1980 Motörhead song that blew up in Lemmy’s face: “I swore I’d never do it again”
Few songs are as synonymous with rock and roll rebellion as ‘Ace of Spades’. A heavy metal anthem that began the unstoppable tremors that still ripple through the genre today, the Motörhead classic has become a part of their rich iconography, which is incredibly hard to shake.
Having a signature song can be a blessing and a curse. While most bands are content to have a commercial gem in their arsenal, once the reality sets in that they’ll have to play it on every gig and tour for the rest of their career, it starts to lose its sheen.
Fans will clamber for it, and it’ll become the track most closely associated with a band until it becomes a Groundhog Day situation of non-stop renditions. Lemmy Kilmister, whose own signature track with Motörhead bored him senseless in the end, at least sympathised: “If I go to see Little Richard, I expect to hear ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’, or I’d be pissed off”.
It goes without saying that Motörhead’s version of ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ was ‘Ace of Spades’, which Kilmister admitted he got completely sick of. The title track of the 1980 by the same name was the biggest hit, spending 13 weeks in the singles chart and reappearing decades later after Kilmister’s death. As the gravel-voiced frontman put it: “It’s clothed my back for the last 20 years.” For a lot of fans, his innate connection to the song was also the first sign his health was deteriorating.
At Glastonbury in 2015, when Motörhead played ‘Ace of Spades’ and then ‘Overkill’, he carried on singing ‘Ace of Spades’. Fans noticed he seemed slightly disoriented and had lost a considerable amount of weight. He later shrugged it off, telling the Guardian he was “still indestructible” despite the mishap.
“It was a mental block,” he said. “I’ve sung those songs so many times. First time I’ve ever sung ‘Ace of Spades to it’, though. We did it the night before, and it was fucking terrible, and I swore I’d never do it again. But we did. Obviously.”
The track is such a crucial part of the band’s setlist that it would feel completely unfair if you had paid your hard-earned money to see Lemmy and the boys and they didn’t rally to give a spit-flecked rendition of ‘Ace of Spades’. But that doesn’t mean Lemmy didn’t use his own nous to alleviate some of the boredom.
Years earlier, he’d also taken to rejigging its lyrics just for a chance to hear something different, managing to tweak them just enough that fans wouldn’t notice, but he’d at least feel some variation. In 2009, he told Spin he’d actually been singing “Eight of Spades” for years, and no one had twigged, saying the song was “good” but in dire need of a revamp.
“[It] makes a change – all people seem to know is ‘Ace of Spades,'” he said. “It’s backfired at me ever since ’cause the ace of spades is a bad luck sign – so naturally, I’ve always felt an affinity with it. Damn the dark card! For two years, I’ve sung “Eight of Spades,” and nobody noticed. Not even the rest of the band.”
In the end, he never felt it was Motörhead’s definitive anthem, and they did their best work years after – “since Eddie left the band in 1982”. But sure enough, after Kilmister died, the song was propelled to yet more airplay, which would’ve pleased him and pissed him off in equal turn.
