Join the legend of rock 'n roll - Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister - on an epic journey through time and space as he battles record executives, concert promoters, drug addiction, and finding enough loot to buy a second pair of trousers. It's the story of Hawkwind, Motörhead, and the glorious early days of heavy metal. Just remember, if you squeeze his lizard, he'll put his snake on you...
White Line Fever is easily one of
the most hilarious books I've ever read. I must have found something
to have a good belly laugh at on every other page. Lemmy's
voice comes through even with a ghost writer helping him along and
his sense of humor in this book is warped, self-depreciating, and
Python-esque all at once. Our man Lem probably could have
made it as a comedian if the whole rock 'n roll thing didn't pan out
for him.
If you're a fan of Motörhead or rock/metal in
general I would say this book has to be essential reading. Despite all the drugs
he consumed and the whirlwind touring schedule for his band, Lemmy
had a solid memory and he has all manner of insightful stories
to tell about the scene going all the way back to the 1950's up until
the new millennium. Readers will also learn about Lemmy's blind hatred of
the song "Ace of Spades" (mentioned several times
throughout the book), his rather unique obsession with astrological
signs, he and his son trading girlfriends (also brought up in his
biopic film), the trials of touring in eastern Europe before the fall
of the Berlin Wall, his vendetta against the old "CD box"
from the late 80's/early 90's (remember those?), and even what old
arcade game or pinball machine he was playing on during a particular
touring or recording cycle. I think many a Motörhead fan figured out over time that Lemmy was big into gaming, but as a gamer nerd myself it's pretty cool to hear Lemmy prattle on about his addition to the original DOOM on PC back in the day.
Like a number of musicians, Lemmy
is sometimes way too harsh a critic of his own material and tends
to slag off some of Motörhead's records. I think the album Rock
'N Roll is great, for instance, but Lemmy claims he and the rest of the band did a
poor job in the recording process and doesn't seem to like it at
all. To be fair, Lemmy also laments the band's issues with record
producers not always capturing the Motörhead sound at its best, and
that's something I'd agree with him on; Motörhead never had a
mainstay producer like a Martin Burch with Iron Maiden who properly
understood what the band was about. It's fairly simple to break down in retrospect, but at the time a blues band masquerading as the loudest rock band on the planet probably didn't make sense to a lot of record producers.
The only shame about White Line Fever is that
the book ends in the early 2000's and there's much more to the Lemmy
Kilmister story before his passing, including more side projects, his
battle with diabetes, essentially becoming a member of the rock 'n
roll aristocracy, and even a flirtation with the pro wrestling
business. There exists an 'updated' version of this book that includes an extension that discusses the last decade of his life (complete with an introduction by the worst drummer in the world - Lars Ulrich), but it's evident this section is the obligatory posthumous addendum to try and sell a few more copies.
I did find it quite fascinating how prescient Lemmy was about the direction the world was going by the time of the early 2000's, especially at the book's coda. Observant and well-read fellow that he was, Lemmy noticed changes in both the baby boomer and the gen-x crowds and how they were raising their children and seems to predict the western world becoming a far less tolerant place. Twenty-odd years later and we're mired in woke cancel culture and collectivism - intolerance insidiously disguised as tolerance - trying to destroy any and all joy in the universe.
Thankfully, we still have Motörhead's freewheeling rock and roll discography, a force far stronger than anything the current state of the world can throw at us.
No comments:
Post a Comment