Lemmy

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

It took me a little longer to get situated here tonight, hence the semi-late start, but maybe you are still awake. I hope you were able to get some good pictures today, if the snowstorm did materialise and if you got your models for the shoot. Weather.com shows snow due tonight, so maybe it started earlier. But it continues through Wednesday, so that is good too. I saw your picture of Stephane by the lake, which would probably be frozen by now (would it not?) if you were having a normal Winter.

Just so you don't get the interminable Deep Freeze, right? Man, it sure is cold here. Not as bad tonight because of the cloud cover, but still mighty chilly......

You know, with the news about Lemmy, I was trying to remember how I first got into Motorhead. With many bands, I can remember who introduced me to them, or if I discovered them myself, where I bought my first record by a band, etc. So many of my all-time favorites came to me via the College Records connection, from the guys who worked there (like Ono or Jon Sutherland) who knew all the great bands and turned little 14 year old me onto them.

But with Motorhead, I'm pretty sure I discovered them for myself. I know it was when "Ace Of Spades" came out, so I Googled the release date and it was November 1980. That sounded about right. About that time, I was listening to Judas Priest, Rainbow and Rush mostly. Those would've been my big three, with Van Halen up there, too. I was listening to almost all hard rock in those days.

I think I read a review of "Ace Of Spades" in Kerrang! (exclamation point was part of the title) or some other music magazine. The name "Motorhead" sounded cool, and the album cover may have actually been the thing that really drew me in. It looked like an image from a Clint Eastwood movie.

I never was one to just take a chance on bands, but if I remember correctly, that's what I did with Motorhead and "Ace Of Spades", because of the great review, and the badass album cover.

I very distinctly remember playing the living you-know-what out of that record, once I got into it, which was immediately. 1980 was a weird time, an in-between time, because the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) was still two years away. Few knew who Iron Maiden were in 1980. American bands like Metallica and Slayer hadn't even formed.

But here was Motorhead, with "Ace Of Spades". Every song was fast, and this was before speed metal or any of the metal genres. Motorhead wasn't metal anyway, not really. And they certainly weren't punk, despite what many writers want to say was an ingredient in their music. I hated punk, so you know I would say that, but it's true. No punk band could play like Motorhead.

So they weren't metal and they weren't punk, and they weren't really traditional hard rock. So what were they?

I think, in their early stages, when they had the classic line-up of Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, that they achieved the result that all bands should aspire to : they sounded like no one but themselves. If anything, they took basic '50s rock structures, modernized them and amped them up with massive drums, volume and guitar solos, and then added the voice and lyrics of Lemmy as the distinctive ingredient.

Lemmy was on fire back in those days. "Ace Of Spades" is a start-to-finish classic, every song is great and every song is memorable, lyrics and all. The follow up album, "Iron Fist" was good, but not as good, and Fast Eddie left soon after it was recorded. They replaced him with Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy, who was a great guitarist himself, but in a different mold.

That's when the interview happened, the one I went to, in May 1982. It was right after Clarke quit and Robertson joined. Lemmy was super cool at that interview. He was a real hero to me and my late friend Dave Small at that time.

I have probably mentioned this at least once, but when a street crew was repaving Rathburn Avenue (the street I lived on), I took a stick and carved "Motorhead" in the newly poured soft concrete of the gutter. It stayed there for many years and might still be visible. I haven't checked, but I may do so now.......

I got to see Motorhead with Fast Eddie and Phil Taylor (the original and best lineup) one time, in 1981, probably in the Summer. I saw them a few other times, too, with Robertson.

I stopped following them around 1985 or so, because the only guy left was Lemmy, and while he was great, and a legend, I have always liked original member bands, or bands with at least more than one guy still in them. I don't like it when one single guy becomes a band's focal point. Lemmy probably wrote a lot of the Motorhead music, but to me it was all three guys who made the original lineup so great.

But without Lemmy, there would never have been a Motorhead in the first place. It was his creation all the way. His voice powered the music more than anything.

He was one of the coolest guys in rock history, and a true original. I hadn't followed his band or his music for the last 30 years, but in the years that I did, Motorhead was one of my favorite bands, and I'd say that "Ace Of Spades" is in the 30 or so greatest records ever made.

Wow.

Lemmy & Motorhead.

What a time that was.  :)

That's all for tonight, Sweet Baby. I will see you in the morning. Fingers crossed for snow and good photo results........

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)