Day After Day #83: Ace of Spades

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).  

Ace of Spades (1980)

It's no insult to the band Motorhead to say you can learn everything you need to know about them in under three minutes. The band's mission statement is encapsulated in one of the greatest rock songs ever: "Ace of Spades." That doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to other Motorhead songs or albums; if anything, the song kicks so much ass, it gets you fired up for more.

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister formed Motorhead in 1975 after getting kicked out of legendary English space rock act Hawkwind after a drug arrest. Prior to that, he was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and The Nice. Kilmister decided to form a band that was loud and fast like the MC5. Originally called Bastard, Lemmy changed the name to Motorhead after the last song he wrote for Hawkwind. 

After the first guitarist and drummer didn't work out, singer-bassist Lemmy settled on a band lineup with Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums and his friend "Fast" Eddie Clarke on guitar. It was tough sledding for the band at first; their label United Artists refused to release their first album (it eventually came out in 1979). Eventually they got some studio time to make a single and instead recorded 13 songs for their self-titled debut in 1977. The album didn't fare that well but Motorhead kept plugging along and scored a deal with Bronze Records in the U.K., which released their second and third albums (Overkill and Bomber, respectively) in 1979. Radio exposure and constant touring helped build up their audience and the band scored a couple of top 40 hits on the U.K. Singles Chart.

Motorhead's fourth album, Ace of Spades was released in November 1980. By this point, they were being lumped in with the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal along with Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon. Lemmy resisted the metal label, often insisting Motorhead was a rock band; his influences were as much '50s acts like Little Richard as they were heavier bands like Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, but Motorhead also had a punk edge that most of their contemporaries didn't. They weren't singing about dragons or wizards. And one thing for sure: Motorhead played LOUD. 

The title track of "Ace of Spades" was filled with gambling metaphors, mostly about poker. It opens with Lemmy's overdriven bass leading into a galloping beat and the singer's gravel-and-cigarettes bellow.

"If you like to gamble/I tell you, I'm your man/You win some, lose some/It's all the same to me/The pleasure is to play/Makes no difference what you say/I don't share your greed/The only card I need is the Ace of Spades/The Ace of Spades."

The song continues to pummel the listener with the song's monster riffage and no-nonsense attitude.

"You know I'm born to lose/And gambling's for fools/But that's the way I like it, baby/I don't want to live forever/And don't forget the joker/Pushing up the ante/I know you got to see me/Read 'em and weep/The dead man's hand again."

"Ace of Spades" was on the U.K. Singles Chart for 13 weeks, peaking at #15. The album never charted in the U.S., but it hit #4 in the U.K. and #29 in Canada. I remember watching a Motorhead concert on the CBC in early 1981 and being blown away by the power and simplicity of it all.

The song became what Motorhead was best known for, and Lemmy said in interviews that he had gotten sick of it but would always play it in concert because that's what the fans wanted. In 2011, he told an interviewer, "I'm glad we got famous for that rather than for some turkey, but I sang 'The eight of spades' for two years and nobody noticed." 

Motorhead made one more album with Clarke before the guitarist left the band; he was upset the band recorded a cover of the Tammy Wynette classic "Stand By Your Man" with Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. Clarke refused to play on the song and quit, forming his own band Fastway. Motorhead hired Brian Robertson, formerly of Thin Lizzy, to play on their next album Another Perfect Day (which is really good, btw); but he was soon gone because he insisted on wearing shorts and ballet shoes on stage and refused to play the band's older songs. The lineup changes continued over the years but Lemmy forged on, releasing another 16 albums over the next 30 years. 

Lemmy's hard-living lifestyle was legendary, full of heavy drinking, speed and smoking. He died at the age of 70 in December 2015 from prostate cancer (only diagnosed a few days before he died), cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure. Taylor also died in 2015 and Clarke in 2018.

And after Lemmy's death, "Ace of Spades" became a hit again, reaching #13 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Even in death, Lemmy kicked ass.