Ace of Spades (album)

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Ace of Spades
Motörhead studio album

Publication
(s)

November 8, 1980

Label (s) Bronze Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Heavy metal

Title (number)

12

running time

36:42

occupation

production

Vic Maile

Studio (s)

Jackson's Studios, Rickmansworth, UK

chronology
Bomber
(1979) 		Ace of Spades No Sleep 'til Hammersmith
(1981)

Ace of Spades is the fourth album by the British heavy metal band Motörhead . It was released in November 1980 and is considered by critics to be one of the band's best albums. In March 1981 the album was awarded gold status in Great Britain for 100,000 units sold.

Recording and publication

The recordings took place from early August to mid-September 1980 at Jackson's Studios in Rickmansworth . Lemmy Kilmister knew the producer Vic Maile from his time as a member of Hawkwind . The title song is about different forms of gambling, especially poker , Ace of Spades is in English for the card game of spades - Ace . The song (We Are) The Road Crew is dedicated to the band's roadies ; Lemmy Kilmister wrote the lyrics within a few minutes during a break from recording.

Because of the planned album and a tour, the single Ace of Spades was released in advance on October 27th and reached position 15 in the British charts in November . The album itself was released on November 8th and reached number four on the charts.

The cover photo and other recordings for the booklet were taken in the fall of 1980 during a photo session in South Mimms . The idea for the western motif came from Eddie Clarke .

reception

Most of the album received positive reviews. In 1981 Peter Kreglinger awarded 14 out of 20 possible points in Audio , although he stated: “A lot of drive, few variations” and above all “hellishly loud”. In 1986, Philipp Roser noted in his Motorhead history in the crash "signs of wear and tear". There was nothing to be read about such in 1997 in Rock Hard when it was re-released ; instead, Jan Jaedike wrote of a "non plus ultra disc [...] that will remain unmatched forever and ever". Five years later the album was positioned there at number 14 in the “Top 300” ranking . Based on the general status, Thorsten Pöttger deduced in Eclipsed 2005 that the album “everyone has in their collection”.

Namesake: Ace of Spades ( English for. Spades - Ace )

Track list

All songs were written by Lemmy Kilmister, Phil Taylor and Eddie Clarke.

  1. Ace of Spades - 2:49
  2. Love Me Like a Reptile - 3:23
  3. Shoot You in the Back - 2:39
  4. Live to Win - 3:37
  5. Fast and Loose - 3:23
  6. (We Are) The Road Crew - 3:12
  7. Fire, Fire - 2:44
  8. Jailbait - 3:33
  9. Dance - 2:38
  10. Bite the Bullet - 1:38
  11. The Chase Is Better than the Catch - 4:18
  12. The Hammer - 2:48

In the USA, the order of the songs is different. In Germany, some pressings bear the imprint "Side A" on both sides of the LP.

Re-releases

On January 28, 2003, Silverline released a DVD-Audio version of the album. On March 28, 2005, Eagle Vision released a DVD with excerpts from the making-of and interviews with the band members.

The single Ace of Spades was re-released in 2005 in its original format. There is also a 12-inch version with two bonus songs. One of them is a remix version of the theme song.

literature

  • Lemmy Kilmister with Janiss Garza: White Line Fever - The Autobiography . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-931624-25-0 , p. 123-126 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan Burridge: Motorhead . In: Record Collector . No. 140 , April 1991, pp. 18-19 .
  2. ↑ Alan Burridge, Mick Stephenson: Illustrated Collector's Guide to Motorhead . Collector's Guide Publishing, 1994, ISBN 978-0-9695736-2-3 , pp. 70 .
  3. ↑ Peter Kreglinger: Mötorhead. Ace of Spades . In: Audio , 1/1981, p. 126.
  4. ^ Philipp Roser: Rock History Motorhead . In: Crash , 7-8 (?) / 1986, pp. 61-63.
  5. ↑ Jan Jaedike: Motorhead . In: Rock Hard , No. 117 (2/1997), p. 124.
  6. ↑ Rock Hard , 1/2002, p. 68.
  7. ↑ Thorsten Pöttger: Motorhead. Ace Of Spades . In: Eclipsed , No. 73 (June 2005), p. 66.