黑桃A (1980)

Ace of Spades is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Motörhead, released in October 1980 via Bronze Records. It is the band's most commercially successful album, peaking at number four on the UK Albums Chart and reaching gold status in the UK by March 1981. It was preceded by the release of the title track as a single in October, which peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart inearly November.

It was the band's debut release in the United States, with Mercury Records handling distribution in North America. In 2020, the album was ranked at 408 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Background

By 1979, Motörhead had released two successful albums, Overkill and Bomber, and had gained a loyal fan following by constant touring and television appearances. Their ferocious, loud proto-thrash playing style appealed equally to punks and heavy metal fans, but in 1979 Sounds writer Geoff Barton coined the term "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWOBHM) to classify a slew of newer bands such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Saxon. Motörhead – a band that resented being labelled anything other than rock 'n' roll – was placed in this new genre, which would go on to influence the emerging thrash metal movement that would include bands like Metallica and Megadeth. In the 2011 book Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead, Joel McIver quotes vocalist and bassist Lemmy:

I like Iron Maiden and Saxon out of the new mob, and that's about it, really... We were too late for the first metal movement and early for the next one... Motörhead don't fit into any category, really. We're not straight heavy metal, because we're a rock 'n' roll band, which no-one knows how to market anymore.

Regardless, the association with NWOBHM would be another positive element in the increasing momentum that would lead to the band's most successful commercial period at the beginning of the new decade. In fact, United Artists decided to finally release the band's "lost" first album at this time under the title On Parole, which had originally been recorded in 1976 but shelved because it was deemed commercially unviable. Next, the Big Beat label, which had taken over Chiswick's catalogue, released Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers, packaging four extra tracks that the band had laid down for their debut album. Further evidence of Motörhead's nascent mainstream success was the release of the EP The Golden Years in May 1980 on Bronze Records, which became their highest charting release to date, peaking at No. 8.

Recording

Motörhead recorded Ace of Spades with Vic Maile at Jackson's Studios in Rickmansworth in August and September 1980. Maile, who had worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Who, had crossed paths with Lemmy when he was a member of Hawkwind. The bassist recalls in his 2002 memoir White Line Fever:

He used to own a mobile studio – Hawkwind hired it out to do Space Ritual and he came with it... Vic was a great man and a great producer, really brilliant... Those were good times; we were winning, we were younger, and we believed it.

As Steffan Chirazi observes in the liner notes to the 1996 reissue of Ace of Spades:

Vic Maile at the production helm used an expert ear to translate the monstrous live sound and feel of the band to vinyl.

Maile, who was affectionately nicknamed "Turtle" by the band (for his resemblance to the reptile), was critical in giving Motörhead a sleeker sound on record without sacrificing its raw power. Diminutive and soft-spoken, Maile was well equipped to deal with the trio, who were notorious for in-fighting and general unmanageability. In the documentary The Guts and the Glory, drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor remembers:

Even if he was angry, he was angry like this: (assumes soft-spoken tone) 'You're not supposed to do it like that,' or 'Stop that boys .'" Lemmy concurs, "Vic was great. He was the first one who told us we were all cunts and work harder. He had a very dry persona: 'Is that really the best shot you've got?'

In 2015, Clarke recalled to John Robinson of Uncut:

He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, and he was very delicate because he was diabetic. He had to have his Ryvita at six o'clock. We couldn't get heavy with him, couldn't fucking shake him, you know what I mean? He might die! So we had to listen to him.

Whereas the band had previously had an input at the mixing stage, Maile took sole responsibility here, Clarke explaining that the result was "you can finally hear everything that's going on." Of the performances, Lemmy stated "Vic got me singing instead of just shouting all the time", while Taylor added "and he got me playing more solid."