motörhead has outlived and out-worked so many of its musical offspring. Lemmy was already a decade into a professional music career that included stints as a guitarist for the Rocking Vicars and Sam Gopal and as a bassist for space rock pioneers Hawkwind when he formed Motörhead in 1975. Forty years, twenty-odd albums, thousands of gigs, hundreds of thousands of cigarettes and a lake’s worth of Jack Daniel’s later, Motörhead is still regularly touring and recording. Although only Lemmy remains from the group’s original line-up, Motörhead has enjoyed remarkable stability for over two decades, with guitarist Phil Campbell and “the greatest drummer in the world” Mikkey Dee rounding out the trio.
An iconic band such as Motörhead is unquestionably deserving of the Devi’s Dozen treatment, but so enormous is the Motörhead catalog that we decided to make it a double dozen, of which this is part one.
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ACE OF SPADES
[Ace of Spades, 1980]• • • • •
SACRIFICE
[Sacrifice, 1995]• • • • •
DAMAGE CASE
[Overkill, 1979]• • • • •
WE ARE MOTORHEAD
[We Are Motorhead, 2000]At the dawn of the 21st century, Motörhead was in need of a win after a series of mediocre to disappointing albums, or risk becoming a nostalgia act. They got it with We Are Motörhead, and the title track served as both an anthem and mission statement: “We are Motörhead / born to kick your ass.” That’s all we ever asked of them to do, and the years since have been some of the bands most artistically and commercially successful in their 40 year history.
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KILLED BY DEATH
[No Remorse, 1984]With an intentionally silly title inspired by the late, great Goon Show comedian Spike Milligan, “Killed By Death” was the first single from the four-piece Motörhead that would last for the decade thereafter. With its slinky groove and bawdy lyrical innuendo, “Killed By Death” is as silly as its video and as irreverent as the prominently displayed middle finger therein. Debuting on what would pass for the first Motörhead “greatest hits” album – the all-killer, no-filler No Remorse – it’s fitting that “Killed By Death” is also one of Motörhead’s finest mid-tempo rockers and arguably their greatest single track from the 80s.
• • • • •
GOING TO BRAZIL
[1916, 1991]Lemmy was always eager to label Motörhead not as a metal band, but purely rock and roll. Perhaps no song exemplifies this truth more than “Going to Brazil,” from the varied and spectacular 1916. The brief, 150-second track is basically Lemmy’s direct homage to Chuck Berry, that is, if Chuck Berry drenched himself in Tennessee’s annual export of whiskey to England. The tales of travel-boozing are backed with music so swingin’ and be-boppin’, so struttin’ and jivin’ that it would have been a perfect replacement for “Johnny B. Goode” had Back to the Future been made just a few years later.
• • • • •
WE ARE THE ROAD CREW
[Ace of Spades, 1980]Written as a tribute to the unsung heroes of the concert industry, “(We Are) The Roadcrew” details everything those poor underpaid bastards must overcome such that the show must go on – from scars to beers to busses to customs to SuperGlue to maps to whatever the devil may bring. Few bands understand the road as well as Motörhead does, so if there were ever a man with wit and experience sharp enough to accurately describe the goons that make him go, then that man is Lemmy. And that crew would keep the band rocking for another thirty-five years and counting…
• • • • •
ROCKOUT
[Motorizer, 2008]This is just a stripped down, uncompromising song that draws upon Motörhead’s strengths and not much else. The opening bass rip from Lemmy, the quick pace, and the fast chorus sounds like a combination of any number of Motörhead classics. It’s just straight ahead Motörhead, a simple song that succeeds by putting the pedal to the metal for just over two minutes and not letting up.
• • • • •
NO CLASS
[Overkill, 1979]You want to distill the entire Motörhead oeuvre down to its lawn-killing, greasy-denim, speed-and volume core – and in under two-and-a-half minutes, no less? My friends, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of it than “No Class.” Dialing the volume knob all the way over to ten with a cribbed ZZ Top riff and a barked mission statement from His Lemness, this song above all others frames the ultimate audio fuck-you that was surely the ugly-pure vision when Lemmy was still batting around the idea of calling the band Bastärd. Mandatory listening for any fledgling hesher. Teach them young and teach them well.
• • • • •
DEATH OR GLORY
[Bastards, 1993]Depending who you ask, either Epic Records killed March or Die for tax purposes, or Lemmy killed it by taking a more commercial approach. After signing with German label ZYX, the band channeled that frustration and got back to business with Bastards, arguably their heaviest effort to date (ironically, one which ZYX nearly killed with gross indifference). “Death or Glory” is an almost perfect combination of rock n’ roll swagger and thrashing speedfreak tendencies: Phil Campbell and Wurzel create a two-headed riff monster, while drummer Mikkey Dee lays down absolute thunder. As always though, it’s Lemmy front and center, waxing novel about his other favorite subject: war.
• • • • •
IRON HORSE / BORN TO LOSE
[Motorhead, 1978, No Sleep ’til Hammersmith, 1981]An ode to outlaw bikers, “Iron Horse / Born to Lose” is one of the longest, slowest, and mellowest tunes of the Clark/Kilmister/Taylor era. This would seem to contrast with the live fast, die young ethos of the biker culture, but, speaking from personal experience, there is perhaps something a little Zen about the rumble of the engine, the wind in your face and an open road before you. Or maybe it’s just the Quaaludes. In any case, this track proved that Motorhead was capable of kicking out the slow jams just as hard as the fast ones.
• • • • •
R.A.M.O.N.E.S
[1916, 1991]Verily has it long been written on tablets of stone, there are but three bands that make up the Holy Trinity of rock and roll: AC/DC, Motörhead, and of course, the Ramones. The fabled tales of Motörhead’s camaraderie with Da Bruddas is the stuff of legend, captured in ballad form here in one of the most loving tributes ever rendered, and most certainly one of 1916’s finest moments. Wizzö & Würzel practicing their best Johnny-Ramone-Commando downstrokes, and the Philthy Animal doing his best four-on-the-floor in ode to Tommy, while Lemmy barks poetry in praise of NYC’s finest. Remember kids – don’t trust anyone who claims they don’t like the triumvirate.
• • • • •
BOMBER
[Bomber, 1979]Lemmy has never been accused of being the most subtle of lyricists. Clever, yes of course, but sometimes it seems as if his best metaphors come by accident. The title track of 1979’s Bomber is one such moment. On the surface, it’s merely about flying in a bomber plane during wartimes, with these lyrics riding high over a simple, perfect Fast Eddie trill riff and basic blues chord progression. But one key line — “Because you know we do it right / A mission every night” — makes this one far more about their status as concert warriors than anything else. It’s a bomber, sure, but they’re the bombers, forever.
• • • • •
Note: This double edition of Devil’s Dozen was written before the passing of Phil Taylor and scheduled to publish next week, but the crew agreed it would be a perfect way to celebrate a great man’s life in the most fitting way possible: by sharing and talking about the music recorded by the band he helped to make indispensable.
