Lemmy: Lemmy the movie and White Line Fever, the Lemmy autobiography – April’s been Motörhead month for me, with me reading his autobiography and then taking in his movie. Great stuff there for both things. Which will I review first…?
WLF
White Line Fever, Lemmy with Janiss Garza – I’d heard good things about this book, and I knew I needed to know more about Lemmy, so I went out and bought it. Good thing I did!! It’s great fun, and like nearly every autobiography I’ve ever read starts with a modern life anecdote before heading into the usual “when I was a lad…” stuff, about growing up, in Lemmy’s case with a single mum, a deadbeat dad (who he at least acknowledges with a picture in the pictures section) and not-much-better jailbird stepdad.
It quickly gets into music, which some people would sneer is an alien concept for this noisemaker and hellraiser. For a hardass like Lemmy, people may be surprised that his favorites are Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, the usual stuff that punkers and heavy metallers usually don’t refer to. But then again, you have to remember – Lemmy’s old enough to have seen them when they were starting out, even if his heart is as young as the snottiest upstart metal brat (there’s a great quote in the movie that Rollins relates: “I remember before there was rock and roll. I remember when there was only Rosemary Clooney records. Then we heard Elvis Presley and there was no turning back.”). He talks about the mods and the rockers. “The Mods used to wear eye make-up too, especially the boys. The crowd of people I was in disliked them, but in retrospect, it was no worse than what we were doing. I mean, we thought they were sissies, and they thought we were yobs – and you know, we were both right.” There’s a great story about befriending Jon Lord of Deep Purple, then living with a young Ron Wood and Art Wood. He also hung out with the Beatles (and, as we find out in the documentary, had a child with a girl who lost her virginity to John Lennon).
The Beatles revolutionized rock ‘n’ roll, and they also changed the way everyone looked. It seems ludicrous now, but for those days, they had very long hair. I remember thinking, ‘Wow! How can any guy have hair that long?’ Really, it was just combed forward, with a slight fringe over the collar. We all had quiffs then – before the beatles, it had been ducktails and Elvis.
He compares the Beatles and the Stones, overturning the impression that the Beatles were mellow and the Stones were dangerous: the Beatles, being from a tough town like Liverpool, knew how to take care of themselves, whereas “the Rolling Stones were the mummy’s boys – they were all college students from the outskirts of London.” There’s also the great story of him working as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix for a year and a half (and in the documentary he talks about helping Hendrix score acid, ten hits at a time – Hendrix was generous and would take seven tabs, and give Lemmy the other three.
When he performed, he would drive the chicks fucking nuts. I’ve seen him go in his bedroom with five chicks – and they’d all come out smiling too. And of course, the road crew got the spin-offs. A stud, Hendrix was; and I’m crass enough to think that’s quite a good thing. I don’t know what’s wrong with being a stud – it’s more fun than not being a stud, that’s for sure!
In the movie there’s a funny quote from Lemmy: “people ask me what I think of Prince; I say ‘I’ve already seen Jimi Hendrix.’” A funny tale about the other guys in The Experience:
I liked the other two guys in the Experience, too. Noel Redding was all right, only he used to wear a nightshirt to bed, and Alladdin-type shoes with the curly toes and a nightcap with a tassel. That was quite a sight. Mitch was nuts, as he still is today, in fact. One time I was standing on a traffic island in the middle of Oxford Street and Mitch bounced up to me, wearing a white fur coat, white trousers, white shirt, shoes and socks – complete vision, you know. ‘Hello, I don’t know who I am!’ he said and ran off again. I don’t think he knew who I was, either!
He talks about some of the albums he played on in the early days, throwing out lines like “I must get a copy of it one of these days”, which means that someone will read this and send him a copy. Nice move.
For most of the second half of the book, Lemmy is consumed with writing about the recording of albums. “We went into the studio and did an album… then we did the next one… then we did the next one…” He also talks a bit about tours, memorable shows, line-up changes, and management grief. Occasionally he pauses for an anecdote, or a bit of philosophizing. Sometimes he talks about writing a song for someone else (Ozzy, Lita Ford, Girlschool, etc), and how he made more money off of writing songs for Ozzy than he ever did in 15 years with Motörhead. He also describes how he got involved in a few unlikely pairings, such as a supergroup he was in with the Nolan Sisters that there’s a cool little video for.
(Note the cheesy birthday wishes – those will live into immortality – and the image of Lemmy dancing around the 1:20 mark!)
The Nolan Sisters were great fun – we used to run across them quite a bit because they were on the charts at the same time Motörhead was. Everybody thought they were soppy little popster virgins but they weren’t. They’d been around – they’d played with Sinatra at the Sands in Vegas. They were tough chicks, managed by their father, but they were really great. And funny as shit. Once our manager, Douglas, was talking to Linda Nolan in the Top of the Pops bar, and he dropped some money on the floor. When he bent down to pick it up, Linda smirked and said, ‘While you’re down there…’ That was the last thing he expected out of a Nolan sister! Maybe wishful thinking and he dreamt it up, but it shocked the shit out of him.
Naturally, being fired from Hawkwind gets the full treatment.
Ultimately, the first half of the book is way better than the second half, as autobiographies tend to be.
Great book. Anybody who’s ever rocked out to Motörhead songs that they didn’t pay for, do yourself and fork out for this; everybody else should as well.
Lemmy
Lemmy, the Motion Picture – I adore the subtitle of this film: “49% motherfucker, 51% son of a bitch” (although they eventually go to some pains to show that he’s neither). The film is a very satisfying documentary that covers nearly all of the bases, even if it is a bit heavy in its praise; I guess Lemmy just isn’t as complicated as Anton Newcombe, the guy from Brian Jonestown Massacre who was profiled in Dig, which is fine by me – he’s just as fascinating, if not more.
The documentary starts off real slow, with scenes from Lemmy’s life – playing video games in his cave in LA, frying up some chips, rummaging through things, explaining some of his tour memorabilia (the Nazi and war memorabilia comes later), going down to Amoeba Records to buy the Beatles re-release mono version, maybe check out a bit of Pat Benatar; Amoeba doesn’t take AmEx, so he had to pay with Visa. Hmmm… I can relate.
The first part of the movie is an endless series of quotes from celebrities about the greatness of Lemmy. Dave Navarro, Dave Grohl, Nikki Sixx, Billy Bob Thornton (“When you stop being hungry, you’re fucked. When you’re number one, you’re fucked.”). He’s called a radioactive cowboy, a hard rock Johnny Cash, a World War II Sheikh!) and Kat Von D calls him her “dream dude.” Some talk on how Lemmy fits into LA… or how LA fits itself around Lemmy. There’s discussion of his look, which was cultivated in the 1950s, then built up with stuff he’s come across since.
We get to meet Lemmy’s bootmaker (cobbler?), Pascal Cooper, who creates his “western jackboots.” And after we’ve seen these marvellous creations, we can’t help but notice when Lemmy’s just wearing normal boots (or white tennis shoes, like in the bad old days, ha ha…). Drummer Lars Ulrich is quoted extensively throughout (and Lemmy in his autobiography often calls Lars, and his band Metallica, out for being the band that pays the best respect to people like him). “Lemmy should be a verb.” I guess so. One of the great additions here is Jason Everman, who had roles in Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mindfunk – WOW!!! – who went off to fight in the marines and tour Afghanistan and Iraq. Not the regular on-the-circuit rock documentary commentator like Lars, Ozzy, Slash. And Lemmy himself, he’s always talking about Anvil, or any old band! (Gwar’s Dave Brockie is notable absent in this department, incidentally – everyone’s favorite talking head, that one.) Where did they dig Everman up anyway? Glad that they did, though, nice to see the man now. Naturally, he wore Motörhead t-shirts in Iraq, confessing that Motörhead is good war music.
Steve Vai wants to be Lemmy. Dave Vanian got Lemmy to fill in bass for Brian James at a Damned show, which he did for a bunch of songs, and even played ABBA’s “SOS” (he pulled it off unrehearsed – a real pro); they then slaughtered the one Motörhead song that they wanted to do; Vanian talks about how Lemmy loves to do slots (and that’s where his nickname came from – “lend me a quid for the slogs”, lend me… lemmy… Lemmy). “They should do a Motörhead slot machine – if you get three Lemmys you win” (and then we see it in the DVD’s main menu – nice touch). Scott Ian tells a wicked laugh-out-loud story about Lemmy’s short cutoff jean shorts. Renegades discussion – Lemmy, Little Richard, Buddy Holly… where are the renegades now? (In his book Lemmy talks about the real rebels of the 1960s… who gave birth to a generation of storekeepers and accountants; the revolution’s over). He also mentions the gay Mr Brownsword in the movie, a living joke that he also describes in his book. Love Lemmy’s “Canada & US Motörhead” jacket.
There’s a bit from his old school in Wales; Lemmy may have been expelled from it for playing guitar in school, but the kids there now play “Ace Of Spades” on piano, accompanied by a choir for the chorus. Funny. Pics from Lemmy’s youth, from his early bands, and the days when he didn’t have the biker look that started to come together just in the Hawkwind days. There’s a long piece with his son Paul that becomes kind of gross when they talk about swapping girlfriends twice in the same year; there’s also a nice clip of the two of them playing together.
A great segment of the film shows Lemmy going off to hang out with some World War II enthusiasts and drive their tank! He also gets to shoot a round out of the cannon!! At this point we also get to see all of the swords Lemmy has – Nazi daggers he’s been collecting for 19 years, bayonets, Damascus steel. This is where, of course, he addresses the “are you a Nazi” question. He doesn’t accept it, and seems hurt by the question – “I’m as far from it as you could get”… despite the German war memorabilia he wears to the supermarket. Mentions the six black girlfriends he had (including the love of his life, who he one day found in the bathtub dead of a heroin overdose), jokes about being a Nazi and taking those girlfriends to Nuremberg to introduce them to Hitler. “If the Israelis had cool uniforms I’d collect them instead.”
One of the highlights are a great old video of Hawkwind from 1972 playing Silver Machine; the greatness that was Hawkwind in their prime is broadly misunderstood. The directors provide a great accompanying clip of Rollins saying he adores Hawkwind, with Jarvis Cocker noting that Hawkwind were the prog rock band the punkers were allowed to like and Peter Hook confessing that New Order’s “Temptation” and “Everything’s Gone Green” are direct rip-offs of that Hawkwind drone (decide for yourself by clicking on the links below).
Stacia, Hawkwind’s dancer, is interviewed, and her great tits are remembered by Tony James and Mick Jones. Lemmy reminisces, so does Nik Turner; apparently Lemmy was on the wrong drugs for Hawkwind – he was into speed and other chemicals, while the rest of the band was into the organic stuff; Lemmy calls it “Seventies drug snobbery”. He also admits that he’d still be in Hawkwind if he hadn’t been fired, so maybe it’s worked out for the better, so maybe there is still some love there in between all of the mess and betrayals…
Great early clip of Lemmy and Philthy mugging that they’re beating up a journalist. “You hold him and I’ll cut him. What’s it feel like being killed by Motörhead?” There’s more of the early stuff on the documentary (the “classic lineup” of the band is hardly to be seen on this disc, except mainly in the extras section, and Wurzel is not seen at all). Dave Grohl gives his crazy “Fuck Keith Richards” speech, which sounds like a quite childish attempt to stand behind rock ‘n’ roll integrity (or to make up for being embarrassed by a misunderstood Chuck Berry anecdote that Lemmy set him straight on).
Mike Inez tells a great story about Lemmy passing him and Zakk Wylde a bottle of Jack Daniels… they thought it was to share three ways, but then Lemmy opened up two more so that they had one each. James Hetfield talks about how he’s never seen Lemmy get completely out of it, fall off the stage, or say something stupid (he’s also never seen Lemmy completely sober; Ozzy said the same sort of thing in his book too, I believe). Dave Navarro recounts how the first time he met Lemmy he was offered crystal meth! Crazy. Lemmy’s advice to his son Paul: “Don’t do coke. Just do speed – it’s much better for you.” Lemmy’s clearly as sturdy as an ox, and he’s not going to change, despite his diabetes (!!!). Let’s see what happens with that.
Funnily enough, all of the “Big Four” thrash bands are interviewed in one form or another… except Slayer. What’s the beef between Slayer and Motörhead? We get to meet a member of the road crew, Dan Halen. Seriously, that’s his name… Dan Halen? Van Halen – Dan Halen? Maybe that’s his real name… Nice demonstration of a decibel reading at a concert, hitting 120. “That’s what people want – they want it loud, they want it fast, they want it Lemmy.” In Ozzy’s book, he talks about one nutty Motörhead fan who dunked his head in a Marshall cabinet for the duration of the show and freakin’ died!! It might not be true, but I’m happy to believe it.
Some of the best celebrity quotes are near the end in a section about the Motörhead sound:
“We put my bass through his channels on the deck… and it sounded like shit [laughs maniacally].” Peter Hook of New Order, recounting how they once used a studio immediately after Motörhead had finished up.
“When I think of Motörhead, I don’t think of subtlety.” Alice Cooper
“It makes me think of a door blown open.” Jarvis Cocker
“His voice is rasp. It’s like eating fucking nails.” Marky Ramone
“It’s more like a wind coming at you.” Jarvis Cocker
“I have the impression of someone coming up behind me and spanking my ears.” Peter Hook
“When the lights go down and that motherfucker hits the stage and blows that cigarette out of his mouth and winds into the bass, it’s game over man. You can drag anybody to a Motörhead show and their jaw is going to drop.” Pepper Keenan, Corrosion of Conformity
By now the film is moving along quickly after a pretty slow start with too many celebrity interviews. The band seems to watch a lot of Family Guy in the tour bus. There’s a whole tattoo sequence, with plenty of fan tattoos (including Thomas Hultz, who has 21 Motörhead tattoos including the word Motörhead written in katakana tattooed in a line down the middle of his belly, next to the Alien creature and the Motörhead war pig). Lemmy signs one girl’s chest, she gets that signatured tattooed so that it’s permanent. The girl from Nashville Pussy relates some story about her ex-husband that’s quite memorable as a “sweet old Lemmy” tale (the bonus DVD has plenty more). The camera lingers on the “Don’t Worry Be Happy Fish” (weird).
This is a great documentary. I recommend that everybody watches it repeatedly and shows it off to all their friends. Tattoo it on your forehead – Motörhead!!!
“Don’t Forget Us. We Are Motörhead And We Play Rock ‘n’ Roll!”
The first DVD has as bonus material a concert. There are nine songs, 33 minutes, the first seven recorded in Finland (or Berlin?). “Possibly you got the wrong idea about rock and roll – rock ‘n’ roll does not sound like KISS.”
On “Killed By Death”, the band is joined onstage by Danko Jones, with Mikkey Dee throwing all of his drumsticks into the air behind him. Final song of the live set is “Ace Of Spaces”, Lemmy changes the lyrics quite significantly in the “you know I’m born to lose” part. Interesting…
Then there’s a great blues jam on “Whorehouse Blues” with both Phil and Mikkey playing acoustic guitars and Mikkey banging away with one foot on the bass drum and another on a tambourine shaker. Awesome! (In the bonus features disc we see Matt Sorum doing the same, from the time he filled in for Mikkey Dee when he took part in Kändisdjungeln, a Swedish version of I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!) The set closes with a soundcheck version of “Backdoor Man.” They are Motörhead and they play rock and roll. YES!
Bonus DVD – Starts off with the rehearsals with Metallica for their September 14th 2009 gig together in Nashville, from the Death Magnetic era, which is featured later… the footage begins before Lemmy arrives, when Metallica are hanging out, with Robert Trujillo looking lovingly at the scrollery and woodwork on Lemmy’s bass. Two basses, playing “Damage Case.” Matt Sorum hanging around. “Too Late, Too Late.” There’s a great scene of a highly disciplined Lemmy reviewing lyrics and practicing before the gig; sure, the gig was great, but not as good as the lead-in.
In the “Making Of…” segment, the fat and ugly guys who made the movie hog their moment of glory, going into a wonderful explanation of how they were tricked by Lemmy into cleaning his kitchen so that they could record him frying chips in it. “Fifty percent of the film is a negotiation.” They describe the amazing accidents, such as Lemmy hitting 777 while the cameras rolled, visiting spots all around Europe with the band, meeting Metallica. Nice!!! The extras are awesome, mainly because there’s so much material, and almost all of it is excellent. More importantly, we get way more Lemmy than we get in the movie itself.
There are sections of funny stories, sections that talk about what a nice guy Lemmy actually is, and all sorts of wisdom from the man. “Water isn’t good for you anyway. Fish fuck in it.” Musical inspirations are Elvis, MC5, Jerry Lee Lewis, some Elvis, Eddie Cochrane. Deplored Philadelphia boys like Fabian and Bobby Rydell. “It was just rock and roll or fuck off.”
“I hope there are pool tables up there, because if there isn’t, I’m going down there. Well, can you imagine eternity without a game of pool? Fuck off.” Lemmy presents his arguments in the case for reincarnation being the inexplicable interest people might have in one period of history over another. “Nothing stays the same – not you, not the places you went, not the people you know. Most of the people I knew are either dead or old, and I got nothing to talk to them about because they got old and I didn’t.” (Lemmy was 62 at the time of that interview.) Mourns the death of Sid vicious, who he says was truly innocent, and with no axe to grind, just a lost boy; his mentor was Nancy, she turned him into a clown and he died of it. Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers were tremendous. Pistols, the Damned, the Who were so violent on stage. Loves the US, but is very ironic about it.
“I don’t like improvements, they always make things worse.” Talks about why he loves the Rainbow, and is always self-deprecating. “Good night and good hunting.” Lemmy at his 50th birthday party with Metallica, greetings from Ozzy and Dimebag. Mike Inez was there, talked about how Metallica dressed up like Lemmy. “The Soft Side of Lemmy” includes great stories, like one from James Hatfield, who once told him “It’s great to see you, brother”, to which Lemmy responded “Yes, we’re brothers – more than you know.” Deep… or maybe just weird. We also find out that Lemmy’s the only guy who can call James “Jimmy”.
Johnny Knoxville, Sebastian Bach, Scott Ian, Slash and Duff talk about the first London shows Guns N’ Roses did, the band’s first time abroad, and visiting Lemmy in the studio where he was making Orgasmotron. It was Lemmy’s “welcome to the cub” gesture, or as Duff put it “Once Lemmy accepts you, everybody else can kinds piss off. Lemmy thinks we’re cool – that’s good enough for me.” Extended Slash, Duff, Pepper Keenan quotes. Sebastian Bach tells a story about Lemmy’s pep talk after Skid Row had a bad gig in Brazil, just before they broke up. Jason Everman’s backpacking anecdote. Lemmy lent Joan Jett and the Blackhearts his equipment for their first tour. Steve Vai played two songs with Lemmy on Inferno in 2004. “So, you can’t play slow, can you?” Lemmy sent him a Zippo lighter as a thank-you, which Steve treasures. Moa tells a story. Freaked out, short over-compensator CC Deville also has a memory of Lemmy playing with him impromptu at The Rainbow’s jam night on one occasion. “It meant the world to me. It meant the world to me.” Sweet story from Christine, the bartender at the rainbow about sullen Lemmy’s gesture of friendship. The disc has 20 minutes of funny stories, led by two bad jokes by Lemmy. James Hetfield and Slash tell stories about their own first meetings with Lemmy, in Slash’s case Lemmy was chatting up his girlfriend Renee at The Rainbow (my ex-colleague Paul had the exact same story, apparently, but in Slash’s story it was Renee who didn’t know who Lemmy was when the situation was unfolding, in Paul’s it was he who didn’t know who Lemmy was). Dave Grohl talked about how rock ‘n’ roll Lemmy is, sitting in his underwear taking a call at noon with a smoke and a JD and coke in his hands. Steve Vai talks about the Monsters of Rock tour, and how all the rock guys tried to keep up with Lemmy through five days of debauchery, no one could keep up. Never stumbles or falters, always eloquent when he speaks. “After a while you just… coast…” quotes Robert Trujillo. Rollins talks about how he remembers one occasion when his band and a bunch of other travelers were angrily waiting in a small plane in Finland for the last band to arrive. “You smell tobacco and leather… it’s Lemmy!!” He sits down next to Rollins, orders his cola, gets his whiskey from his road manager, and tells Rollins “I will not be betramelled by a mere airline attendant.” Jason Newsted talks of meeting one of his three heroes (Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee and Lemmy), introducing himself, and Lemmy adding “I know who you are, ya cunt.” Rainbow barmaid Misty talks about Lemmy taking his shirt off one hot Labour day. “Go ahead, Lemmy, just play there – naked.” Joan Jett tells the Darby Crash story. Lemmy offered Dee Snider some lines, but he passed. “Oh, more for me.” Girlschool talks (they haven’t aged well). Marshall amp, Murder One re-designed from the 1976 model. Eight minute “We Are The Road Crew” mini-documentary. Lemmy apparently treats roadies very well, as he was once a roadie himself. We meet Tim Mitchell, Lemmy’s bass tech for 30 years. Plenty of scenes from the JD-cam, and a video of the road crew playing “We Are The Road Crew.” Lemmy plays on a persian rug onstage – WTF? Check out Phil’s Coke bottle bottom glasses! In “We Are The Superfans” we meet the people like Thomas Hulz, Adrian, Robert, Klaus with the crazy tattoos (Hulz has 21 of them), who’ve seen over 100 shows, who have all the various pressings of the albums. Amazing!! One of these guys had the record that was stolen from Lemmy’s apartment that time that his gay roommate was murdered there (hmmm… it might be nice for him to give that back to Lemmy…).
There’s a mini-interview with “Fast” Eddy Clark, who met Lemmy first in 1968 when Lemmy was ever-present on the scene. Lemmy was fired from Hawkwind in May 1975, had Motörhead up and running by August. Explained how they wrote Overkill!! Ice T talks about the Body Count days when he’d tell his band to watch Motörhead videos. Eddie also supports use of speed – constant, good energy, spot on, won’t go up and down, can have a drink, consistency of energy, slim figure. Motördamned was formed from members of those two bands, reports of Motörhead fisticuffs. Triple H tells an anecdote of Motörhead playing Wrestlemania Seattle. Interview with Dave Grohl goes on for 20 minutes, talks about Chuck Berry, Hendrix and how he only made three albums “the rest were shit. He wasted time in the studio ‘thinking.’ Hendrix wouldn’t have released ‘Cry For Love’”. About groupies from the sixties, Lemmy notes that “Jimi’s leftovers wore me out.” Talks of the plaster casters tracking Jimi down and getting his johnson plaster-casted. Dave Grohl tells the story of the Backbeat soundtrack, talks about Pat Smear and the Germs and the LA renegades.