Louie Louie/Tear Ya Down

Notes

By the end of 1977 Tony Secunda was Motorheads manager. He told Motorhead to do a single sometime in the beginning of 1978. Phil Taylor suggested that they would do Louie Louie, the 1965 US hit with the Kingsmen, and, according to the Babylon book by Alan Burridge they recorded a backing track. I don´t think this recording has ever been released. There are alternative studiotakes that has been released (see below) but I think all of those are later recordings. When Secunda didn´t seem to make anything happen after that recording, Motorhead went to Douglas Smith and asked him to help them out. At the time a booking agent and an associate of Douglas, Neil Warwick, had a favour to claim from Gerry Bron of Bronze Records and this resulted in a deal for one single for Bronze. They re-recorded Louie Louie and the flip side Tear Ya Down in the summor of 1978 at the Wessex studios with Neil Richmond as producer. The single was released in August 1978, although various Motorhead compilations lists 30th of September as the release date.

The single made it to no 68 in the charts. This really surprised Gerry Bron because he thought the single was terrible but when he saw the band and their fanatic following at a concert at Hammersmith on the 5th of November he just had to sign them.

Except for the version that is featured on the single, there are a few more studio versions that has been released over the years. In 1993 a different version surfaced as the second track on the B-side of the 12” version of the re-release of Ace of Spades on the WGAF label. This version did not have the keyboard, the sound and the production was clearer and it had a different solo. You could also hear Lemmy shout “Hit it!” during the intro and something like “Ok, let´s give it to them right now” just before the solo. The same version was also included as an “Alternate take” on the remastered Overkill album that was released on CD in 1996 on the Essential label. Another version, probably some kind of demo version, was included on the Stone Dead Forever CD with recordings that originally came from Eddie Clarkes archives that Receiver released in 1997. This version did include the keyboards but had a much more raw sound and also had a different solo. A fourth version was included in the Stone Deaf Forever Boxed Set, the John Peel sessions from November 1978. This version was quite similar to the one that was featured on the Ace of Spades re-release but the solo was the same as the original version from the single.

Tracklist

  1. Louie Louie
  2. Tear Ya Down

Related releases

W o r l d w i d e   r e l e a s e s ,  7"

Label

Catalogue no

Origin

Date

Notes
Trident Acetate UK 1978 1-sided Acetate, Tear Ya down
Festival K7254 Aus 1978 Issued without picture sleeve
Bronze BRO 60 Ire 1978 Issued without picture sleeve
Bronze BRO 60 UK 1978 Promo
Bronze BRO 60 UK 1978
Bronze BRO 60 UK 1981? "Original" label
Bronze BRO 60 UK 1982? Green label
Earmark 41032 Italy 2004 7" Box set

W o r l d w i d e   r e l e a s e s ,  C D

Label

Catalogue no

Origin

Date

Notes
Raw Power RAW BX 140/Disc 1 UK 1999-04-19 10 CD Box Set