On Parole (Remastered)

This is the Motörhead debut album that never debuted. Shortly after getting fired from Hawkwind, Lemmy Kilmister assembled a most powerful power trio named after the song he contributed to his former space-rock cohorts. Armed with Larry Wallis on guitar and Lucas Fox on drums, Motörhead recorded these songs in 1975. But the label had never heard anything so raw as On Parole, so it shelved the record and dropped the band. This 1997 remaster reveals how ahead of the heavy metal curve Motörhead was. A reworking of its namesake tune kickstarts the album with the revving of a chopper engine that segues into a harder, faster, and more venomous version than Hawkwind ever knew. With Chuck Berry riffs blasting from behemoth amps, the subsequent title track marks the birth of punk ‘n’ roll before Larry Wallis takes the mic on the catchy “Vibrator.” He also imported “City Kids” from The Pink Fairies. Motörhead's cover of The Birds’ cover of Eddie Holland’s “Leaving Here” is a standout, as are the last four bonus tracks, produced by Dave Edmunds that same year.