You know "Ace of Spades," right? Motörhead's signature song, an existential meditation wrapped inside a gambling anthem? There are good reasons it stands above the rest of the band's 30-plus-year catalog. But there's also M'head gold way beyond the group's biggest single. Here are a handful to consider as you count down the hours until tomorrow's
big show at the Cherokee Survivors Bike Rally in Cherokee, N.C.
1.
"(We Are) The Road Crew," probably Motörhead's second-best song, a steamrolling tribute to the grunt troops of the music industry. From
Ace of Spades (1980).
2.
No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, the monumental live album from 1981 with definitve versions of "Capricorn" and "Iron Horse/Born to Lose."
3.
"Iron Fist," "Overkill," "Bomber,"
"Eat the Rich," "Motorhead"--the big hits from the late '70s and early '80s, all of them standards.
4.
1916, the band's 1991 album, one of the strongest top-to-bottom discs in their catalog, featuring the toxic boogie of "I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care)," the surprising anti-war ballad
"1916," the barreling rockers "Going to Brazil" and "Shut You Down," and the quirky Ramones tribute "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." Best of all is the wicked freethinking anthem
"No Voices in the Sky."5.
"Sacrifice," from the 1995 album of the same name. Sounds like a Viking invasion.
6. Just don't forget that Motörhead isn't a nostalgia act. They've never broken up, never really taken any sort of hiatus, the current lineup's been together since 1992, and they've released an album every two years or so for the last 20 years, most of them solid to very good, with some highlights that match the band's best.
Read more about Motörhead
here.
