22ACE OF SPADES MOTORHEAD

(1980)

Play the hand you’re dealt

Motörhead’s calling card is performed at the visceral tempo of a car chase, its signature riff barrelling towards the helter-skelter open-g5 abandon of the verse with a sense of devil may care fatalism. Scarcely has a bona-fide hit sounded so hostile. Ace Of Spades is all syncopated dissonance and tension. Of course, the riff is played at 140 bpm, but it sounds as though it is accelerating. ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke tunes down a half-step, dimes a Marshall and uses the extra clarity from his Gibson Les Paul Deluxe’s mini-humbuckers to spike the riff with something piquant.