In 1990, Motörhead vocalist and bassist Lemmy Kilmister moved from England to the U.S., settling in West Hollywood within walking distance of the Rainbow Bar and Grill. With Phil Carson managing the band, the sessions for what would become the album1916 began with Ed Stasium, best known for producing Living Colour. The band recorded four songs with the producer before deciding he had to go. When Lemmy listened to a mix of Going to Brazil, he asked him to turn up four tracks, and on doing so heard claves and tambourines Stasium had added without the band's knowledge. Stasium was fired and Pete Solley hired as producer. According to Stasium, Lemmy's drug and alcohol intake exceeded the limits of the producer's patience, so he quit.
Recording
1916 was Motörhead's first studio album in nearly four years, and their first release on WTG after a legal battle with GWR Records was resolved. Some of its songs – including "The One to Sing the Blues," "I'm So Bad," "No Voices in the Sky," "Going to Brazil" and "Shut You Down" – were originally performed on Motörhead's 1989 and 1990 tours. The title track – an uncharacteristically slow ballad in which Lemmy's singing is only lightly accompanied – is a tribute to, and reflection on, young soldiers who fell in battle during World War I. In his 2002 memoir, Lemmy reveals that the song was inspired by the Battle of the Somme: Although songs like the ballad "Love Me Forever" and "Angel City" were stylistic departures for the band, the album still contained Motörhead's ear-splitting brand of rock 'n' roll, including "I'm So Bad " and "R.A.M.O.N.E.S," a tribute to punk band the Ramones, by whom it was covered. Both bands have been cited as iconoclasts who ignored musical trends, remaining loyal to their fan base by touring relentlessly. In the 2002 book Hey Ho Let's Go: The Story of the Ramones, Everett True quotes singer Joey Ramone as saying: "It was the ultimate honour – like John Lennon wrote a song for you." In the album's liner notes, the band says: Due to an unintentional oversight, the French, Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian and Portuguese flags were not featured on the album artwork. "Love Me Forever" was later covered by Doro Pesch, and Beyond the Black. The Yugoslavian release of the album on ZKP-RTVL was the final record to be released in Slovenia prior to its independence and the renaming of the label to ZKP-RTVS.
Critical reception
1916 was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 1992 Grammys, but lost to Metallica's Metallica, released approximately six months later. The LP received mostly positive reviews. Robert Christgau rated it an A-, calling it "sonically retrograde and philosophically advanced." Entertainment Weekly awarded the album an A+. Select gave it four out of five, hailing it as "..the most cohesive and downright ferocious record to appear under the Motorhead banner since the timeless blast of 'Ace Of Spades' in 1980... Motorhead badly needed an album like this, but no one could have guessed they'd do it so convincingly." In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Alex Henderson gave it three stars out of five: "The band's sound hadn't changed much, and time hadn't made its sledgehammer approach any less appealing... whether the subject matter is humorously fun or more serious, Motörhead is as inspired as ever on 1916." Reviewing a reissue on the Hear No Evil label, Kris Needs wrote in Classic Rock: "One of their most well-rounded sets, this memorabilia-stacked reissue comes with two non-album belters, 'Eagle Rock' and runaway hell train 'Dead Man's Hand'." In the Motörhead documentary The Guts and the Glory, Lemmy states:
