Commune with the bass legend via the Murder One ouija board and Ace of Spades planchette with new extended box set of Motorhead's last album
(Image credit: Samir Hussein/Getty)
Motörhead have shared a previously unreleased track called Bullet In Your Brain, a song from the forthcoming extended reissue of their final studio album Bad Magic. The box set edition, titled Bad Magic:Seriously Bad Magic, includes a live set from the band’s 2015 Mt Fuji Rock Festival, an interview with Lemmy conducted by Motörhead expert Robert Kiewik and… a Murder One ouija board “should the desire to have a chat with Lem or anyone beyond this mortal coil arise” – complete with an ‘Ace Of Spades’ planchette to help spell out the conversation.
The Murder One ouija board. (Image credit: Motorhead)
If you're like us and talk to Lemmy in your head all the time anyway, another welcome, if not as crazy, addition to Bad Magic: Seriously Bad Magic is Motörhead's infamous cover of David Bowie's Heroes, which was originally slated for inclusion on the original release only to be withdrawn at the last minute. It later surfaced on Motörhead's 2017 album, Under Cover.
“It’s such a great Bowie song and I could only see great things coming out of it from us,” guitarist Phil Campbell was quoted upon its release. “Lemmy ended up loving our version.”
The sight of Lemmy pounding away at his Rickenbacker bass, head back and growling into that impossibly high mic, with a wall of Marshall stacks behind him is one of the most iconic images in British metal.
To honour the great man, Marshall created a Signature Series Super Bass 100-Watt head, based on his very own modified 1992 Super Bass, given the pet name ‘Murder One’. In this clip taken from the critically acclaimed documentary Lemmy: 49% Motherf**ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch Danny Thomas of Marshall Amplification explains the backstory behind Lemmy’s signature rig.
"I have two stacks one each side of the horizon linked at the front," said Lemmy elsewhere in the film. “I connect it all like Hendrix used to. I plug the bass into one socket then have a lead out of the lower socket and into the number one socket on the other amp. Sort of bi-amping, but I do it the front way. Whichever way is loud is what I use. If it was any bassier you wouldn’t be able to hear the fucking notes I play.”
Bad Magic: Seriously Bad Magic is out February 24th 2023, and available to pre-orderin all formats.
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Nick Wells was the Editor of Bass Guitar magazine from 2009 to 2011, before making strides into the world of Artist Relations with Sheldon Dingwall and Dingwall Guitars. He's also the producer of bass-centric documentaries, Walking the Changes and Beneath the Bassline, as well as Production Manager and Artist Liaison for ScottsBassLessons. In his free time, you'll find him jumping around his bedroom to Kool & The Gang while hammering the life out of his P-Bass.
