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Someone help me appreciate Lemmy

#142
muggsy said:
If you like Motorhead (and I do), he wrote the songs, sang the songs and played bass. All while living an unapologetic rock n roll lifestyle and remaining, by all accounts, a hell of a nice guy and eminently approachable. I have never really focused on his bass playing, but Motorhead rocks and Lemmy IS Motorhead.
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This. He was a perfectly able bass player in the "traditional" sense. He chose to do it his way, because that was what he wanted, not because he couldn't do anything else. On top of that, a lovely guy. He was always open and friendly to me, and I never saw him behave differently with anyone else, unless they genuinely deserved it. Even then, people he didn't like just got ignored. The world is a poorer place without him.
 
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#144
This is a long thread and my post might get lost in it, but I still wanted to put in my 2 cents.

I have never been a Motorhead fan, even during my Heavy Metal "teen phase". But I was fortunate to see them live a few years ago (opening for Megadeth). I did not know the songs but you can't help but enjoy the show. Even with half the audience speaking French and the other half not really understanding his thick accent, his showmanship was undeniable (he made a joke about no one understanding what he said).

Later I watched the Motorhead/Lemmy documentary. Beyond what I may think about his style/skills/music, I have great respect for the man and musician.
 
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#148
mwbassace said:
I read a story about Lemmy that said he received fellatio from an admiring lady fan while on stage performing. :bassist:

And that concludes today's thread. Thanks for coming:laugh:
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He also got fired while on tour with Hawkwind, so he promptly flew home and slept with most of the band's wives just to be spiteful.
 
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#150
br1qbat said:
He would also say time and time again that he was kicked out of Hawkwind for doing the 'wrong kind of drugs', which will always make me chuckle.
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“I got my revenge…I came home and f−−−ed all their old ladies. I made sure of [bandmates] Simon King and Alan Powell’s first. Alan Powell has still never forgiven me. And I hope he never will, cos there was a lot of malice involved, and I really meant every f−−−ing minute of it."
 
#151
I find these quotes very interesting. And enlightening...
stringthrough said:
For context, I like my music funkier and more harmonically developed (Steely Dan, Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, as well as fusion artists such as Tribal Tech, etc.),
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If you are measuring the role of the bassist via comparison with the above you’ll never get Lemmy. Think of those bands. So many members. So many textures. So many instruments slotting into little bits of the sonic space. What Lemmy did in Motorhead couldn’t be more different.

Then there are the rock bassists you quote...

stringthrough said:
I enjoy and respect many rock bassist, i.e. Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee, McCartney, Sting.
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...that’s not what Lemmy did either.

So what did he do? Best way I could ever get my head around it was to think of him not as a bass player but as a bass player AND a rhythm guitarist all at the same time. Remember that for most of their life Motorhead were a 3 piece but a trio who were trying to create a huge adrenaline fuelled heavy metal sound. The achieved this by Lemmy using a rhythmic strumming style with plenty of both bass/mid and treble. And distortion... lots of distortion... what he is doing to achieve that sound is really clever and his playing is deceptively precise and specifically crafted - otherwise it wouldn’t be an exciting, driving, punchy wall of sound. It would be a mess of mud.

You don’t have to like what he did - I’m not the hugest fan and I could never play like that - but you have to admit that no one else plays like that and Motorhead achieved the most exciting and driving sound with just three members (in their classic years). Time to toddle off and have a listen to Bomber and Ace of Spades again.
 
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#152
BurningSkies said:
I stopped reading after the first page. Sorry everyone.

Don't think of Lemmy as a 'bass player.' He's not laying down basslines in the traditional sense of that dynamic.

He's acting like a rhythm guitarist and frontman, but doing it on bass. If you step out of the 'this is what a bass' place traditionally is in a band' you'll have a much better chance of digging what he's doing. Also it helps to not be all serious about bassskillz in the classic sense. Lemmy is a player who carved out his own place in the music and in music in a greater sense.

Or to turn it around a bit, look at a guy like Peter Hook (New Order/Revenge/Joy Division)...he took bass and rather than going low, went high and lead melodic...another player who shattered the paradigm.

I like bass players who see the box that we put the instrument in...and promptly knock out the walls.
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100% agree.

Lemmy could play traditional bass. He just chose not to in Motorhead, because that isn't what he felt the band needed. And he was right. We have these preconceived notions of what each instrument is for, but the reality is that any instrument can be used in a variety of other ways, and that's what he did.
 
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#156
'Lemmy was a great English eccentric; always in character and always pushing the same biker image to the end. You won't get very far hunting for nuance and technique in his playing, but to do so is to completely miss the point."

"If that's what you think, think again. Try doing what he did. Just because its loud, doesn't mean there's no nuance or technique."

LOL, I could imagine somebody using using the words nuance and technique in a conversation with him and his responding with a snarl and saying pi$$ off.
 
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#158
He was kicked out of Hawkwind after getting busted for carrying Amphetamine when they crossed the border into Canada from the US on the "Halls of the Mountain Grill" tour (1975-ish). He was kept in jail for a while, missed at least one show, and was kicked out because of being arrested while on tour. Dave Brock has always insisted they were forced into the decision (assuming it was the record label/management), and that he'd always regretted kicking Lemmy out.

You either "get" Motorhead, or you don't. Likewise his playing. If nothing else, he'd walked the walk, and talked the talk for all of his life, no compromises, no remorse. The epitome of the rock'n'roll lifestyle that would have floored many an imitator (and regularly did).

Respect & RIP.
 
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#160
Axstar said:
Big Hawkwind fan, and lesser Motorhead fan. Point me in the direction of the nuance or technique. There is some in his playing with Hawkwind, but a lot less in Motorhead.
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There is more than one kind of technique. A music snob friend of mine and I both watched a "Behind the music" kind of thing that was more about the recording than lifestyle, and Lemmy and one of the guitarists were sitting at an awesome mixing board isolating tracks. We were impressed because they knew exactly what they were doing and were highlighting some secret ingredients in the mix.

Their skills at using real faders and navigating a board are becoming much more rare in the software emulation age.
 
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