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Motörhead
Musical artist

Motörhead are a British heavy metal band formed in 1975 by bassist, singer and songwriter Lemmy, who has remained the sole constant member. Usually a power trio, Motörhead had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart. The albums Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and particularly No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, cemented Motörhead's reputation as one of Britain's foremost rock bands.

While Motörhead are typically classified as heavy metal, speed metal or thrash metal (and often regarded as a foundational influence on the later two styles), Lemmy dislikes such labels, preferring to describe the band's music simply as "rock n' roll". Motörhead's approach has remained the same over the band's career, preferring to play what they enjoy and do best; their appreciation of early rock and roll is reflected in some of their occasional cover songs. Motörhead's lyrics typically cover such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, and "life on the road." The band's distinctive fanged-face logo, Snaggletooth, with its oversized boars' horns, chains, and spikes, was created by artist Joe Petagno in 1977 for the cover of the Motörhead album and has appeared in many variations on covers of ensuing albums.



Style

Lemmy live in Edmonton, 2005

Though the band are typically classified as heavy metal or speed metal, when Lemmy was asked if he has a problem with Motörhead being called a metal band, he replied: "I do because I come from way before Metal. I’m playing Rock n’ Roll and I think Rock n’ Roll should be sacred – it is to me. I don’t see why it should not be for everybody else."

In a biography of the band, senior editor for Allmusic, Stephen Erlewine, wrote: "Motörhead's overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late '70s." and though "Motörhead wasn't punk rock...they were the first metal band to harness that energy and, in the process, they created speed metal and thrash metal." Whether they created these genres might be subject to debate, but Motörhead were unquestionably influential.

Lemmy has stated that he generally feels more kinship with punk rockers than with metal bands: Motörhead had gigs with fellow Brits The Damned, with whom he played bass on a handful of late '70s gigs, as well as having penned the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." as a tribute to The Ramones. Motörhead, Lemmy states, have more in common aesthetically with the Damned than Black Sabbath, and nothing whatsoever in common with Judas Priest. Lemmy says he feels little kinship with the speed metal bands Motörhead have inspired:

They've just got the wrong bit. They think that being fast and loud is the whole thing and it isn't. The guitar solos are not really difficult for a guitar player, it's just playing scales. To feel a solo and bend into it & I mean Hendrix is the best guitarist you've ever seen in your life. And he learned from people like Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins and people like that inspired Hendrix. To be influenced by something, you're gonna have to play it the same.

Lemmy live on stage, 2005

Of the genre debate itself Lemmy is more forthright, when Joel McIver spoke to him for an interview published in the January 2000 edition of Record Collector, he asked him if he thought some people get confused between hard rock and soft metal and all the other categories, Lemmy replied "Cunt metal? Spunk metal? Left-handed metal? Right-handed metal? Upwardly-mobile metal? This term "heavy metal" is only rock'n'roll anyway, because metal bands are the logical successors to Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly".

The NME stated that their brief solos were just long enough "...to open another bottle of beer", while a 1977 Stereo Review commented that "they know they're like animals, and they don't want to appear any other way. In view of the many ugly frogs in heavy metal who think they are God's gift to womankind these Quasimodos even seem charming in their own way". Motörhead's approach has not changed drastically over the band's career, though this is a deliberate choice: erstwhile Motörhead drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor said that rock icons like Chuck Berry and Little Richard never drastically altered their style, and, like them, Motörhead preferred to play what they enjoyed and did best. This fondness for the first decade of rock and roll (mid-1950s to mid-1960s) is also reflected in some of Motörhead's occasional cover songs from that era.

Motörhead's lyrics typically cover such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, and "life on the road" — the latter is portrayed in songs like "(We Are) The Road Crew", "Iron Horse/Born to Lose", and "Keep Us on the Road".

Supporters

Motörheadbangers

During the 1979 'Bomber' tour of Great Britain, the band met with writer Alan Burridge who then produced the first 'Motorhead Magazine'. Around the same time, drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor's sister, Helen Taylor, had started the Motörheadbangers fan club. Burridge and Taylor worked together to print the latest news for Motörhead fans, the first fanzine was published in January 1980. The Motörheadbangers fanzine is printed three times a year, and has 3,000 subscribers. Paul Hadwen, who had worked on the 'cartoon' style of the early Motorheadbangers fanzines with Chris Harris during Helen Taylor's leadership, and also drew the 'comic strip' art included with the 'Another Perfect Day' album, died at his home in Leeds in late July, 2007, aged 50.

WWE

Motörhead are well-known in the professional wrestling community for performing popular wrestler Triple H's entrance music, "The Game", from Christmas 2000. In addition to the track being heard on numerous occasions on WWE RAW and at other pay-per-view wrestling shows, the band have performed the song live at two WrestleMania events, WrestleMania X-Seven and WrestleMania 21. They also provided the entrance music for Triple H's (now defunct) faction "Evolution" titled "Line in the Sand". "The Game" was released on both the American version of Hammered album and WWF The Music Volume 5, and the Evolution theme song was released on the WWE ThemeAddict album. Since then, Motörhead have performed a new track titled "King of Kings", emphasizing Triple H's new "King of Kings" character, which made its debut at WrestleMania 22. "King of Kings" is also featured on the WWE Wreckless Intent compilation album. "The Game" and "Line in the Sand" are also featured on the RAW 15th Anniversary compilation CD.

Triple H confessed on his 2002 DVD release The Game that he has been a lifelong Motörhead fan, and that it was a huge honour to have Motörhead play him down the ring at WrestleMania X-Seven. Furthermore, on the extras section of the WrestleMania 21 DVD Release, there is a segment that features Triple H hanging out in the lockeroom area with Motörhead who perform an acoustic version of "The Game", without vocals. Also in segments and video shoots that feature Triple H outside of the ring (usually segments in the gym) he is often wearing Motörhead merchandise—most commonly t-shirts. Triple H previously sported a handlebar moustache/beard, which was often said to be in homage to Lemmy.

Motörhead performed the theme song for Unforgiven 2008, "Rock Out".

Tribute bands

UK tribute band Motörheadache was formed in May 2003 and embarked on its first "Beyond the Threshold of Pain" tour of the UK from August of that year. Based in Sheffield, the band features original members Rob (Lemmy) and Nigel Plant (more Phil Campbell than 'Fast Eddie') and has had many different drummers. During the course of their career they have been joined onstage by 'Fast' Eddie Clarke and supported Girlschool.

Other Motörhead tribute bands include "We're Not Motörhead" from Portsmouth, "Ace Of Spades" from Varberg, Sweden, "Motorkill" from the Midlands, United Kingdom, "Motorheat" of Belgium, "Bombers" from Norway, featuring Abbath (Immortal), "Lemmy's Wärt", "Mauro Tolot Kilmister" and the "Reptiles" from Italy, "Motorheads" from Moscow, Russia, "Motörhead Tribute" formed by UCLA and USC students out of the Los Angeles area, "Overhead" from Norway, and "Elderhead" from New York City.

Tribute albums

Motörhead have been the subject of several tribute albums, markedly in the years since 1999. Genres range from hardcore punk and rock, to black and death metal and industrial.

  • Built for Speed: A Motorhead Tribute: 1999, Victory Records, various (hardcore, punk) artists.
  • A Motorhead Tribute: 2000, Pink Honey Records, various (?rock?) artists.
  • Tribute to Motorhead: 2006, Crimson Mask, various (black/death metal) artists.
  • Dead Forever: Tribute to Motörhead: 1999, Dwell, various (death metal and industrial artists)
  • Killed By Death: 1997, MAKE 'EM DEAF FOREVER - A TRIBUTE TO THE LOUDEST BAND IN THE WORLD - MOTORHEAD.
  • Homenaje a Motörhead: Spanish release, 2005, El Diablo.
  • Remember Me Now... I'm Motörhead: 2005, Scatboy Records, USA.
  • Motörmorphösis – A Tribute to Motörhead Part 1 2001, Remedy Records.
  • Saint Valentine's Day Massacre - Tribute to Motorhead: 2005, Bad Reputation Records.
  • Strength to Endure – A Tribute to Ramones and Motorhead by Rioygun and Bullet Treatment: 2002, Basement Records.
  • Sheep In Wolves' Clothing 2008. Compiled and released by the band's Fan Club, Motorheadbangers World; features contributions from The Deviants with Philthy Animal Tayor and Girlschool with Fast Eddie Clarke.

Cover art

The band's name is usually printed in a lowercase form of blackletter, the umlaut over the ö is possibly derived from the similar "Heavy metal umlaut" in the name of their 1975 acquaintances Blue Öyster Cult. However, this umlaut does not alter the pronunciation of the band's name. When asked if Germans pronounced the band "Motuuuurhead", Lemmy answered "No, they don't. I only put it in there to look mean".

Snaggletooth on Motörhead's first album

Snaggletooth, full name Snaggletooth B. Motörhead, (and erroneously called Warpig by many merchandise vendors), is the fanged face that serves as the symbol of Motörhead. Artist Joe Petagno created it in 1977 for the cover of the band's debut album, having met Lemmy while doing some work with Hawkwind. Petagno stated;

The inspiration came from just being a naturally pissed off bastard! And Lemmy's the same way! So it was bound to be an alchemal wedding of a more "primordial nature". I did a lot of research on skull types and found a x-breed gorilla-wolf-dog combination would work nicely with some oversized boars horns. Lemmy added Helmet, chains, spit, spikes and grit.

Eddie Clarke was less sure about the imagery to begin with:

I shuddered when I saw it the first time. I thought, "Blimey, this ain't gonna go down that well", because it was just way over the top, then. But I grew to love it... it was not scary or horrifying, it would've been, in those days, deemed bad taste.

It has remained a symbol of Motörhead throughout the years, with Petagno creating many variations of Snaggletooth for the covers of ensuing albums. To date, only two of the original covers for Motörhead's 19 studio albums do not feature any variation of Snaggletooth on the cover: On Parole and Overnight Sensation, of which On Parole was re-released with a black snaggletooth on a white background. Phil is wearing a Snaggletooth badge on the cover of Ace of Spades. The cover of 'Iron Fist' depicts a metal gauntlet wearing four skull-shaped rings, one of which is Snaggletooth, while the rear of the album-sleeve shows a fully detailed 3-D metal sculpture of the symbol. Originally the Snaggletooth design included a swastika on one of the helmet's spikes. This was painted out on later re-releases of the albums on CD.

On September 21, 2007 Petagno announced that "there will be no more "HEADS" from my hand", citing irreconcilable differences between himself and the bands current Management, Singerman Entertainment. Petagno stated:

It has been a long, exciting and industrious journey, full of art and intuition, difference in repetition, and creative innovation. I feel I accomplished something unique in Metal history over the last 31 years by breathing life again and again into a figment of my own imagination, an image or better an entity which has taken on a life of it's own, which I actually believe goes beyond the music it was created to represent. I'm damn proud of that!

In reply Lemmy stated:

As many of you know, we have been working with Joe Petagno for 31 years. We always treated Joe fairly, and I would like to stress that at no time did my manager demand what Joe thinks he demanded - it is all a colossal misunderstanding. We have always loved his artwork, obviously, and if he now decides to stop working with us, we have no choice but to use someone else. However...if he will not discuss this personally and try to work things out, I think it's a great tragedy. If Joe continues with us, no one would be more delighted than me. If it's goodbye, Joe, I wish you well, but I hope, even at this stage, to be reconciled and continue our association.

Discography

Further information: Motörhead discography
  1. 1977: Motörhead
  2. 1979: Overkill
  3. 1979: Bomber
  4. 1980: Ace of Spades
  5. 1982: Iron Fist
  6. 1983: Another Perfect Day
  7. 1986: Orgasmatron
  8. 1987: Rock 'n' Roll
  9. 1991: 1916
  10. 1992: March ör Die
  11. 1993: Bastards
  12. 1995: Sacrifice
  13. 1996: Overnight Sensation
  14. 1998: Snake Bite Love
  15. 2000: We Are Motörhead
  16. 2002: Hammered
  17. 2004: Inferno
  18. 2006: Kiss of Death
  19. 2008: Motörizer

Filmography

Notes

  1. "LosingToday reviews". LosingToday Magazine's review of BBC Live & In-Session. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  2. "Motorhead" by Stephen Thomas Erlewine; URL retrieved 16 June 2007
  3. ^ "An Interview with Lemmy Kilmister". Classic Rock Revisited article. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
  4. Erlewine, Stephen Biography. Allmusic article. Retrieved on 2007-02-11.
  5. see the notes for The Damned's Smash It Up - The Anthology 1976 - 1987
  6. "Motorhead Interview with Lemmy 6-20-2000 Ear Candy interview". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
  7. McIver, Joel (2000). "Mil-Lemmy-Um". Record Collector (245): 49. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |quotes= and |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. "MK Magazine Interviews: MOTORHEAD". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  9. see the notes for the 1999 Castle Records reissue of Ace of Spades
  10. "Alan Burridge". Motörhead official site website. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  11. ^ "dmoz Motörhead Tribute Bands links". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  12. "Lemmy Give You a Motorheadache!!". Motörheadache - a tribute to Lemmy. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  13. "We're Not Motörhead tribute band site". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  14. "Bombers tribute band site". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  15. "Lemmy's Wärt tribute band site". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  16. "Mauro Tolot Kilmister tribute band site". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  17. "Motorheads tribute band site". Retrieved 2007-06-26.
  18. "Overhead". Retrieved 2007-10-22.
  19. "Elderhead".
  20. ^ "Built for Speed: A Motorhead Tribute". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  21. ^ "A Motorhead Tribute". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  22. ^ "Tribute to Motorhead". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  23. ^ "Dead Forever: Tribute to Motörhead". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  24. "M.O.T.O. Releases". indiepages article. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  25. "Morir con las botas puestas (Homenaje a Motörhead)". sonicwavemagazine.com. Retrieved 2008-01-24.
  26. "New MOTÖRHEAD Tribute Album Out Now - June 5, 2005". Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved 2008-01-24.
  27. ^ Burridge, Alan (2007). "Motörhead". Motörheadbangers. 27 (78): 2–18. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  28. "American Dog-Promotional". American Dogs. Retrieved 2008-01-24.
  29. "Motorheadbangers World Fan Club". Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  30. "Motorhead Madman". The Wave Magazine. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
  31. ^ "Interview with Motorhead Artist Joe Petagno". Motörhead official site website. Retrieved 2007-02-11. Inspiration for Snaggletooth is also covered in the 'About Joe Petagno' interview section on Inferno 30th Anniversary edition bonus DVD, SPV69748.
  32. About Joe Petagno, interview section with Joe Petagno, bonus DVD with Inferno 30th Anniversary edition SPV69748.
  33. "Various Artists - Music from the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie". The Daily Californian CD review. Retrieved 2007-02-10.

Further reading

  • Lemmy, White Line Fever. Simon & Schuster (2002). ISBN 0-684-85868-1
  • Harry Shaw, Lemmy... In his own words. Omnibus Press 2002. ISBN 0-7119-9109-X

External links

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