Ace of Spades

Hey Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has got Ace of Spades by Motörhead spinning right now from that classic album of the same name, and if you ever needed a reason to crank the volume and feel the wind on a long ride, this is it. The song hit in 1980 and became the one everybody knows, the gambling anthem that feels like it was written for people who live hard and take the risks. Lemmy once said he wrote the lyrics sitting on the bog, just grabbing the title because he already had an ace of spades tattoo on his arm with the words Born To Lose Live To Win next to it. He called the whole thing a word exercise on gambling clichés, tossing in the dead man’s hand of aces and eights that Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he got shot. Fast Eddie Clarke later laughed and figured Lemmy might have scribbled it in the shitter for all he knew, because that was how the man rolled when lyrics were needed. Either way, it stuck, and the band turned bad luck into their theme so things couldn’t get any worse.

The track nearly stayed buried under the rest of the album until producer Vic Maile got them to bang woodblocks together for that clacking breakdown. The guys were half-cut and totally against it at first, figuring they would do it for Vic then leave it out, but when they heard the reverb they changed their minds. Lemmy admitted he sang the eight of spades for two solid years before anybody noticed the slip, and he was just glad they got famous for this one instead of some turkey. Later on he got sick of playing it every night, writing in his book that the band didn’t become fossilised after the record and he had had enough of the song, yet the fans wanted it so they kept it in. He figured if he went to see Little Richard he would expect Long Tall Sally, so they delivered. The album cover shot that looks like the Arizona desert was actually done in a sandpit in Barnet outside London, with the sky airbrushed in because the day was overcast, and the cowboy outfits pulled from movie characters, Eddie going for Clint Eastwood’s man with no name.

You can dig deeper into all that history and the rest of the catalog over at the official site imotorhead.com, where the band keeps the archive going with anniversary editions and stories that still hit hard. For the daily updates and the road crew spirit, follow the official Facebook at OfficialMotorhead, the Instagram at officialmotorhead, and the X account at myMotorhead. If you want to hang with other heads who keep the flame alive, the big fan group on Facebook at CompleteMotorheadFanGroup is where the stories and the loyalty pile up.

None of that loud, fast, arrogant sound would have happened if Lemmy hadn’t bounced back after getting kicked out of Hawkwind. Ian Fraser Kilmister was born on Christmas Eve 1945 in Stoke-on-Trent, raised mostly by his mother after his father, an RAF chaplain, walked out when the boy was just three months old. The nickname Lemmy stuck from his habit of hitting up friends for a fiver so he could feed the slot machines, the one-arm bandits he preferred over poker any day. He caught the rock n roll bug watching Cliff Richard on television and trekking up to see the Beatles at the Cavern, then picked up a guitar and started in local bands that never quite caught fire. Before long he was roadieing for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, learning the road life from the inside, then landed the bass and vocal spot in Hawkwind where he finally found something he was good at.

Hawkwind gave him the stage and the speed, but the split came in 1975 after a bust at the Canadian border where they thought his packet of speed was cocaine. Fired on the spot even though he had sung the vocals on their big hit Silver Machine, Lemmy decided no one would fire him again. He started a band he first called Bastard, then switched the name to Motörhead after the last song he wrote for Hawkwind, the American slang for a speed freak that fit the loud, fast, city rock n roll he wanted. Early lineups came and went, with Larry Wallis and Lucas Fox giving way to Phil Philthy Animal Taylor on drums, then Fast Eddie Clarke joining after an afternoon jam that clicked on Yardbirds tunes. Lemmy showed up one Saturday with a bullet belt and a leather jacket and told Eddie he was in, completing the classic trio that would record Ace of Spades a few years later.

That early stretch was pure survival, stealing gear when they had to, practicing in a warehouse, and getting turned down by labels who thought the tapes were too rough. United Artists sat on the first sessions until the band started getting noticed, and the debut album finally dropped in 1977 with the full-throttle version of the song Motörhead that Lemmy had always thought was too slow in the original. From there it was Overkill and Bomber, constant touring, and the reputation for being the loudest band in the world before Ace of Spades locked in the anthem. Lemmy kept the same attitude right through, living the life he sang about, gambling on the machines more than the cards, staying up because sleep never interested him much, and delivering the goods for the people who showed up.

The Zoo Crew loves spinning this one because it still sounds like freedom on two wheels, the kind of record that belongs on THE ZOO where the deep cuts and the big hits both get room to breathe. Motörhead never softened the edges, and Ace of Spades remains the card they threw down when the stakes were high. Lemmy may have grown tired of the song himself, but every time it comes around the speakers still shake and the heads still bang, the same way they did when the three amigos first put it down in those weeks at Jackson’s Studios. That’s the rock n roll that keeps the Zoo Freaks coming back, the soundtrack for the long haul and the open road.