Los Angeles, California: When Lemmy initially contacted Pink Fairies guitarist Larry Wallis about forming a new band together, Larry was both astonished and delighted - “It was just as if the serendipity fairy had arrived. Now he was flexing his leathern wings.” In much the same month as Lemmy was relieved from his duties in Hawkwind, the Pink Fairies shattered. The pair got together for a drink, a jam, a dream “It just had to be.”
Larry bought a clutch of his own compositions with him into the band - when the newly christened Motörhead (now joined by drummer and future Pink Fairy Lucas Fox) went into the studio in June 1975 to record their first album, “Vibrator,” “Fools” and the Pink Fairies favorite “City Kids” were all on the schedule. And so was “On Parole,” a lasciviously-grinding stomp that remained in Motörhead’s live repertoire long after Larry and Fox left the band, and followed the guitarist onto the next stage of his career, as the b-side to his first solo single, 1977’s “Police Car.”
A short while after, it was still there as Larry went into London’s Eden Studios with Man guitarist Deke Leonard, Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Big George Webley to record what could have become his first solo album had Larry not moved on yet again, leaving the tapes incomplete.
Close to 50 years later, June 12 finally brings those sessions out into the world. I’m Not An Archivist, titled for Larry’s explanation whenever he was asked about old tapes, is a lovingly compiled and curated glimpse not only into what the album might have looked like (the occasional guide vocal or instrumental notwithstanding), but also a clutch of out-takes and alternate versions, rounding out the CD in dramatic fashion.
“We went into Eden Studios ready to lay down taped dynamite,” Larry said years later, and I’m Not An Archivist backs him up all the way. Both “Police Car” and “On Parole” were rerecorded, apparently at the new bands express request. “No disrespect to the [musicians who played on] the first versions,” said Larry, “but I was so excited to be working with George, Pete, and Deke in a big studio with unlimited time; how could I say no?”
Released today as the second single from the album (following last month’s “Crying All Night”), this new version of “On Parole” might well be the definitive version of a song that Larry regularly returned to later in his career - how could it not be with Deke Leonard on board as one half of the most adventurous guitar duo of the age?
Yet the album itself bristles with new-to-most-ears joys, from the freshly reupholstered “Police Car” - present as both an instrumental overture and a coruscating set closer; Larry’s personal take on “As Long As The Price Is Right,” a song he had already seen hit the UK chart with Dr Feelgood; the dynamic blueprints for his mid-80s single “Leather Forever”/“Seeing Double”; and a clutch of killer covers.
Wreckless Eric's “There Isn't Anything Else” was transformed from the endearing punky thrash that Larry produced for Eric's first album, into what verges on a stadium rock monster. George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” traveled in the opposite direction entirely, as “a load of wasted individuals” played the tune, while Webley and Thomas had “what they considered to be a ‘New York Argument’”; and writer/poet Mick Farren’s “Godzilla” rampaged unapologetically through the studio. (Larry later retitled the song, aptly, “I Think It’s Coming Back Again”).
Several of the tracks have appeared on other Cleopatra albums - The Sound of Speed (2017)and Police Car - The Anthology (2024). This, however, is the first time that the full session has been brought together. And its unfinished state means while it’s not quite the album that Larry originally intended it to be. Still in terms of untrammeled energy, unstinting adrenalin and white hot guitar and songwriting, it stands loud and proud alongside any of Larry’s other accomplishments.
Indeed, almost half a century after that week in the studio, it remains as fresh and frenetic as it did as it was being recorded.
Track listing
1. Police Car Overture (Instrumental)
2. On Parole (Alternate Version)
3. Godzilla
4. As Long As The Price Is Right
5. I Can’t See What It’s Got To Do With Me
6. Seeing Double (Alternate Version)
7. There Isn’t Anything Else (Instrumental)
8. Story Of My Life
9. Crying All Night
10. Leather Forever
11. Rhapsody In Blue (Instrumental)
12. Police Car (Alternate Version)
13. Godzilla (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
14. Crying All Night (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
15. I Can’t See What It’s Got To Do With Me (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
16. As Long As The Price Is Right (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
17. Leather Forever (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
18. Story Of My Life (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
19. Seeing Double (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
20. Rhapsody In Blue (Instrumental) (Version 2) [CD ONLY]
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