Motorhead (song)

Motorhead (song)

"Motörhead" is a song written by Lemmy while in Hawkwind; it was his last before leaving the band.

The song was written in the Hyatt Hotel (a.k.a. 'Riot House') in West Hollywood, California, Lemmy explains how it was created:

I was on tour with Hawkwind in 1974, we were staying at the Riot House and Roy Wood and Wizzard were also in town. I got this urge to write a song in the middle of the night. I ran downstairs to the Wizzard room, got Roy's Ovation acoustic guitar, then hurried back to mine. I went on to the balcony and howled away for four hours. Cars were stopping and the drivers were listening then driving off, and there I was yelling away at the top of my voice." - Lemmy.

The title of the song is American slang for a speed freak. The lyrics were explained by Lemmy:

The six thousand miles was a reference to Los Angeles, and the rest is self-explanatory. And yes, I am the only person to fit the word 'parallelogram' into a rock'n'roll number! I'm very proud of that.

The song is written in E major. The bass follows the root note for all the chords, with a riff on the F♯, based on the A string between the tenth and twelfth frets. The introduction is in E, ending with two bars each in D and E♭. The verse is in E with a D/E 'kick' at the end of each lyric line, a pre-chorus follows, in G with two lines ending in D, the last in F♯. The chorus, like the pre-chorus is in G, but with only two lines, ending in D and F♯. The song consists of three verses in total. The solo break, based around the verse/pre-chorus/chorus pattern, is after the second chorus.