← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 17227 | Posts: 18 | Started: 2005-03-10
2005-03-10 18:17 | User Profile
[I]Motorhead: The Heaviest Band That Ever Was. And collectors of Nazi memorabilia, to boot! Ya gotta love this guy.[/I]
[B]Star of Heavy Metal's Motorhead Still Outspoken at 59[/B]
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Academia's loss is heavy metal's gain.
Ian Kilmister, a.k.a. Lemmy, the frontman for Grammy-winning English rock trio Motorhead, could have made a stimulating history professor, sharing his begrudging admiration for Goering and [B]disdain for "bastards" like Hitler and Roosevelt with eager students. [/B]
Instead, the 59-year-old achieved cult fame with generations of headbangers by singing and writing furious anthems like "Killed By Death" and "Orgasmatron."
But he remains fascinated by World War II and he spends his money collecting Nazi memorabilia, which is piled high in his two-bedroom apartment off the Sunset Strip.
"I was born in '45, the year it all ended," Kilmister said in a recent interview over Jack Daniels and Cokes at his local watering hole, the Rainbow Bar and Grill. [B]"It's not ancient history to me, and I don't see it as all the good English and Americans and all the bad Germans." [/B]
While his views have drawn controversy, Kilmister has in the past maintained he is anarchist.
His most prized possession is a rare Damascus Luftwaffe sword, which could be worth at least $10,000, according to a dealer.
[B]"OLD-AGE PENSION"[/B]
Kilmister's friend, rocker Ozzy Osbourne, who lives up the road in considerably more luxurious surroundings, gave him an SS dagger and some huge banners after deciding he did not need so much darkness in his life.
"It's my old-age pension," Kilmister said of his collection.
Coincidentally Motorhead, which Kilmister founded 30 years ago, is biggest in Germany, and he never misses an opportunity to tour historic sites across Europe -- though not the concentration camps.
"You've got to draw the line between what you like to collect and what they actually did," he said.
[B]Hermann Goering is "the only one I admire at all," in part because the portly Luftwaffe chief set up the Gestapo, the Nazis' secret police, and took the blame when he went on trial at Nuremberg after the war. His suicide, hours before he was due to be hanged, was "fantastic," Kilmister said. [/B]
But he lumps Adolf Hitler, [B]Franklin D. Roosevelt[/B], Neville Chamberlain and Josef Stalin all in the same category "as lying, thieving, groveling bastards." Current U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) also annoys him. "Anybody that smiles that much, there must be something wrong with him."
He says his interest in history and current events has taught him about hypocrisy and people's refusal to learn from the past, and that it also inspires his songwriting.
"Sex, war, murder and death," he said. "And injustice, and there's plenty of that around. I don't foresee being short of subject matter in the foreseeable future."
Yet, many of the songs are laced with humor, such as 1984's "Killed By Death," and the band somehow landed a song on the soundtrack for the children's movie "SpongeBob SquarePants."
[B]METALLICA'S FAVES [/B]
Kilmister is the sole original member in Motorhead, playing bass and singing alongside guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee. The band tours for about eight months each year.
It has released 21 albums in 30 years, most recently 2004's "Inferno," none of them selling particularly strongly. He said the best-selling release is 1981's "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith" with worldwide sales of about 500,000 copies.
But the band's influence is inestimable. Metallica (news - web sites), for one, was hugely influenced by Motorhead, and they repaid the favor by covering four Motorhead tunes on their 1998 album "Garage Inc." Motorhead, in turn, covered the song "Whiplash" for a Metallica tribute record, winning its first Grammy in the process last month.
Kilmister also wrote lyrics for a few of Osbourne's hit songs, including the ballad "Mama, I'm Coming Home."
The royalty checks are much appreciated, but the great wealth amassed by Osbourne and Metallica has eluded Kilmister.
"I couldn't have done anything different, could I? Because I'm not cute, you see," he said, acknowledging the giant warts on his face. "I was always too old, or too young for whichever thing we were doing. It's just the way things work out."
But don't shed too many tears. Never married, he has a Hugh Hefner-style coterie of about five women in the 18-to-25 demographic that he can call on. In the past, he has even shared a few girlfriends with his son. "But I never had his wife. I had to draw the line somewhere."
Link [URL=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=769&ncid=689&e=10&u=/nm/20050310/music_nm/leisure_motorhead_dc]here.[/URL]
2005-03-10 20:57 | User Profile
Motorhead was always, along with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest (despite Rob Halfourd's unfortunate homosexuality, which they at least had the decency to cover up for more than 20 years), one of the only heavy metal bands that wasn't a bunch of degenerate pansies, in my humble opinion. Now we perhaps have an inkling into why, in Motorhead's case, that's been so....
(Bruce Dickinson was the guy who kept Iron Maiden on the straight and narrow; I can only imagine how forgotten and suck-ass they'd be if they'd stuck with that simple-minded Paul DiAnno fellow as their singer).
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]Hermann Goering is "the only one I admire at all," in part because the portly Luftwaffe chief ...took the blame when he went on trial at Nuremberg after the war. His suicide, hours before he was due to be hanged, was "fantastic," Kilmister said.
Say what you will about National Socialism and all that, but Goerring's suicide was truly a moment of gallant good taste ("panache"), in a manner that we just didn't see much after the war, or in any event, haven't seen in the last 40 years or so. Anyone who doesn't nurse a grudging admiration for Hermann Goerring, despite what one may think of his overall impact on history, is one cold fish.
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]Current U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair also annoys him. "Anybody that smiles that much, there must be something wrong with him."
A truer sentiment has rarely been expressed, outside objective categories of knowledge, such as mathematics.
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]The royalty checks are much appreciated, but the great wealth amassed by Osbourne and Metallica has eluded Kilmister.
"I couldn't have done anything different, could I? Because I'm not cute, you see," he said, acknowledging the giant warts on his face.
OKay, so he may not live a life of sybaritic luxury, but he as never-the-less had more than a couple of million dollars pass through his hands during the multi-decade course of his musical career, I'm sure. Why the Hell didn't he ever spend a couple thousand of that on getting those revolting things cut off his face? I don't believe in cosmetic surgery, and in fact sternly oppose it, as a general rule, but its fine in cases of disfigurement. That man is disfigured by those massive facial warts. What the Hell statement is he trying to make by retaining them? "Viva ugliness?"
2005-03-10 21:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe] OKay, so he may not live a life of sybaritic luxury, but he as never-the-less had more than a couple of million dollars pass through his hands during the multi-decade course of his musical career, I'm sure. Why the Hell didn't he ever spend a couple thousand of that on getting those revolting things cut off his face? I don't believe in cosmetic surgery, and in fact sternly oppose it, as a general rule, but its fine in cases of disfigurement. That man is disfigured by those massive facial warts. What the Hell statement is he trying to make by retaining them? "Viva ugliness?"[/QUOTE]
I met Lemmy back in the mid-90's at a big East Village hangout called "Coney Island High", where it was bikers, punks, freaks and chicks all night/every night. Anyway, hell of funny guy, Lemmy, but I'd have to say that even if Lemmy had his warts removed, he'd still be...a....rather....ahhhh, Lemmy RULES!
2005-03-11 02:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe]Say what you will about National Socialism and all that, but Goerring's suicide was truly a moment of gallant good taste ("panache"), in a manner that we just didn't see much after the war, or in any event, haven't seen in the last 40 years or so. Anyone who doesn't nurse a grudging admiration for Hermann Goerring, despite what one may think of his overall impact on history, is one cold fish.[/QUOTE]
Funny, Goering's suicide was in the news a couple of weeks back. His prison guard went public after 60 years and admitted that he (unwittingly) gave Goering the pills he used to finish himself off.
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4247069.stm[/url]
2005-03-11 04:27 | User Profile
Without those diseased Cocoa Puffs on his face, Lemmy might as well be - I dunno - Joe Elliot or somebody.
But nobody - nobody - has that much Nazi memorabilia and 'despises' Hitler. If Lemmy did have Lars Ulrich's money, I'm sure you'd hear a slightly more uncensored interview.
Hell, I [I]have [/I] the original MOTORHEAD lp...the import on Chiswick Records from '78.....and their monster-head logo has a swastika dangling off one tusk, and an Iron Cross off the other! (All reissues have airbrushed out the swastika.)
2005-03-11 04:53 | User Profile
If Lemmy is a crypto-national socialist, I am curious why he did a collaboration with rapper Ice T some years back.
2005-03-11 05:09 | User Profile
He had just signed with his biggest record company (WTG, a Columbia subsidiary), he was coming off an album that had everybody convinced Motorhead were really and finally about to break (1916), and collaborative tracks were, at the time, a hot promo gimmick encourraged by the label. That particular track was a split between Lemmy, Ice T and Ugly Kid Joe's Whitfield Crane, and done as a three-way promo back when Ice T was trying to get his heavy metal band Body Count off the drawng board.
Lemmy lives in a 2-bedroom apartment; he's had to cancel English tours (!!) because of low advance sales; and - if the venue holds more than 500 people - is STILL an opening act in the States. He's not in any position to dictate to any label, and is perpetually one charge-of-racism away from losing the 2-bedroom, too.
If you walked into a small apartment [I]overflowing [/I] with Nazi memorabilia - and the apartment-renter isn't a recognizable rock star or entertainer - exactly how likely [I]are [/I] you to presume this collection belongs to a harmless eccentric rather than a drooling VNN zombie? C'mon. You're a Phora regular - you know the drill.....
2005-03-11 05:35 | User Profile
It is all possible that those are his views, though I'm not totally convinced that he had no bargaining power at all refuse that particular track if he wanted to do that. It wasn't a stellar song either. Sort of a early 90s update of "Born to be Wild", and the time for the song and the movie which used it had passed, unquestionably bad marketing to have a movie with an 80s style metal theme/plot and soundtrack in 1994.
2005-03-11 06:08 | User Profile
At that time, collaborative 'jam' singles like that were thought to be synergistic promo which could boost all the artists involved. I'm not saying he couldn't have turned it down....for all I know Lemmy loved Ugly Kid Joe & Body Count....but you have to bear in mind that Lemmy wanted Motorhead to break very very badly for a decade by that point, and it looked as though it might happen after 1916. The five years previous were Motorhead's darkest period - dumped by Mercury in 84, they floundered on cheapo indie labels with poor distribution and had been all but given up for dead when Sony launched WTG - and suddenly they were the critics' darlings (the friggin' Village Voice began championing them!) with real promotional muscle behind them and all the [non-metal] music rags suddenly paying attention. If they'd asked him to do a [I]Duet [/I] with Sinatra at that point, he'd've said 'ok'.
That critics' darling period was definitely Their Strangest Hour. Outside of the strictly-metal press, the one way to make the Robert Christgaus and Chuck Eddys fawn over you was to brandish punk-rock credentials; the early 90s was THE era for punks to suddenly embrace Lemmy and claim he was one of the original 1977 English punks. It was all horseshit, and Lemmy never seemed comfortable with this sort of revisionism, but he played along (he [I]did [/I] write that stupid "Ramones" song, after all). I must've read half-a-dozen interviews back then where he had to answer questions about The Dead Boys and The Clash as if they remotely had something to do with Motorhead. (Apparently the 17,000 times they'd opened for Black Sabbath and The Scorpions never registered with SPIN.)
It was all a moot point in a few years; WTG, Ugly Kid Joe and Body Count all went the way of the dodo bird, by which point Lemmy and his band had earned Elder Statesmen status by simply outlasting everybody else. What was it John Huston said in CHINATOWN...? "Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they hang around long enough." He should've added [I]facial berries[/I].
2005-03-11 06:16 | User Profile
Just curious, did anyone here ever play the Motorhead-themed computer game that came out in the early 90s? Can't remember it's name, it's on the tip of my tongue too...
You played as Lemmy, and you had to wander around through several levels, each themed around a crappy musical genre, bashing people to death with your guitar. I remember there was a "Rapland" level where you got to beat the $# out of guys wearing baggy pants and carrying shoulder-mounted boom-boxes. I played a version on the Amiga, it's probably out there somewhere on one of those retro-gaming ROM sites.
2005-03-11 08:13 | User Profile
[QUOTE] Originally Posted by il ragno That critics' darling period was definitely Their Strangest Hour. Outside of the strictly-metal press, the one way to make the Robert Christgaus and Chuck Eddys fawn over you was to brandish punk-rock credentials; the early 90s was THE era for punks to suddenly embrace Lemmy and claim he was one of the original 1977 English punks. It was all horseshit, and Lemmy never seemed comfortable with this sort of revisionism, but he played along (he did write that stupid "Ramones" song, after all). I must've read half-a-dozen interviews back then where he had to answer questions about The Dead Boys and The Clash as if they remotely had something to do with Motorhead. (Apparently the 17,000 times they'd opened for Black Sabbath and The Scorpions never registered with SPIN.)
[/QUOTE]I was reared on '77 English punk rock in, well, the late '70s, & Motorhead was the only band that didn't fit the genre that I remotely enjoyed. Their gigs, at least in SoCal in the early '80s, were almost exclusively attended by punks & skins. Lemmy did things with Vanian and Sensible, as well. Their music is a better fit with, say, the Damned, Ramones or the Stranglers, et al, than ego-guitar, mindless hippy shite.
In short, they were embraced a decade previously.
2005-03-11 10:04 | User Profile
[QUOTE]In short, they were embraced a decade previously.[/QUOTE]
Not by the critics they weren't. Yeah, I know some punks n skins dug Motorhead early on, but they were, and are, a METAL band. Eddie Clarke, Robbo and Wurzel are all METAL guitarists. The punks dug the grimy attitude but the headbangers bought the albums and most of the tickets.
However, I will gladly grant you that the Stranglers were a great band; really the only punk band I could wholeheartedly warm up to.
Lemmy on punk gods The Clash:
[QUOTE]"I mean, look at those assholes like the Clash calling their album Sandinista. What the **** do they know about hard times? They live in England. They don't have hard times in England like they do in Nicaragua. That's a cheap shot, man. That's like singing about the devil, it's a bunch of shit!" [url]http://www.motorhead.ru/int37orgasmatron.htm[/url][/QUOTE]
And insofar as Ice T is concerned:
[QUOTE]ROC: How do you feel about all the flack over Ice-T's song "COP KILLER"?
Lemmy: I think it's a bad song. I don't think it served any purpose except to make him a big macho-man. I think it's bullshit. I wouldn't write about anything like that. I think that's very irresponsible.
ROC: Even though he pulled it off the album?
Lemmy: He didn't pull it himself, he would have never pulled it off if there hadn't been all that hoopdi-doo about it. He claims he did, of course he does, and now he's trying to kiss ass. He should have never written that song. It's a direct incitement to violence and I'm against violence in any way. I'm against their violence and I'm against our violence. Not only is there no need for it, it's ultimately counter-productive because they've got us fighting against ourselves now. In the '60's and '70's it was us against the cops and at least that was collective you know. Now everybody, the blacks hate the whites, whites hate the Mexicans, and the Mexicans hate everyone else.
ROC: Do you think that some of the rap bands make good socially conscious points?
Lemmy: I haven't really heard any. All I've heard is blacks with a chip on their shoulder, it's just like a white with a chip on his shoulder against the blacks, you know. As far as I'm concerned racism is racism however what color it comes from. In the L.A. riots the blacks attacked the Koreans, I mean what the **** is that about? Where are we now then? What happened here? What was wrong with the Koreans suddenly? I mean black guys get ripped off more by other black guys than by white guys. You see all those shootings, those drive-by's, it's all black guys shooting other black guys. How collective is that? [url]http://www.motorhead.ru/int26roc.htm[/url][/QUOTE]
2005-03-11 10:35 | User Profile
Lemmy: I haven't really heard any. All I've heard is blacks with a chip on their shoulder, it's just like a white with a chip on his shoulder against the blacks, you know. As far as I'm concerned racism is racism however what color it comes from.
Except some 'colors' are seemingly exempted from said charge. Guess who?
I'm a funky-ass Jew and I'm on my way And yes I got to say fk the KKK
2005-03-11 10:51 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]Not by the critics they weren't. Yeah, I know some punks n skins dug Motorhead early on, but they were, and are, a METAL band. Eddie Clarke, Robbo and Wurzel are all METAL guitarists. The punks dug the grimy attitude but the headbangers bought the albums and most of the tickets.
However, I will gladly grant you that the Stranglers were a great band; really the only punk band I could wholeheartedly warm up to. [/QUOTE]Yes, you could very well be right regarding the critics & all of the '90s post punk drivel. I never paid any attention to it. Perhaps their audience was different on the west coast vs. the east coast, or it was comprised of different types when they were headliners at smaller venues vs. opening for a larger metal band?
From the horse's mouth:
[url="http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=3&q=http://earcandy_mag.tripod.com/motorhead.htm&e=912"]http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=3&q=http://earcandy_mag.tripod.com/motorhead.htm&e=912[/url]
[QUOTE]Lemmy: We had gigs with the Damned & I always felt more kinship with the punk bands than the metal bands cause I mean, we had a lot more in common with the Damned than Black Sabbath. I mean we have nothing in common at all with Judas Priest. There's like the Damned, the Pistols, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers before he ****ed up again. They were great, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. When they first came to London and he was relatively clean they were tight as a crabs ass. But then, there they go again, heroin one more time helped a generation through their problems.[/QUOTE]You're correct, though; I'd never call them a punk band, by any means. I think, at least with me, it might be the fact that Lemmy sang like a man, not a high-pitched gal. That, coupled with, as you mentioned, a grimy edge made 'em a good crossover. I concur with you on the Stranglers, though. They were a tad more cerebrally oriented than many of their contemporaries.
2005-03-11 11:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE]I concur with you on the Stranglers, though. They were a tad more cerebrally oriented than many of their contemporaries.[/QUOTE]
Well, to anyone who likes Lemmy's bassplaying, that guy from the Stranglers (Brunel, was it?) was like Lemmy Junior! I just loved the snarling sound of that bass guitar combined with the equally-snarling vocals. They always seemed more musical to me than the Clash, Pistols, Dead Boys, etc, anyway. (I heard they were all past 30 when they launched the band which might've been the reason.) Every now and then I still crank up NO MORE HEROES when I need an audio caffeine rush.
2005-03-11 13:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno]Well, to anyone who likes Lemmy's bassplaying, that guy from the Stranglers (Brunel, was it?) was like Lemmy Junior! I just loved the snarling sound of that bass guitar combined with the equally-snarling vocals. They always seemed more musical to me than the Clash, Pistols, Dead Boys, etc, anyway. (I heard they were all past 30 when they launched the band which might've been the reason.) Every now and then I still crank up NO MORE HEROES when I need an audio caffeine rush.[/QUOTE]I think it's Burnel. His bass, along the keyboards, certainly gave them, unlike just about everybody else, a very non-guitar dominated sound. I dig the lyrics to No More Heroes. Heck, who can throw together Central panzer, ice picks in Trotsky's ear and Nero's hijinks, while still making it flow? Or the perfectly crafted tune, Duchess? I believe you're right that they were older than most. Either way, talented fellows.
I was never much of a fan of the Pistols or Dead Boys. The Clash, up through London Calling, were classic to me, however. Leftists or not, they had a militancy to their tunes that I loved. Rather like my favorite of the time, Stiff Little Fingers. Straight, real world lyrics and music from '78 Belfast. Petrol bombs hitting the neighbor's pad next door gives one a little credibility/believability, you know, than Journey or Styx. :thumbsup:
Btw, if you like type of bass sound (or at least a dominant bass) you might enjoy New Model Army. [url="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005RRG/qid=1110544412/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/104-4018415-7417503?v=glance&s=music&n=507846"]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005RRG/qid=1110544412/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/104-4018415-7417503?v=glance&s=music&n=507846[/url] They were full-on leftys, but it wasn't over-the-top. Very intelligent lyrics, great bass and plain-out fuggin' angry.
2005-03-11 14:29 | User Profile
In my college days in the mid-80's, I had a DJ slot at the college station and I was the only one playing metal-Priest, Maiden, Saxon, Sabbath, Ozzy, Dokken, Scorpions, UFO, and of course, Motorhead and Metallica.
One punk DJ had a slot playing 7 Seconds, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Dictators, Minutemen, Black Flag, Ramones, Clash.
However, we both were in total agreement about Motorhead's greatness, no questions asked. Motorhead is the ultimate crossover punk/metal group. The Who had a similiar phenomenon happening in their 60's heyday too.
The 2 times I saw Motorhead, there were more skinheads and punks than headbangers, but Il Ragno's right, Motorhead is absolutely a metal band.
As for The Clash, great, great band pre-Combat Rock. I saw them in 1982 and they just went all out-awesome. Hate their politics, love their music. Wasn't Joe Strummer a member of the Tribe?? That might explain the band's Leftist sympathies.
2005-03-12 03:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE] Originally Posted by xmetalhead As for The Clash, great, great band pre-Combat Rock. I saw them in 1982 and they just went all out-awesome. Hate their politics, love their music. Wasn't Joe Strummer a member of the Tribe?? That might explain the band's Leftist sympathies. [/QUOTE]Mick Jones was the tribal representative in the band. I think their manager, Bernie Rhoades (sp?), was one, as well. Strummer's father was a low-level member of the British diplomatic core. If my memory serves me, he spent much of his youth overseas, e.g., Egypt, Mexico, etc.
Sidenote on Strummer: I recall when he reformed the band in '85, sans Jones, he went off on a "White punk rock" sloganeering. I remember a radio interview with him very vividly, him mentioning how other ethnicities had their own forms/styles of music and Whites should have their own. At the time, I don't remember thinking the statements were that out of the norm, as his comments were on general cultural realities. Things sure have changed in the last 20.