Usually between Christmas and New Year there isn't any news worth reporting, Today's news, though, were as heavy-hitting as they were sad: Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, a real rock'n'roll legend, passed away last Monday. He had seemed indestructible until a year or two ago, when life on the road, alcohol and hard drugs had began to take their toll. Yet he appeared to be over his health problems, recording a new album in 2015 and only slightly slowing down his touring schedule. In the end, he succumbed to a very aggressive form of cancer: He was diagnosed on December 26th (a couple of days after his 70th birthday) and died just two days later. So I decided my last post of 2015 should be a small tribute to a true rock original, a presentation of his career retrospective entitled "Lemmy: Damage Case". Ian Kilmister was still in high school when he acquired his nickname because he kept asking everyone to "lemmy [lend me] a quid" as he was already addicted to gambling at the slot machines. He entered rock and roll in 1965 as a member of the Rockin' Vickers and has been one of the most hard working (and hard rocking) musicians, touring and recording unstoppably for the last 50 years. His life is the source of a million anecdotes and wild tales of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to the max. All hugely entertaining, but as we deal here with record presentations, and not biographies, I'll urge you to look elsewhere for that. A good starting point could be 2010's "Lemmy" documentary.
"Damage Case" is a unique anthology as it mostly delves into Lemmy's unknown roots and various side-projects, with only passing references to his main contribution to rock, Motörhead. It starts off with 3 tracks from his earliest band The Rockin' Vickers. which Lemmy joined as simply a guitar player (1965-1967). Their cover of The Kinks' "Dandy" that opens the 1st CD was their (relatively) biggest success, but comes off as too tame (and rather lame). "I Don't Need Your Kind" is a nice garage rocker, while "It's Alright" is seemingly based on an early version of The Who's "The Kids Are Alright".
In 1967 Lemmy moved to London, sharing a flat with bassist Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, while working as a roadie for the band. Next year he provided guitar and vocals for the psychedelic band of Malaysian-born tabla player Sam Gopal. As a guitarist, Lemmy is crude but he seems to have picked up a trick or two from Hendrix while carrying his guitars from gig to gig. Strange as it sounds, despite the acoustic percussion and underlying Eastern melodies the two tracks included here seem to presage Motörhead in the vocal department - especially "Escalator". My favorite line from that song: "If you think you like me living, baby/You're gonna love me when I'm dead". Right on, Lemmy!
In '72 Lemmy joined (as bassist and occasional vocalist) the world's premier space-rockers Hawkwind, a band known as much for their psychedelic drone music as for the long hair, drug habits and wild stage antics, including an impressive light show and naked lady dancers. The first Hawkwind track included here "The Watcher" is Eastern-tinged acoustic psychedelia, followed by the band's biggest hit, sci-fi boogie "Silver Machine", composed by Dave Brock and sung by Lemmy. Lemmy's own composition "Motorhead" (without the umlaut over the "o") was a straight-up rock'n'roller to which other members added saxophone and violin solos. It was eventually left out the album and consigned to a single B-side. In '75, Lemmy was fired from the band following a drug bust while on tour. Now, Hawkwind weren't exactly straight edge - try notorious stoners. But Lemmy's drug of choice was speed (amphetamine), which obviously meant that he was out of synch with the rest. As he later confessed, getting fired from Hawkwind is one of the things that hurt him the most. He took some instant revenge from them in his own way: “I came home from America and fucked all their old ladies. Except for Brock’s. I couldn’t get his. I had a good time with all them chicks – they were really eager.”
His next step was to form his own band, from which no one would ever kick him out of. It was to be a speed trio with guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, who also passed away earlier in the year (last November, in fact). He named them Motörhead (with an "ö") after his Hawkwind composition, which he re-recorded and re-released with his new band. They are often considered the progenitors of thrash metal, but their music is really pure rock'n'roll boogie played loud and fast as only a speed freak like Lemmy can. His gruff vocal and lightning fast bass is the band's trademark and indeed few sounds are as instantly recognisable as a Motörhead song. Somehow, though, he manages to never be boring despite continuously repeating himself. Very few have achieved that (I can only think of The Fall and, probably, The Ramones). This compilation offers typical Motörhead fare "Damage Case"and "Hellraiser", Hell's Angels tribute "Iron Horse/Born to Lose" and Plasmatics cover "Masterplan", as well as one of their finest moments "Killed By Death". I love the video with Lemmy rising from the grave on a motorcycle - I hope he doesn't pull that trick on his funeral, though - some old people with weak hearts will be attending! "1916" is, on the other hand, very atypical of the band, an anti-war ballad with a slow marching beat akin to the traditional "Waltzing Matilda". We also get a short, punky tribute to a certain New York band (guess which) entitled "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." and a thrashy cover of Metallica's "Whiplash". Metallica have often acknowledged their debt to Lemmy and covered his songs, and he returns the favour with a ripping cover of their classic "Enter Sandman". Another metal band that gets the nod is Iron Maiden whose "Trooper" he also covers, a cool version closer to the original than to the familiar Motörhead sound. Further solo tracks like "Thirsty And Miserable" and Queen cover "Tie Your Mother Down" are just as great but indistinguishable from Motörhead. For all the metal connections, Lemmy's first and biggest love was rock'n'roll and that becomes evident by all the golden oldies included here. First up, there's a fantastic cover of Johnny Kid and The Pirates' "Please Don't Touch", performed by Motörhead together with female metal band Girlschool.
Then there's a one-off single with The Pirates' guitarist Mick Green, containing a hard rock cover of Elvis' "Blue Suede Shoes" and an original composition in 60's pop style entitled "Paradise". Lemmy has also recorded a straight-up rockabilly album with Danny B and Slim Jim from Stray Cats. It's really enjoyable and Lemmy obviously has the time of his life churning out unironically faithful covers of oldies by Carl Perkins ("Matchbox"), Johnny Cash ("Big River") and even a Buddy Holly teenage-broken-hearts ballad ("Learning The Game").
Another 50's ballad ("Stand By Your Man") sung with the Plasmatics' Wendy O Williams gets horribly mangled. Well, what can you do? Wendy didn't have much of a voice, what she had was a spunky character, killer body and good friends like Lemmy. Other friends of Lemmy's appearing here are punk rockers The Damned (on Sweet cover "Ballroom Blitz" and "Over The Top", proving that Motörhead's music was as close to punk rock as it was to heavy metal). Collaborations continue with R&B stomper "Don't Do That" by the Young And Moody Band (featuring Whitesnake's Mick Moody and pop duo The Nolan Sisters) and "Shake Your Blood" by Probot, a musical vehicle for Dave Grohl of Nirvana/Foo Fighters fame. All in all, this compilation is a fitting tribute to one of the last great rock'n'roll heroes. Farewell, Lemmy! I'd say "Rest In Peace" but somehow I don't think that it's your style ...
***** for Escalator (Sam Gopal), Silver Machine (Hawkwind), Motorhead (Hawkwind), Please Don't Touch (Headgirl), Killed By Death (Motörhead)
**** for I Don't Need Your Kind (Rockin' Vickers), It's Alright (Rockin' Vickers), The Dark Lord (Sam Gopal), Ballroom Blitz (Damned), Over The Top (Motördam), Iron Horse / Born To Lose (Motörhead), Blue Suede Shoes (with Mick Green), Enter Sandman, Big River (with Slim Jim & Danny B), The Trooper (with Phil Campbell & Rocky George)
*** for The Watcher (Hawkwind), Damage Case (Motörhead), Don't Do That (Young And Moody Band), Masterplan (Motörhead), Paradise (with Mick Green), 1916 (Motörhead), Hellraiser (Motörhead), Tie Your Mother Down, R.A.M.O.N.E.S (Motörhead), Matchbox (with Slim Jim & Danny B), Thirsty And Miserable, Shake Your Blood (Probot Feat. Dave Grohl), Whiplash (Motörhead)
** for Dandy (Rockin Vickers), Learning The Game (with Slim Jim & Danny B.), Stand By Your Man (with Wendy O Williams)
No comments:
Post a Comment