Essential Motorhead Songs
I was slow to get into Motorhead. Honestly, for many years I'd only heard their contributions to pro-wrestling and the few covers that Metallica recorded for Garage, Inc. They're one of the bands that has a mountain of material, so when you're a teen with a music-buying budget, it's hard to dive in. I honestly forgot about going deeper until I watched a few Hellraiser movies as an adult and came across their own version of "Hellraiser". Motorhead, much like AC/DC, is a band built on familiarity. You know what to expect each time- high octane rock, so just crank it up and sit back. I'm glad I did go deeper with this band!
In the late 90's Metallica released an album of cover songs, which served as my introduction to several bands, one of them being Motorhead. 4 songs were included, "Overkill", "Stone Dead Forever", "Too Late Too Late", and this song.
9. "Till The End" (Bad Magic)
Pretty eerie that Lemmy released this song on what would ultimately be Motorhead's last album. It's a fine swan song for Lemmy.
8. "Bad Religion" (March Or Die)
I had a few Motorhead albums, but not many, and bought this one on iTunes back in the summer when I was making plans to see Motorhead on tour. I bought it solely for "Hellraiser", so I could have just paid for the 99 cent download of the single or whatever the rate is for one song, but the rest of the album was pretty solid and this has stood out as a favorite.
8. "Lost Woman Blues" (Aftershock)
I came across this album as a promo copy from the radio station and as far as latter day Motorhead goes, it proves there was still plenty of tank in the gas. "Crying Shame" is another great one from that album, too.
6. "Killed By Death" (No Remorse)
I love his cackling on this song. No need to say more.
5. "Love Me Forever" (1916)
Metallica was inspired by Motorhead, yet it sounds like Motorhead turned around and was inspired by Metallica's "Fade To Black" for the intro to this song. I really like Motorhead's string of releases in the 1990's, much like Megadeth and also Metallica. Most fans might look to the trashy 80's as the glory days for these bands but I prefer the streamlined hard rock sound a little more.
4. "Ace Of Spades" (Ace Of Spades)
This had to be here. It was the first song I'd heard from Motorhead that wasn't a Metallica cover nor a WWF theme song and I imagine it's the first song most everyone else has heard by them too, if not the song everyone's mind instantly goes to when they think of Motorhead. It's their signature song.
3. "Born To Raise Hell" (Bastards)
This song just kicks ass! At the time of Lemmy's passing I felt I wasn't too versed in Motorhead's music to do a fitting tribute at the time, and in the month since, I've ran the catalog of their albums on Apple Music that I hadn't previously heard. This song quickly rose to the top of my favorite songs ever, not just this list of favorites of Motorhead. I even took a trip to Iowa recently and had this one cranked on a loop.
2. "Hellraiser" (March Or Die)
This was surprisingly a song that Lemmy co-wrote with Ozzy for the No More Tears album, along with the hit song "Mama I'm Coming Home." Lemmy re-recorded it later with his own band and I think it sounds a lot meaner with his vocals compared to Ozzy's. Plus, it's hard to top Lemmy playing poker with Pinhead.
1. "Overkill" (Overkill)
I've liked this song ever since I first heard the Metallica cover back when I was in high school. It's so heavy it'll make the paint peel off the walls- that furious drumming and rip-roaring bass had me hooked from the start.
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