If you were a Motörhead fan during the MTV era of the 1980s, you probably got to enjoy quite a few of the English metal outfit’s best music videos. Campy and lowkey hilarious in retrospect, these music videos deserve way more love today, in my opinion. Let’s take a trip through time to when metal was both cool and shamelessly camp, shall we?
Videos by American Songwriter
“Killed By Death” (1984)
A young woman is accosted by her parents for how she’s dressed. Lemmy crashes his motorcycle through the living room wall, lets the girl jump on, flips the bird at the camera, and drives off. I wish I had the pleasure of watching this MV when I was a kid, because it does not get more rock and roll than that.
“Killed By Death” was released on the 1984 album No Remorse, and it peaked at No. 51 on the UK Singles chart. This one’s an absolute classic without the music video, but that MV just makes it even better. They don’t make heavy metal like they used to!
“Eat The Rich” (1987)
This gem from the 1987 album Rock ‘N’ Roll is one of Motörhead’s more political songs, but there’s no shortage of hilarious camp in that music video, which features clips from the 1987 film of the same name that the band produced several soundtrack tunes for. The whole thing opens with a group of English restaurant attendees bemoaning the wealthy powers that be, and they decide to turn a high dining experience into something a bit more insidious.
“Eat The Rich” stars famed LGBT entertainer Lanah P, and it (of course) features sick interjections of Motörhead jamming out on stage. You just have to watch it for yourself. It doesn’t get more 80s rock and roll than this.
“Sacrifice” (1995)
Now this is heavy metal. “Sacrifice” is one of the most famous Motörhead songs out there, and it boasts one of the band’s most famous 1990s music videos. The video starts out with a mock silent film and clips of war, before the band kicks off the song in a burst of flames. That green screen action, the half-naked dancing women, the cheap props interjected with footage of World War II… It’s the most Motörhead thing out there, and a uniquely poignant critique of the hopelessness of war.
Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images
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