Lemmy Kilmister will always live on through other bands
1945, Christmas Eve was the day Lemmy was born in Staffordshire, England. As a young man, he was a fan of Little Richard and of Elvis. He always had something for music, and life sent him right where it needed him to go, as he once worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix himself.
He had yet to hold a bass guitar in his hand when he got the gig as a bassist for the space rock band Hawkwind. He was the cornerstone of that band, bringing his rhythm guitar skills to the bass and providing a new type of sound. That is, until he was kicked out after being arrested for possession of speed.
Lemmy went on to form a new music group. He initially wanted to call the band Bastards, but the name was deemed to be too offensive for the time, so he agreed to change it.
Thus, Motörhead was born, named after the last song he wrote for Hawkwind (which is also street slang for amphetamines). The self-titled album came out in 1977, consisting of a few originals and a few Hawkwind covers. Their big break, though, came with their second album, 1979’s Overkill. And thus, the foundations for heavy metal were set.
But let me tell you why his memory will always live on through, but not exclusively, heavy metal.
The simple reason behind this is the fact that without Motörhead, we wouldn’t have a lot of the metal bands we have today.
For one, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich once said for Rolling Stone:
“I got introduced to Motörhead’s music in 1979, when Overkill came out. I’d never heard anything like that in my life. The subsequent ride that this music took me on was to a place I’d never been. So, when I say that Lemmy is the primary reason I’m in a band, and that Metallica exists because of him, it’s no cheap exaggeration.”
For fans of the more extreme genres of music, here’s a quote from Napalm Death’s very own Barney Greenway:
“Motörhead were the first extreme band. People can say it was Black Sabbath because of the heaviness and that grim, morose sound. But for me it was Motörhead, which is ironic, because Lemmy wasn’t particularly fond of heavy metal in its purest form. Thrash would never have happened without Motörhead — there’s no debate about that. And nor would that third wave of punk, with Crass, Discharge and GBH. If you listen to the bass sound on those punk records — a sound like a concrete mixer — that’s from Lemmy, nobody else.”
And there are numerous such accounts, from bands ranging from Sepultura to Testament.
Lemmy hated when people said that they were a heavy metal band. He always used to introduce the band with “We are Motörhead. And we play rock’n’roll.”.
Even in 2011, 34 years after the band’s debut album, Lemmy was still telling journalists:
“Everyone always describes us as heavy metal, even when I tell them otherwise. Why won’t people listen?”
But the band did much more than popularize heavy metal. They united the front between punkers and metalheads. The 80’s were riddled with prejudice and aggression between the two sides. But Motörhead made it OK to like both punk and metal, because they were a mixture of both. The band had an emphasis on speed (no pun intended) and a sensibility for punk rock. They essentially ended the hate that was going on between the two groups, because all of them would unite at a Motörhead concert.
If you’re familiar with the genre, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Lemmy is God”. And, as Nietzsche put it, “God is Dead” — but his legacy will live on forever.
