"Bomber" is a song by the English heavy metal band Motörhead, recorded and released in 1979. It is the title track to their album Bomber and was released as a single peaking at 34 on the UK singles chart.
The single was released in the UK by Bronze Records as a 7" vinyl single with the first 20,000 copies pressed in blue vinyl and thereafter in black. The band promoted its release with an appearance on the BBC TV show Top of the Pops on 3 December.[1]
The track was inspired after Lemmy had read Len Deighton's novel Bomber. It became the inspiration for a forty foot aluminium tube lighting rig used for their shows, a replica of a Heinkel He 111 bomber that could fly backwards and forwards, and side to side - the first to be able to do so.[2]
Contents[]
Other Versions[edit][]
The song became a staple of the band's live set, with live versions being released on the albums No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, Everything Louder than Everyone Else,Live At Brixton Academy and Better Motörhead than Dead: Live at Hammersmith; and on the video releases The Birthday Party, 25 & Alive Boneshaker and The Best of Motörhead.
Over The Top[edit][]
The B-side of the single was the non-album track "Over the Top", which has subsequently been included as a bonus track on the re-mastered Bomber album.
The song was also performed as a joint collaboration between Motörhead and The Damned for inclusion on the proposed "Ballroom Blitz" single, but the recording session ended in drunkenness and the results were deemed unsuitable for release.[3] The recording was, however, finally issued in 2003 on the Stone Deaf Forever!boxset. The Damned included the track on their compilation CD "Tales From The Damned" (released 1993, Cleopatra Records - CLEO71392), performed as "MotörDamned" with the following personnel: Rat Scabies, Lemmy, Fast Eddie, Captain Sensible, Philthy Animal Taylor, Dave Vanian, Algy Ward.
Live versions of this song have been released as the B-side to the 1981 single "Motorhead", on the 2005 video Stage Fright and on the 2007 album Better Motörhead than Dead: Live at Hammersmith.
Single track listing[edit][]
- "Bomber" (Ian Kilmister, Eddie Clarke, Phil Taylor) - 3:45
- "Over the Top" (Kilmister, Clarke, Taylor) - 3:12
Personnel[edit][]
- "Fast" Eddie Clarke – electric guitar
- Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor – drums
- Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) – bass guitar, vocals
Cover versions[edit][]
- Girlschool covered the song on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP, a joint release between the two bands. This cover is also on the soundtrack to the game Brütal Legend.
- Mudhoney released the cover version as a B-side to their 1992 single "Suck You Dry", and has been included as a bonus track on their Piece of Cake album.
- Onslaught recorded its own version featuring Tom Angelripper and Phil Taylor and released it on the "Sounds of Violence" album (2011)