Motorhead: In the Studio

by Jake Brown, Lemmy Kilmister

Motörhead has always been a band whose reputation for the rock'n'roll lifestyle precedes them, but along the way they have also accumulated an impressive, Grammy-winning catalog classic songs—and for the first time their creation is explored via exclusive interviews in this authorized account of the band in the studio. From unpromising beginnings, voted one of the worst bands in the world and close to giving up, Motörhead has proved themselves to be endlessly creative and have gone to enjoy phenomenal success. Well into their fourth decade, they showing no sign of slowing down, and they have inspired generations of multiplatinum metal offspring with a sound as instantly recognizable as it is uncompromising. Fans of Motörhead can even live out their own hard-rocking fantasies by playing as Lemmy in Guitar Hero . Motörhead is as relevant as ever and the story behind their incredible output makes for riveting reading. Together with insight from fellow band members, crew, and producers, here are all the stories behind such classic albums as Ace of Spades, Bomber, and Overkill.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Honorata · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great!
Motörhead is a legend and this book shows how the legend was born. It has lots of technical info (and I am not someone who knows any of it), but it also has plenty of great stories about the band which make reading very entertaining process.



My full review in Polish: http://myshelfandbooks.blogspot.com/2...

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few nuggets of interesting information, but a lot of repetition. Every producer mentions that Lemmy plays a Rickenbacker and uses a Marshall amp. Every producer talks about how there's no bottom end to his bass because he plays it like a guitar. Once Mickey Dee comes on board, they all talk about what a hard-hitting, great drummer he is. One of the best in the world. They all talk about how Motorhead wrote songs - last minute, in the studio, Lemmy writing and changing the lyrics as he goes.

It's all relevant stuff, except that we've had it before. Brown comes off less as a writer than as a transcriber. If one producer has already told us about the problems getting the bottom, we don't need another one to describe the issue again. We just have to know how he dealt with it. At one point, he quotes the producer describing how Motorhead writes songs, then in the next paragraph, quotes Mickey Dee describing the same thing, and then a paragraph later, quotes Lemmy with the same information. There's no way he could have edited this together?

It was interesting learning how Motorhead wrote their songs. I've rarely heard or read interviews with Mickey Dee before, so that was cool. He provided very little insight, but at least I know that now. He also came off as a jerk when he described his predecessors in the band.

It was also interesting to hear about how they worked - Dee would finish recording his drums early and then take off back to Sweden, leaving the other two to fight it out with the producers. Early on, Lemmy couldn't be bothered to stay at the studio during the mixing process, while later he seemed to take more interest. He also talks at one point about how he hated all the new tools producers use, and then on a later album seemed remarkably sanguine about the use of Pro Tools.

Several producers had a story about how Lemmy singled them out for special praise for doing such a great job. Then they'd have to explain it for you. The producers all mentioned how intelligent Lemmy is. Everyone seems to do this. I've read a lot of biographies of Motorhead and Lemmy, and everyone includes at least one quote from someone commenting on this. Either he was some kind of Stephen Hawkins level genius, or everybody looked at him and thought "I wonder if he knows how to dress himself?" At one point, he's quoted talking about how deep his lyrics are. I've listened to them. I was a big fan. They're not.

I also objected a little to this particular edition. It was obviously rushed out with a new cover and title after Lemmy died. The blurb on the back talks about his death, but Brown didn't even update the last chapter - "2010 and Beyond" - to acknowledge his death. It feels very opportunistic and sleazy.

A mediocre book, with a little interesting information. For fans only, best skimmed.

[Dipesh Acharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a must read for a Motorhead fan as the book tells you what went inside the studio while each albums were made. We all know Motörhead on the road. This book is all about Motorhead in the studio - a chapter for each album till Motörizer. The book appropriately relies heavily on interviews from the producers of each album. You will also get to know about Lemmy's and sometimes other members' views on lyrics, songs and albums. Each chapter concludes with a review of the album from Billboard or other magazine.

It gets a little less interesting afterwards as every chapter keeps repeating Lemmy doesn't like bottom end on his bass, he writes most of his lyrics in the studio just before singing and he does what he wants do. Also, the book quotes heavily on Lemmy's autobiography 'White Line Fever'.
Readers who aren't into sound engineering and music business and don't care about the kind of mics and other gadgets used during recording can skip a few paragraphs in every chapter.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it and I think all Motörhead fans will.

[Carl Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a lightly updated (or, perhaps, “refreshed”) edition of what was originally published in 2012 as Motorhead: In the Studio, put out in 2016 in the wake of Lemmy’s death (2015) with a new “Publisher’s Note”, new artwork, and a new title and perhaps few if any other substantial changes from the original edition. The albums covered stop with 2008’s Motörizer. There is no mention of The Wörld Is Yours (2010), Aftershock (2013), or Bad Magic (2015) – though, to be fair, these were all produced by Cameron Webb who had also produced the band’s albums since 2004, and we might thus reasonably expect the technical side of recording and production to have been similar. In any case, unless you are an extremely die-hard collector, there seems no reason to pick either one of the 2016 and 2010 editions over the other.

The book is credited to Lemmy Kilmister as well as to Jake Brown, though it is difficult to tell why unless it be for the fairly extensive quotation from Lemmy’s autobiography (White Line Fever). Indeed, In the Studio seems to quote heavily from pre-existing interviews with Motörhead band members – and there is thus a fair bit of text that the dedicated Motörhead-fan may have read before. The book’s chief value is in excerpts from interviews with producers and/or engineers, which were perhaps conducted specifically for this book and offer a fair amount of nerdy, gear-oriented detail on the recording equipment and processes.

Themes in this area do emerge. One gets a reasonable sense of the changing equipment as the time and geography shift the band from smaller British studios in the late ‘70s to Californian studios in the ‘90s and beyond. More modern engineers accustomed to now familiar microphone pairings for guitar such as the Shure SM57 and Sennheiser MD421 might be surprised to find Neumann U87s used for this purpose in older British studios. On that note, the neverending battles between producers and Lemmy over the amount of low-end in Lemmy’s bass tone become recurring features of the narrative, along with producers marveling at the band’s ad hoc approach to song-writing and Lemmy’s habit of drafting lyrics in the studio (sometimes only just before singing them). One noticeable gap in the techie detail occurs, unfortunately, with two of the band’s most significant early albums, the Ace of Spades studio album and the No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith live album, presumably because producer Vic Maile, who sadly died of cancer in 1989, was not available to be interviewed.

It is hard to say just who the audience of this book was expected to be. Readers without an interest in such things may well be baffled by the detail with which given producers recall the types and numbers of microphones used on the drums, though it is this sort of thing that distinguishes this book from any other semi-hazy third-person history of the band pieced together from interviews and press clippings. True gearheads may hunger for more detail, but this is probably as good as it will get. If you want to know what microphone was used for Lemmy’s bass cabs on Overkill (spoiler: a Neumann KM 84), this is the book for you.

[Fredrik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not the targeted audience for this book. It would probably be more for sound engineers and producers.

The book has some interesting tidbits into one of rocks most recognizable face, sound and attitude.
Lemmy is an original, knows what he wants and no way to change his ways.
They do however, mention the same thing in every single chapter (album)
Lemmy plays loud. Lemmy goes out drinking. Lemmy writes in the studio. Lemmy plays the bass like a guitar. There is no bass sound in his bass. There is no bass sound in their albums. Lemmy wants the microphone above him. Lemmy is brilliant. Lemmy does what he wants. Lemmy is actually a good singer. Lemmy is actually a fantastic lyricist. Lemmy always uses his Marshall stack with blown out speakers.
Now, even if all the producers said this, there is not need to repeat it for every single album. It gets boring really quick.
And all the talks about different microphones and the placement of them didn't do much for the book either. Maybe if one is a sound engineer, they can be okay to read, but for everyone else?
I would have hoped a little more insight into the writing, techniques and so forth. It was more in the lines of: it just happened.
The same with mixing. They gave some insight, but not much, really. Most of it was just repeat everything Lemmy did every single time and mentioning the different microphones.

Would not recommend for anyone but the most die-hard fans of Motorhead. Maybe not even them.

[Aled Owen-Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going on the assumption that only diehard Motörhead fans will pick up this book. Skip the first three chapters and gloss over the bits about microphones and whatnot and the rest of the book is fairly interesting. You get an insight into how Motörhead worked in the studio basically (plus alternative viewpoints from past members). And despite what it implies on the cover Lemmy had nothing to do with this book, all the quotes are culled from interviews.

[Jonas Paro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Den här hade kunnat vara jätteintressant, men blir det bara bitvis. Problemet är att den känns som en klipp- och klistraprodukt. Lemmy står med som medförfattare men utöver det stora antalet citat som plockats från hans utmärkta självbiografi White Line Fever förstår jag inte riktigt vad han bidragit med. Extremt många upprepningar också, vilket drar ner helhetsbetyget ännu mer.

Men visst, älskar man Motörhead (det gör man), så är den absolut läsvärd invändningarna till trots.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. I hoped to learn more about how each song was created and recorded, but it's mainly about how the studio was set up and the equipment used. That means a lot is very dull unless you are a sound engineer. I skipped while pages of waffle at times.

Some nice stuff about the band dynamics and their process, the book should have focused on that.

[Mikey James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another reviewer nailed it. In almost every chapter, the same thing is repeated so the book got a little boring after a while. The saving grace was hearing what producers had to say about the band during recording. If not for that information, 2 stars.

[G Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insight on how to record an album.

[Harold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting if repetitive look into the recording process, you definitely learn all about different microphone types/numbers

[East Bay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this at Half Price Books for $9.99 and knew I'd be taking it home with me. Details about the recording of every Motorhead album from the self titled debut to Motorizer? Sign me up.

As a Motorhead fan, musician, sometime recording engineer and all around music geek, I liked this book. Tons of information on what microphones were used and how, what kind of console the albums were tracked and mixed on, what kind of tape machines, what kind of room things were recorded in, what equipment the band used, how certain things were accomplished, etc. Also, plenty of quotes from band members as well as the producers and engineers involved with the various sessions. To me, these details made this a fascinating read.

For a Motorhead book, though, it's pretty light and fluffy. Brown's style is sort of happy, polite, rock journo. That works but, in spite of all the details, the whole thing comes off as a skim through of Motorhead's recording career. I mean, I've seen that Beatles recording session book. THAT'S the kind of thing I'd like to read about Motorhead. I can't complain, really, given all the details that are included, but I was left wanting more.

What I can complain about is printing errors. I am so sick of seeing errors in published books. It's not even just that it's distracting, it's that it's wrong. It seems lazy as hell to send a book to the printer with errors. In this book, the highest incident of error related to words being left out of the text. The only misspelling I caught was "here" instead of "hear," but the missing words were egregious.

Additionally, there were times when Brown said things in such a way that they were confusing. When he says, 'When it came to Campbell's guitar, Baron found it easier to record the rhythm over the lead tracks.' This makes it sound like Campbell recorded the leads first then recorded the rhythm over them, when in fact he's saying Baron preferred recording the rhythms to the leads. Not as big a deal as the lack of proofreading but sometimes odd.

There are some pics in the middle and I likes me pics. Man, oh, man did Brian Robertson look like a dork!

Goofy writing and errors aside, I did enjoy reading this, as I said, because of the details. I like to get new knowledge when reading music books and this one's full of it. I always want a serious, excruciatingly researched book on music/musicians/bands I like, so I would have preferred significantly more meat but this is going to be of interest to Motorhead fans, regardless.

[Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, what do we learn from this book? We learn that Lemmy doesn't like having any bass in his bass, and he sings with the microphone, oh and he writes all his lyrics in the studio - often minutes before going in and singing them.
Got that?
Now repeat several times and voila - you have a book!
This should have been interesting, it should have been fascinating, it should have been written "with Lemmy Kilmister" (if it was, it's hidden well - all quotes from Lemmy are lifted from other interviews over the years).
Instead, we get scant insight into the early records (OK, it was a few years ago now...), we get the same insight from lots of different producers, and we get to see how many interviews the band have given to other people over the years.
It says on the back that creating the albums "is explored via exclusive interviews". Exclusive they may be, but they're not with anyone interesting (apart from maybe Cameron Webb).
The other odd thing about this book is how often Billboard magazine reviews are quoted, and the overall American slant of the book. The band have, historically, sold shit over there.
All in all, what could have been a fascinating look at the vast back catalogue the band have accrued over the years is, instead, a lazily assembled and poorly written (the editor must have been on holiday) account of what microphones were used in what studio.
Oh, and Lemmy doesn't like bass in his bass.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dude, It's Motorhead! You can't go wrong. Period. This tells you the recording process of EVERY Motorhead album. If you're a fan of Lemmy and his band, just get it already - it pairs well after reading Lemmy's autobiography, "White Line Fever."

[Piotr Chrzanowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

nie do końca tego się spodziewałem. myślałem, że bardziej się skupią na inspiracjach i tekstach a nie rodzajach mikrofonów użytych podczas sesji, ale i tak spoko.