Motörhead

Motörhead (/ˈmoʊtərhɛd/) were an English rock band formed in June 1975 by bassist, singer, and songwriter Lemmy Kilmister, who was the sole constant member. The band is often considered a precursor to, or one of the earliest members of, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Motörhead released 23 studio albums, 10 live recordings, 12 compilation albums, and five EPs over a career spanning 40 years. Usually a power trio, they 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 a top-tier rock band. The band are ranked number 26 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. As of 2012, they have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.

Motörhead are typically classified as heavy metal, and their fusion of punk rock into the genre helped to pioneer speed metal and thrash metal. Their lyrics typically covered such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, and, most famously, gambling.

Motorhead (song)

"Motorhead" is a song written by Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister while he was a member of the English space rock band Hawkwind. It was later recorded by (and was the eponym for) his hard rock band of the same name.

Hawkwind versions

"Motorhead" was the last song that Lemmy wrote for Hawkwind before being fired from the band in May 1975. It was originally released as the B-side of the single "Kings of Speed" on United Artists Records in March 1975.

The song was written in the Hyatt Hotel (a.k.a. 'Riot House') in West Hollywood, California. Lemmy explains how it was created:

The title of the song is American slang for a speed freak. The lyrics were explained by Lemmy:

The guitars and bass are tuned down a 1/2 step on the Hawkwind version, effectively making the song's key Eb Major, but are described here as if in standard tuning. The bass follows the root note for all the chords, with a riff on the F♯, based on the A string between the tenth and twelfth frets. The introduction is in E, ending with two bars each in D and E♭. The verse is in E with a D/E 'kick' at the end of each lyric line, a pre-chorus follows, in G with two lines ending in D, the last in F♯. The chorus, like the pre-chorus is in G, but with only two lines, ending in D and F♯. The song consists of three verses in total. The solo break, on the verse/pre-chorus/chorus pattern, is after the second chorus.

Motorhead (Motörhead song)

"Motorhead" is the eponymous song of the British hard rock band of the same name. It was originally recorded by the space rock band Hawkwind, of whom the song's author, Motörhead frontman Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, had been a member from 1971 to 1975. It was the last song that he had written for them, but it had only been released as the B-side of the single "Kings of Speed", in March 1975. In May of that year, Lemmy was fired from Hawkwind and formed a new band, naming it after the song. It indicated the direction in which he planned to go: hard rock, not space rock. Motörhead recorded two new versions of the song later that year, one as part of a demo session with producer Dave Edmunds and then another as part of the sessions for what was meant to have been Motörhead's debut album. However, their record label, United Artists Records, decided to shelve the project and dropped the band without releasing any of the material. Over a year later, the song was recorded yet again for Chiswick Records, during the session for their actual debut album and was released ahead of it, in June 1977, as their second 7" single.