Cries from the Quiet World: Motörhead "Bastards (1994 Japan Reissue, CD, Teichiku Records)"

viernes, 6 de octubre de 2017

Motörhead "Bastards (1994 Japan Reissue, CD, Teichiku Records)"

Bastards is the eleventh studio album by the band Motörhead, released 29 November 1993, on ZYX Records, the first and last for this label.

It is one of two studio albums with the short-lived Lemmy, Würzel, Zööm and Mikkey Dee lineup, as on the previous album Dee was a 'special guest' drummer and hadn't officially joined the band. It was also the first of four Motörhead albums to be produced by Howard Benson, and the first Motörhead studio album not to contain a title track. After unsuccessfully commercialising the success of 1916 with its 1992 follow-up March ör Die, the band returned to their roots: being loud and fast. The lyrical themes range from social criticism ("On Your Feet or on Your Knees"), to war ("Death or Glory" and "I am the Sword") to child abuse ("Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me") and total mayhem ("Burner"). Lemmy also states in his memoir that he offered "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" to both Joan Jett and Lita Ford:

"..'cause I thought a girl should sing it but no one ever took it up.."

It was barely released outside of the label's home country of Germany, other than the originally released series worldwide, until the 2001 Steamhammer reissue, and had to be imported otherwise. Bastards is cited by the band as one of their best works. In the documentary The Guts and the Glory guitarist Phil Campbell enthuses:

"..we worked so fucking hard on that. The songs were there, the commitment was there, the playing was there, production was there, everything was there...I'm so proud of that album. Nothing wrong with that album at all. Some great songs.."

In his autobiography White Line Fever, vocalist/bassist Lemmy calls it:

"..one of the best albums we ever did.."

But laments that the band's record label, the German-based ZYX, did not promote it outside of Germany.

"..It's just so disappointing when you pull out all the stops for an album and you're really thrilled with it and nobody else cares, especially not your record company.."

"Born to Raise Hell" was later re-recorded with Ice-T and Ugly Kid Joe vocalist Whitfield Crane and released as a single (including a version on picture disc). This version of the song was featured in the movie Airheads.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Kilmister, Campbell, Burston, Dee except where noted.