Motörhead released their fourth studio album, Ace of Spades, through Bronze Records in 1980. The three men on the front cover posed as outlaws in a sandpit in Barnet, England. Turn the sleeve over and there’s a dedication in small print to the people who drove the trucks and hauled the gear. The band gave them a good spot on the record, too. The first side opens with “Ace of Spades” and closes with “(We Are) The Road Crew.”
Motörhead had already made Overkill and Bomber in 1979. For the follow-up, bassist and singer Lemmy Kilmister, guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor worked up material at Rockfield in Wales before joining producer Vic Maile at Jackson’s Studios in Rickmansworth. They brought a rough version of the title song with them. Clarke recalled that it was unusual for a band in such a hurry to get back on tour to spend studio time rewriting a riff. Once they heard the new arrangement of “Ace of Spades”, they agreed within hours that it should give the album its name.
Lemmy drew the gambler in the opening song from a game he barely played. He told journalist Sylvie Simmons that he and a friend used to play slot machines at London’s Embassy Club. Cards and dice gave him better material for a lyric. By the time the needle reached the end of that side, though, he was singing about a job he knew firsthand. Before fronting Motörhead, Lemmy had worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix.
You can hear that experience in what he bothered to put in “(We Are) The Road Crew.” There’s a hotel nobody can find, a case that needs packing and a tube of superglue among the backstage supplies. The verses keep moving from one town to the next. The chorus is where the people doing the work finally get to say who they are.
The song came together almost as fast as it sounds. Clarke recalled that the band had a riff when Lemmy came up with the title. In his autobiography, White Line Fever, Lemmy put the writing of the lyric at ten minutes. His clearest memory of the session was Clarke halfway through his solo, flat on his back and laughing while the guitar howled. Motörhead kept the take. One person who heard something else in that racket was crew member Ian “Eagle” Dobbie. Lemmy recalled seeing tears in his eyes when he first heard the song. Dobbie’s name is there on the original sleeve.
Ace of Spades entered the UK album chart at No. 4. The following June, No Sleep ’til Hammersmith went straight to No. 1 with live versions of both the title track and the road crew’s song. In May 2020, that dedication took on a practical purpose. With shows shut down and crews out of work, Motörhead’s team released a new video that put backstage footage on screen and pledged all of its streaming proceeds to Crew Nation.
