Best known for his tenure in Motörhead between 1976 and 1982, there was a lot more achieved by ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke than providing the fretwork on one of the greatest and most recognisable rock anthems of them all. When the guitarist passed away at the age of sixty-seven in 2018, Clarke left behind a hefty legacy that spoke of a life devoted to his first love: music.
Make My Day: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Story Of Fast Eddie Clarke
Kris Needs with Mariko Fujiwara
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Paul Monkhouse
With the full cooperation and involvement of his widow Mariko, Kris Needs has put together this impressive tome that covers the great man’s life from his birth in Twickenham right up to his passing. As you would expect, this is a warts and all portrayal of ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke but never salaciously and certainly far from a hagiography that Clarke would have hated.
Brought together partly from notes that Needs had been putting together many years previously and with the manuscript gifted back to by Lemmy, this study of Clarke’s life reveals a man utterly consumed by his craft and often pushing himself too hard in pursuit of it.
From his beginnings in the music business, playing guitar with Curtis Knight (a man with his own story to tell), recording two albums with the American, via various projects and onto his time with Motörhead and onto Fastway and his solo career, all bases are covered.
Packed with incidents and fascinating detail, this is a biography that does something that every good profile does and encourages the reader to explore the artist’s back catalogue further. It also paints a picture of a man who, on his less wild days, it would be an utter pleasure to sit down and chat with over a drink of your choice.
Having dug into Clarke’s archives, there are a generous four disc set of CDs that accompany the book, giving the purchaser ample music to experience. Fortunately, it has been curated with care and knowledge and in roughly chronological order, it shows the progression of the guitarist’s career.
The first volume charts the psychedelic years with Curtis Knight Zeus on the excellent Cloud and The Confession, the third track from the outfit heading more into Southern Rock territory. From there, it’s the turn of Continuous Performance as the combo hits The Who-like Taking It Easy and ballsy ballad In The Morning, followed by the wonderfully rough-edged and frantic pub rock of The Muggers.
Motörhead take up the whole of the second disc, and the selection features the obvious in the form of Ace Of Spades, Bomber and Overkill but also brings in some deeper cuts and alternative takes and a live cut of their titular anthem to great effect.
The third set covers Fastway in its various incarnations, all great hard rock stompers that get more sophisticated as the selection progresses, with the Led Zeppelin-ish Change Of Heart being a highlight.
Arguably the greatest gold is to be found on the last disc as it delves into Clarke’s solo career, the numbers filled with some tasteful and thrilling blues licks.
Blend all this with the tremendous book and you have a package that will delight for hours, the whole done with a real passion that the man himself would have been proud of.
A vital purchase that will entertain many more than purely Motörhead devotees, Make My Day is tremendous.
Make My Day: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Story Of Fast Eddie Clarke is available from here.
