Motörhead "(We Are) The Road Crew"

Motörhead Ace of Spades LP (Bronze Records, 1980)

Why do I love this solo? Well, for starters, it's nice and noisy. I love a good wha-wha workout, and guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke can't keep his foot off the darn thing on this song. What sends it over the top for me, though, is what happens at roughly the -0:45 mark. Eddie stops playing, but his guitar is still on and emitting howls of feedback for 15 or so seconds before he starts playing again. I can't help but picture him jamming away then momentarily passing out, mid-solo, when the speed in his bloodstream wears off. This album was one of my Christmas presents from my dad when I was 17. I knew it was due to be released sometime not too long beforehand, so I begged him for it, and he came through. A few months later, they came to America for the first time, touring with Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz. They were the openers, of course, but they blew Ozzy off the stage. This is tagged magazine discovery because I first heard of Motörhead when I was 16 and their second album, Overkill, was reviewed alongside the lone Hawklords album, in issue 39 of Trouser Press. The reviewer savaged them, so when I found one of their records not long after, of course, I had to buy it. 'Twas a wise decision, though I had to check the speed on my first listen, 'cause there was just no way humans could play that fast!