Born To Raise Hell – Motörhead

“Listen right here I’ll make it quite clear, I’m gonna put some boogie in your ear”

Just like yesterdays Patti Smith post, I feel like if I look over the history of this here long list of songs, it ain’t right that there are only three original songs by Lemmy and his band present on the run down. It’s hard to believe to be honest. I feel like I talk about Motörhead all the time. They were the first band to get their own page on here when I started making the mixtapes on the PAGES menu. They are the bench mark I use to define if any other hard rockin’ band are any good or not. Hell, there’s a sketch of Lemmy as the avatar of this site and it has been there since day one.

So how can there only be three original songs on here? Well we started out quite early with Shine from one of my personal favourite albums by the band Another Perfect Day. I like it because it’s a little odd in the bands oeuvre. However, that was back in January 1901 when the site launched.

“What are you waiting for? What do you think you were created for? Show us, you care, show us you dare, You don’t know what happened if you weren’t there”

I did post 1916 one Remembrance Sunday without any babble beneath it. And when the last of the classic line up of the band left us in January 2018 I posted Overkill as tribute.

I let Primal Scream see us out on the ice with a cover of their title tune (And got into all sorts of paradoxes and plastic boxes with the fact that song is a cover for Motörhead too) during an early theme week (back when the themes were as simple as COVER VERSIONS).They’ve featured in Rolling Stones Week with their take on Sympathy For The Devil. Then in Songs about Songs Week they popped up again with their inspiration donating the tune in tribute to the Ramones spelling it out with R.A.M.O.N.E.S. However there were more paradoxes to be had as it was a song about a band being covered by the band it was about. So it’s on the page titled The Song Ramones The Same too. Then there was Bowie Covers Week and the bands take on Heroes that was sort of the unofficial eulogy for the leader of the band as it was the lead single for their first posthumous studio release. The covers album Undercöver.

I could have saved all the above typing and just posted a link the the page Lawn Killers where all the tracks are gathered up. However, I’m a fucker for context…

“Going for broke, rock ’til you choke, It don’t matter if you drink or smoke, Speak through the beat, get up on your feet, Sweating like a hound dog, white as a sheet, Don’t you be scared, don’t you be scared, Everybody terrified, it don’t seem fair”

So, then to a latter day classic in the bands arsenal. Born To Raise Hell is a party anthem. It’s a collaboration. It’s a genuine hit and all told it’s a solid fan favourite to boot.

Even after their passing this song played in a crowded auditorium over a PA will get cheered and sung along to.

The collaboration part comes from Ice-T and Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe. So they’re tied to a particular place and time very specifically indeed. 1993. This was the moment the band turned their backs on the mainstream the major labels and the big league and headed out into the landscape of the indie scene like they had in their early days. Two decades of trying and getting it screwed over by the majors, the lawyers and the press meant each tour was recouping and regrouping with diminishing returns. This was also the bands short lived “four members = twin guitar” phase. The line up was Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Würzel and Mikkey Dee on drums.

The song and it’s custom promo clip video featured on the soundtrack of the 1994 movie Airheads. A film mentioned during a recent theme week because of its imaginary band The Lone Rangers. So there’s multiple versions of the track. The album take, the guest vocalist take, a dancey remix thing that’s to be avoided. How very 90’s.

T’was upon the album Bastards so it was. An underrated record in the bands history and home to one of their greatest singles.