Motörhead – Primal Scream

When Primal Scream paid tribute to Motörhead by covering their anthem Motörhead it was kind of odd that they were actually covering Hawkwind.

OK so Lemmy wrote the song. But Hawkwind, who (much like Primal Scream) were a ever changing gang of Space Pirates who pushed the boundaries of music and chemical consumption to new hypnotic and baffling heights had plenty of epic trippy grooves for PS to play about with on their (career best) album Vanishing Point.

Yet they chose to Cover Motörhead not Silver Machine, Master Of The Universe, Warrior At The Edge Of Time or You Shouldn’t Do That. So it must be a deliberate tribute to the hardest working, dirtiest, druggiest rock and roll band in the world (also something Primal Scream have been accused of being at times) as well as a bit of wish fulfillment.

Rather than trying to out space Hawkwind or out speed Motörhead they decide to go with their own trademark essence Groove. Coming on like a dirty needle in the Stones ’78 tour bus the groove is pure filth, but there’s no denying it’s a groove.

After a mumbled ‘I am Iron Man’ type play about with distortion pedals on microphones they slip into the highly flammable rhythm.

“Sunrise, wrong side of another day, sky high and six thousand miles away, don’t know how long I’ve been awake, woke up in an amazing state”

I know the words. I’ve sung them a thousand times. When Bobby G sings them he makes them his own.

“Don’t move, I’ll shut the door and kill the lights and if I can’t be wrong I could be right, All good clean fun, have another stick of gum”

When people cover really famous songs and mess about with the melody I’m usually put out by it. I feel there’s an arrogance at play with taking a better song than ‘The Artist’ is able to produce themselves and essentially saying ‘I’m going to improve on this classic by doing it differently to the way the author intended’. When Primal Scream step up to the Theme From Lemmy’s Life I think… OK lads, lets see if you’ve got the stones.

“Fourth day, five day marathon, we’re moving like a parallelogram,
Don’t move, I’ll shut the door and kill the lights, I guess I’ll see you all on the ice”

They sure have. Primal Scream really do prove they’re cut from the same cloth (probably stone washed denim) as Lemmy, as Keef, as Elvis the pelvis and as his little brother Enus.

“Motorhead, remember me now, motorhead alright”

https://youtu.be/h0nma-Nlhl4

https://youtu.be/h0nma-Nlhl4

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