"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 (Baby I Don't Care)", "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: