Artist: Motörhead
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release: 2003
A huge cardboard box, 5 CDs packed to the last corner with pure motor-fuelled mayhem, a fantastic booklet with a sixty-page essay, loaded with unreleased photos and Lemmy’s own foreword. Plus an original concert poster thrown in! And I almost forgot the point! Out of the 99 tracks in this historic document, 19 have never been released. So from the classic motor-driven troublemakers Overkill, Bomber, the forever-totemic Ace Of Spades, Iron Fist, Shine, Killed By Death, Dr Rock, Eat The Rich, all the way to the utterly pulverizing Orgasmatron, Sacrifice, Burner,…it’s dumb to even list them all. Hot, extremely loud, downright shameless, always “first take” and straight between the eyes. These filthy bastards are unbelievably convincing with their rock’n’roll religion and eruptive energy, the kind that lets you break your own balls with no trouble at all. Either way you slice it, this five-CD box is a must in the collection of every Motörhead headbanger, and an ideal starting point for all new Motörhead fans.
The story is a familiar one. Lemmy and his penetrating, rattling Rickenbacker, plus that raspy, unmistakable growl you can spot from a mile away, with which he staked out his sound, his voice, the thing that Motörhead’s body and soul grew out of. Brave, always true to their own hearts, with iron will and self-confidence, even in the moments when the industry’s naysayers wanted to destroy them. They always stayed loyal to their essence, to their rock’n’roll, which scans straight through the human brain, skin, flesh and bones and keeps sending them into an ecstatic state
The collection holds the peaks of the band’s career, pulled from all the officially released studio and “live” albums. It conjures up the band’s evolution from those ancient days through the seventies and eighties, when Motörhead ground out their sound in an utterly ignorant, ruthless and egocentric way. That period is followed by an era that kicked off with the album “1916”, wound through the nineties and up to today, when Motörhead’s music reached a higher state of spiritual maturity. For instance, about the tracks written in this later period, like I Ain’t No Nice Guy, Listen To Your Heart or Walked A Crooked Mile, the chancellor himself, Lemmy, proudly confirms: “My Beatle-period, you know!” Over the years, a touch of romance did rub off on all that rawness.
Not left, not right, and no imitation of anyone. Straight between the eyes! Every heartbeat of the band throughout history is marked by lineups who always breathed and lived rock culture with full lungs and created that unforgettable Motörhead magic, through which this rock giant grew and evolved. Motörhead are undoubtedly bigger today than ever.
And the curiosities? Among the most impressive unreleased (bonus) tracks is Orgasmatron 2000 (internet download). This version of the song is played at a slower beat, noisy as hell of course, with an incredible atmosphere. The special thing about it is that you can hear Lemmy yelling all kinds of words between the verses, including the shouts: “Hamas, Hamas!” Anyone who knows the lyrics will immediately get that Lemmy was trying to drive the song’s message home to the listener. The real treats are the Motörhead tracks from their recent-ish past on the “Peel Sessions” ’78, namely I’ll Be Your Sister, Tear Ya Down, Louie Louie and Keep Us On The Road. What will really make your head spin are the “BBC Sessions” recordings, namely from 1980 Live To Win and Like A Nightmare, and the even noisier and more orgasmic ones from 1986: Killed By Death, Deaf Forever, Orgasmatron (with spoken word), Orgasmatron and Dr Rock. The fifth CD is entirely filled with Motörhead live. Among the unreleased tracks are a few bootlegs that sound truly filthy and crackly, which will bug the music purists (Motörhead couldn’t care less about them), but anyone who knows Motörhead will be delighted from the bottom of their heart. These bootlegs stayed exactly the way they were recorded. No wonder vocals, bass and guitar are eating each other’s sonic space. What matters is that it’s goddamn loud, dirty and as sinful as it gets.
This fantastic sedative in a five-fold dose will help you get through the waiting period until the new Motöralbum, which is supposed to hit the world at the end of June ’04. Until then, let your bones rattle under the baton of supernaturally good rock’n’roll from one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands of all time. Crank “Stone Deaf Forever!” up loud, though volume in the world of rock and rock’n’roll knows no limits. Be careful, because with this level of Motörloudness no ENT doctor can help you anymore. What am I babbling about, to hell with all the health warnings from the ministry and their fake scaremongering! The medicine “Stone Deaf Forever!” should have a place in every single household!
Lineup
Lemmy – vocals, bass guitar
Fast Eddie Clarke – guitar, backing vocals
Brian Robertson – guitar
Phillip Campbell – guitar
Wurzel – guitar
Phil Taylor – drums
Peter Gill – drums
Mikkey Dee – drums
Guest musicians:
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Slash – guitar
Production
Lemmy Kilmister & Mike Stevenson
Track list
CD 1.: 1975-1980:
1. Motorhead – (with Hawkwind)
2. Lost Johnny
3. Leavin’ Here
4. White Line Fever
5. The Watcher
6. City Kids
7. I’m Your Witchdoctor
8. Motorhead
9. Louie Louie – (previously unreleased, Peel Session ’78)
10. Keep Us On The Road – (previously unreleased, Peel Session ’78)
11. Tear Ya Down – (previously unreleased, Peel Session ’78)
12. I’ll Be Your Sister – (previously unreleased, Peel Session ’78)
13. Overkill
14. Stay Clean
15. Capricorn
16. Limb From Limb
17. Dead Men Tell No Tales
18. Stone Cold Forever
19. Step Down
20. Bomber
21. Over The Top – (with Motordam)
22. Shoot You In The Back
CD 2.: 1980-1986:
1. Ace Of Spades
2. Bite The Bullet
3. Chase Is Better Than The Catch, The
4. Live To Win – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’80)
5. Like A Nightmare – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’80)
6. Please Don’t Touch – (with Headgirl)
7. Iron Fist
8. Heart Of Stone
9. Don’t Need Religion
10. Shine
11. One Track Mind
12. I Got Mine
13. Snaggletooth
14. Under The Knife – (slow version)
15. Ain’t My Crime
16. Nothing Up My Sleeve
17. Killed By Death – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’86)
18. Deaf Forever – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’86)
19. Orgasmatron (spoken word) – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’86)
20. Orgasmatron – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’86)
21. Dr. Rock – (previously unreleased, BBC Session ’86)
CD 3.: 1987-1996:
1. Rock ‘N’ Roll
2. Eat The Rich
3. Just ‘Cos You Got The Power
4. Black Leather Jacket – (previously unreleased, Club X TV 1989)
5. No Voices In The Sky
6. Going To Brazil
7. Love Me Forever
8. You Better Run – (with Ozzy Osbourne)
9. I Ain’t No Nice Guy – (with Slash)
10. Hell On Earth – (from “Hellraiser 3”)
11. Burner
12. I Am The Sword
13. Bad Woman
14. Devils
15. Sacrifice
16. Sex And Death
17. Over Your Shoulder
18. Out Of The Sun
19. I Don’t Believe A Word
CD4.: 1996-2002:
1. Overnight Sensation
2. Broken
3. Listen To Your Heart
4. Love For Sale
5. Snakebite Love
6. Take The Blame
7. Joy Of Labour
8. Orgasmatron 2000 – (previously unreleased, internet download)
9. Stay Out Of Jail
10. One More Fucking Time
11. We Are Motorhead
12. Shoot ‘Em Down – (Twisted Sister tribute track)
13. Walk A Crooked Mile
14. Brave New World
15. Mine All Mine
16. Voices From The War
CD 5.: LIVE! 1975-2000:
1. On Parole
2. Train Kept A Rollin’
3. Too Late Too Late – (previously unreleased, BBC In Concert)
4. (I Won’t) Pay Your Price – (previously unreleased, BBC In Concert)
5. Iron Horse
6. We Are The Roadcrew
7. Nadine – (previously unreleased, bootleg version)
8. Steal Your Face – (previously unreleased, BBC In Concert)
9. Mean Machine
10. No Class
11. Stone Deaf In The USA
12. Dogs
13. Traitor
14. Built For Speed
15. Acropolis (Metropolis) – (previously unreleased, Greek 45 free single)
16. Angel City
17. R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
18. Silver Machine – (previously unreleased, bootleg version)
19. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
20. I’m So Bad (Baby I Don’t Care)
21. Born To Raise Hell
