Motorhead Lyrics

"Motorhead" is a song written by Lemmy while in Hawkwind; it was his last before leaving the band. The song was written in the Hyatt Hotel ( a.k.a. 'Riot House') in West Hollywood, California, Lemmy explains how it was created: I was on tour with Hawkwind in 1974, we were staying at the Riot House and Roy Wood and Wizzard were also in town. I got this urge to write a song in the middle of the night. I ran downstairs to the Wizzard room, got Roy's Ovation acoustic guitar, then hurried back to mine. I went on to the balcony and howled away for four hours. Cars were stopping and the drivers were listening then driving off, and there I was yelling away at the top of my voice." - Lemmy. The title of the song is American slang for a speed freak. The lyrics were explained by Lemmy: The six thousand miles was a reference to Los Angeles, and the rest is self-explanatory. And yes, I am the only person to fit the word 'parallelogram' into a rock'n'roll number! I'm very proud of that. The song is written in E major. The bass follows the root note for all the chords, with a riff on the F♯, based on the A string between the tenth and twelfth frets. The introduction is in E, ending with two bars each in D and E♭. The verse is in E with a D/E 'kick' at the end of each lyric line, a pre-chorus follows, in G with two lines ending in D, the last in F♯. The chorus, like the pre-chorus is in G, but with only two lines, ending in D and F♯. The song consists of three verses in total. The solo break, based around the verse/pre-chorus/chorus pattern, is after the second chorus. Hawkwind versions The song first appeared on the B-side of Hawkwind's 1974 single "Kings of Speed" single, released on United Artists. The original backing tracks for "Kings of Speed" were taken by Brock from that Olympic Studio session, and he later added overdubs and released them through independent record companies. In July 1981 "Motorhead" was released as the A-side to a 7" and 12" single on the Flicknife label, this time having a Brock vocal and synthesizer overdubs, the B-side being "Valium Ten". Flicknife re-released the single as a 12" vinyl in October 1982. "Motorhead" was also used by Hawkwind on their 1986 single "Motorhead"/"Hurry on Sundown", released on Flicknife Records. In 1992 the song was added to the Dojo CD re-issues of Hawkind's Warrior on the Edge of Time album, as did Griffin in 1994. The song is used in various compilation albums, such as British Tribal Music, The Hawkwind Collection and The Hawkwind Anthology Vol. II. cover versions * 1981 - Cockney Rejects on Greatest Hits Vol. 3 - Live & Loud * 1990 - Lawnmower Deth on Ooh Crikey It's... Lawnmower Deth * 1993 - Corduroy as a single and on their Out Of Here album * 1995 - Poison Idea on "Pajama Party" * 1997 - Primal Scream on their Vanishing Point album * 1999 - Acid King on their Busse Woods album