No Class Motorhead: The Song and Its ZZ Top Riff
No Class Motorhead is a get down rock and roll boogie built on one of the band’s most talked about riffs.
The song comes from the 1979 album Overkill, and its guitar line still sparks debate among fans decades later.
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⚡ Key Takeaways
- No Class Motorhead is track six on the band’s 1979 album Overkill, released through Bronze Records on 24 March 1979.
- Lemmy Kilmister, Eddie Clarke, and Phil Taylor wrote the song together as Motorhead’s classic three piece lineup.
- Bronze Records released it as a single on 15 June 1979, backed with the non album track Like a Nightmare.
- The song’s guitar riff closely echoes ZZ Top’s 1975 track Tush, a connection widely noted by critics and fans.
- No Class became a cornerstone of the 1981 live album No Sleep ’til Hammersmith, which reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart.
What Is No Class Motorhead About?
The song is a defiant, tongue in cheek rejection of social status and conformity.
Lemmy Kilmister sings from the perspective of someone who wears the outsider label as a point of pride.
The lyrics dismiss the idea that class or manners matter to the narrator at all.
Musically, the track is built as a straightforward rock boogie rather than the all out speed of some of the band’s other work.
Who Wrote No Class Motorhead?
Lemmy Kilmister, Eddie Clarke, and Phil Taylor wrote the song together in 1979.
All three members of the classic lineup share the writing credit.
Clarke’s staccato power chords carry most of the song’s identity.
Taylor kept the tempo mid paced compared to the album’s faster tracks, giving the riff room to breathe.
Was No Class Released as a Single?
Bronze Records released it as a single on 15 June 1979, three months after Overkill hit shelves.
The B-side was Like a Nightmare, a track that never appeared on any studio album.
Stay Clean and Damage Case round out the Overkill deep cuts from the same 1979 sessions.
The single carried the catalog number BRO 78 on Bronze Records.
It did not repeat the chart success of Motorhead’s later Ace of Spades era singles.
Eddie Clarke’s staccato power chords define the guitar riff on No Class.
Image Credit: Photo by Andrew King, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Does No Class Motorhead Borrow From ZZ Top?
The riff on No Class closely echoes ZZ Top’s 1975 song Tush.
Critics and fans have pointed out the resemblance for decades.
No formal songwriting dispute or legal action ever followed between the two bands.
Motorhead’s version moves faster and hits harder than ZZ Top’s original, even with the shared riff shape.
Where Does No Class Motorhead Appear Live?
The song became a live staple almost as soon as it was released.
It appears as track six on No Sleep ’til Hammersmith, the band’s 1981 live album.
That live record hit number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, exposing No Class to Motorhead’s widest audience yet.
Stay Clean and Ace of Spades filled out the rest of that live record alongside this track.
As of 2026, read the complete lineup history of the members of Motorhead across four decades of the band.
People Also Ask
What is No Class by Motorhead about?
No Class is a Motorhead song about rejecting social status and conformity, sung from the perspective of someone who embraces being an outsider.
The track appears on the band’s 1979 album Overkill and later became a fixture of their live sets.
Who wrote No Class by Motorhead?
Lemmy Kilmister, Eddie Clarke, and Phil Taylor wrote No Class together in 1979 as Motorhead’s classic three piece lineup.
Bronze Records released the song on the album Overkill on 24 March 1979.
Does No Class sound like ZZ Top’s Tush?
Yes, the guitar riff on No Class closely echoes ZZ Top’s 1975 song Tush, a similarity widely noted by critics and fans.
No formal songwriting dispute was ever filed between the two bands over the resemblance.
Was No Class released as a single?
Yes, Bronze Records released No Class as a single on 15 June 1979, backed with the non album track Like a Nightmare.
The song later found a wider audience through its inclusion on the 1981 live album No Sleep ’til Hammersmith.
Watch the Official No Class Video
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Overkill
1979
The album that introduced No Class.
Twin bass drums and pure speed from the classic lineup.
No Sleep ’til Hammersmith
1981, 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
The live album where this track found a new audience.
Hit number 1 on the UK Albums Chart in 1981.
Bomber
1979, 50th Anniversary Edition
Recorded the same year as Overkill.
Faster, tighter, and a direct warm up for the classic era.
Ace of Spades
1980, 50th Anniversary 2 CD Edition
The album that made Motorhead legends.
Expanded with bonus tracks and remastered sound.
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No Class Motorhead never needed the ZZ Top comparison to earn its place in the catalog.
As of 2026, it remains one of the most argued about riffs in the band’s history.
Forty-five years on, No Class Motorhead still sounds exactly as unbothered as its title promises.
Last updated: July 12, 2026