Ace of Spades

Rocktober 12th! 

For the month of October, we celebrate Rock Music!

In years past, I’ve gone the route of great rock songs of all time. But this year I wanted to do something a little different,  and have chosen to go with Great Rock Songs of the 80s.

As always, especially when it comes to music, the topic is subjective. But, I’m sure you’ll be happy with my selections for this month. 

Today our song is: Ace of Spades – Motorhead

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

Initially issued as a 7" vinyl single in October 1980 as a preview to the album Ace of Spades and autumn tour, the song was also released by Bronze Records as a 12" vinyl pressing in special Christmas picture sleeves, limited to 50,000 copies. The picture of the band in Santa outfits used on the cover was taken at the Aylesbury Fair, while the band were on tour

Bronze also issued German and Spanish 7" vinyl versions which had a different sleeves, as well as a Japanese release, with a colour picture insert with song lyrics in English and Japanese. One sided test pressings (not mis-presses, but used in the trade) escaped the pressing plant and are on the market.

The song opens with an overdriven bass intro played by Lemmy. For the lyrics, he said he "used gambling metaphors, mostly cards and dice—when it comes to that sort of thing, I'm more into the one-arm bandits actually, but you can't really sing about spinning fruit, and the wheels coming down".

On 6 September 1980, Lemmy was interviewed by Graham Neale on BBC Radio 1's Rock on Saturday show, "Bomber", "Ace of Spades" and "Love Me Like a Reptile" were played. The following month, on 6 and 20 October, the band played the song on BBC TV show Top of the Pops.

 

Thank you for supporting me during this month-long music fest. If  you choose to join me in this RockFest, feel free to snag my graphic at the top or you can create your own. You don’t even have to use my same theme - just as long as it’s Rock Music.