ORGAN THING: One of Motorhead’s final recordings, a rather poignant cover of Bowie’s Heroes…

Motörhead have always been partial to a Motorized cover or two, from the versy start and the days of Louie Louie on Top Of The Pops, that celebrated version of ZZ Top’s Beer Drinkers and arguably back before that with the Hawkwind/Pink Fairies hybrid starting point that kick-started the whole Lemmy/Larry Wallis West London late 70’s version of Motorhead back there in the first place (technically you could of course argue the song Motorhead itself was a righteous Hawkwind cover). Can we stretch this to include that collaboration with The Damned and that version of Ballroom Blitz? And there were those “hit single” covers back in the Fast Eddie Golden Years years, that high-point live EP with that raw version of Leaving Here, that glorious Johnny Kidd cover with Girlschool while Philthy Phil was out of action, Lemmy and the various incarnations of Motorhead have always been able to nail a good cover. Okay so there might have been a dubious cover or two made for cheap and nasty tribute albums early in this century, Motorversions of various AC/DC, Iron Maiden or Judas Priest songs maybe didn’t quite work that well (those Metallica recordings weren’t too bad).

The Phil Campbell / Mickey Dee version of Motorhead might not have quite matched the lawn-killing magic of the Fast Eddie / Philthy Animal years, the most recent version of Motorhead did have their moments in terms of a cover version though. and the reason for sharing all this today is the announcement from the Motorhead camp of a new version of the Bowie’s Heroes, (not the version they recorded back in 2008), one of the last things ever recorded by Motorhead before Mr Kilminster finally checked out has a kind of poignant beauty (and a tinge of sadness) to it, beauty isn’t a word you’d associate with Motorhead but this is a rather beautiful version, not sure if I’m really going to enjoy the rest of Under Cover too much, but there some special about this version of Heroes. Motorhead were a beautiful thing in all their formations…. (SW)

“Motorhead to release Under Cöver in September 2017 A covers compilation to include new version of David Bowie’s Heroes”

The press release: “One thing Lemmy Kilmister, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee liked to do over their years together in Motörhead, was grab a favourite song by another artist and give it a good old fashioned ‘Motörheading’. To run them through the Motörizer if you will. To rock them, roll them and even give them an extra twist and edge. In celebration of some of those finest moments, the band will release Under Cöver, a collection of some of their best covers, and a collection which will include the previously unreleased version of David Bowie’s timeless classic “Heroes”. Recorded during the Bad Magic sessions in 2015 by Cameron Webb, and was one of the last songs the band recorded together. “It’s such a great Bowie song, one of his best, and I could only see great things coming out of it from us, and so it proved to be,” says Phil Campbell, “and Lemmy ended up loving our version.” “He was very, very proud of it,” says Mikkey Dee, “not only because it turned out so well but because it was fun! Which is what projects like this should be – fun!” To that ethic, the rest of the album contains loud and proud, raucous and raging Rock ‘N’ Roll takes on the likes of “God Save The Queen” (Sex Pistols), “Cat Scratch Fever” (Ted Nugent), “Rockaway Beach,” (The Ramones), Breaking The Law” (Judas Priest) and “Whiplash” (Metallica) which earned the band a Grammy in 2005 for Best Metal Performance. “We were happy with them at the time and we’re happy with them now!” affirms Campbell, whilst Dee says, “We should remember that it’s about having some fun with songs that we all loved.” So there you are. If that doesn’t have you scrambling for your music delivery device, then check your pulse pronto. Or just start scrambling for a copy of Under Cöver immediately. You won’t be sorry….”

TRACKLISTING

1. Breaking the Law (Produced by Cameron Webb) 2008
2. God Save the Queen (Produced by Bob Kulick and Bruce Bouillet) 2000
3. Heroes (Produced by Cameron Webb) 2015
4. Starstruck (Produced by Cameron Webb) 2014
5. Cat Scratch Fever (Produced by Peter Solley) 1992
6. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Produced by Bob Kulick and Bruce Bouillet) 2001
7. Sympathy for the Devil (Produced by Cameron Webb) 2015
8. Hellraiser (Produced by Billy Sherwood) 1992
9. Rockaway Beach (Mixed by Cameron Webb) 2002
10.Shoot ‘Em Down (Produced by Bob Kulick and Bruce Bouillet) 2001
11. Whiplash (Produced by Bruce Bouillet and Bob Kulick) 2005
All songs performed by Motörhead – Lemmy Kilmister – Bass/Vocals, Phil Campbell – Guitar, Mikkey Dee – Drums