Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers

by Martin Popoff

  As for his own role, Eddie says, “I never really thought about that. I would hope the fans just would’ve thought of me as Eddie, the guitarist in Motörhead. I played the guitar, I was just the third guy, another member. I always thought I was just an equal. The nice thing about having one guitarist and one drummer and one bass player—he does the guitar, he does the drums, he does the bass. Whereas with a band with two guitars, you get a problem. I always thought a three-piece was killer, you know? Killer. I’ve been very fortunate to have done this, to be honest.”

  So at least in the beginning, when it was pure (in contrast with Phil Taylor’s demoralizing stories of his last days with Lemmy), the guys were equals with each other, but they were also equals with the fans. And, as has been a recurring theme throughout this book, Motörhead—at least the classic Motörhead of Eddie’s day—would identify more with their crowd at the lip of the stage and hovering at their table in the pub than they would their musicianly peers, because, after all, keepers of the established industry thought they were miscreants. Or, as Lemmy would put it, “‘Idiots with leather jackets on.’ Fuck them, they are the dumb ones. I don’t think about them at all.”

  “The fans loved us, which is all we really cared about,” reflects Clarke. “In the fans’ eyes we were respected, but not musicians’. The fans loved us. But the musician elite people think, ‘Oh, I’m a fantastic musician, man.’ Musicians, a lot of them have their heads up their ass thinking that they’re something closer to God. A lot of musicians are like that. That’s why I haven’t got many musician friends, because they think they’re so fuckin’ marvelous. But all they can do is play a fucking instrument. It’s not like rocket science, you know what I mean? They’re just playing a fucking guitar. You think, who are you cunts? And they were all, especially back then, ‘Oh come look at me, I’m fucking . . .’ And I’m sorry, I wasn’t like that. We were like, ‘Let’s have another toot and a fucking drink and a joint, and fuck them, we don’t care.’ But these guys were walking around, ‘I’m big, I’m fantastic.’ Because they think if they’re in a famous band, they have political views, you know? That their political views suddenly count. They forget that they’re still essentially the cunt they were when they started. Playing the guitar hasn’t turned them into a fucking messiah, you know? But that’s what they were like. And we weren’t like that. We didn’t give a fuck. And plus they were scared of us because we looked like an angry bunch. Musicians are generally pretty weedy types. And of course, if you’ve got three guys standing in the corner with leather jackets and bullet belts and they look like death, you know, they’re going to stay away from you.”

  Ask any old rock warhorse about the accolades heaped down upon him over the years from disciples that far outstripped any of their own achievements commercially, and the list will start coming. Ask Eddie, and he quickly answers, “No, not really. Ozzy was a good friend of ours. He seemed to like us. Apart from that, I can’t really think of anything, no, not particularly. We were the black sheep, certainly back in the early days. I mean, we had Lars from Metallica; he would come to a lot of our shows. So he obviously appreciated what he saw and went off and did Metallica. So I think he was a big fan. I mean, I’m sure there are big fans out there, but it’s been such a long time, so maybe I’ve forgotten a lot. But I know, as time is going on, Motörhead has become more acceptable. Back in our day, Motörhead wasn’t acceptable. So what happened through the years, Motörhead has become the accepted norm, almost. It’s quite fascinating, really. But the original band, it’s also a badge for a time, isn’t it? It was a moment in time.”

  As far as the most cherished of those moments in time go, Eddie picks “Motörhead playing the Hammersmith Odeon for the first time . . . I can still remember being on the side of the stage with Lem saying, ‘Fuck, we are here!’ Also, Fastway being courted by a couple of record companies and us having a choice. That was new to me, as we struggled a long while to get a deal for Motörhead. I did not have any preconceived ideas about the music business. The business is the same as all businesses, run by greedy people, many wearing suits. There was little to warm the heart. It also grinds you down, the backstabbing and the ripping off. Managers are not great, either. I think they think, ‘You have the fame. I will have your fortune.’ I still think the best thing was the fans and their dedication to the cause. Without them, none of us would be here. They made it all worthwhile.”

  “And so sure, we spent all our time with our fans before shows—always. We used to go to the bar, drink with them and all the rest of it. It was just something we did. And afterwards, we always set up a couple of tables, so after the show, we’d get dressed and we’d go out and take a picture and sign some things, chat with ’em. We did that every night. It was just that we knew that the fans gave us what we got, and we appreciated them as much as they appreciated us. And I think that has a lot to do with the sort of legend that is Motörhead, you know?”

  Indeed, everything Eddie has just articulated has much to do with why millions of fans love Motörhead. But on a deeper, almost subconscious level, the appreciation of the band has much to do with the wild abandon emblematic of and represented by the music and the effortless freedom and lack of pretense that marked the personalities of Eddie, Phil and especially Lemmy, who has been the one left to espouse over 40 years of interviews and lyrics, the romance of ruthless individualism that is essentially the romantic notion of a biker outlaw. But the biker outlaw is at his most pure and most respected by his enemies when he pays the ultimate price for his freedom, a denouncement of attachments.

  As alluded to earlier in our tale, neither Phil nor Eddie nor Lemmy ever married, and the only child between the three is almost an asterisk, notes Clarke. “Well, Lemmy had one from before I joined the band, going back probably six years before that; so obviously that was a Hawkwind baby. But he had nothing to do with the mother or anything. It was a baby at that time. He has since re-bonded with the lad, you know, and they’re very close now. But of course, back in those days, you didn’t have time for anything like that. You didn’t have any money, you know what I mean? You didn’t have a pot to piss in. You didn’t have anything. So you had nothing to offer a kid. All you had was what you were doing, which was trying to survive, put some food in your stomach, buy some strings for your guitar and see if you can get a gig.”

  But none for Phil or Eddie.

  “No, no. You see, that was the price you had to pay for being a great rock ’n’ roll band. And nowadays, they all have children in the tour bus, all this; well, my idea of being a rock ’n’ roller is it’s full-on. It’s the price you pay. And so as much as I admire these guys who manage to do both things, we were a bit more serious than that. We were literally just, you know, guys that loved our instruments, loved playing. We really loved it, and that’s what people don’t think about when they think about the guys in Motörhead. I loved my guitar, I lived for my guitar. I take it apart every day, I change it, I’d be looking around for bits, Phil would be looking around for new things every day. Lemmy on the other hand would be reading books all the time, but then of course his lyrics were second to none. So, you know, we really were into what we were doing, 110 percent, you know. It’s every breath we took, really, was Motörhead. That’s why none of us got married. And that’s why we didn’t have families—we had to be free to carry on.”

  Lemmy, June 24, 2000. Motörhead took the stage after support act Nashville Pussy, a firm Kilmister favorite.

  © Martin Popoff

  Selected Discography

  A few points of style here. Track listings are for original U.K. issue albums only, and of course, this is a discography of the band as it existed with Lemmy, Phil and Eddie only, issued at the time they were still in the band. I haven’t put quote marks around songs, simply for tidiness, even though that is the rule in the body of the book. I’ve included side one/side two designations given that all of these albums hail from
the vinyl era. I’ve included no compilations; however, I have included singles and EPs (U.K. issue only) because of their significance to the industry and to Motörhead’s career during this era. All songs written by Lemmy Kilmister, Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor unless otherwise specified.

  Albums

  Motörhead

  (Chiswick WIK2; August 21, 1977)

  Produced by Speedy Keen

  SIDE 1: 1. Motörhead (3:13; Lemmy Kilmister) 2. Vibrator (3:39; Dez Brown/Larry Wallis) 3. Lost Johnny (4:15; Lemmy Kilmister/Mick Farren) 4. Iron Horse/Born to Lose (5:21; Dez Brown/Phil Taylor/Guy Lawrence)

  SIDE 2: 1. White Line Fever (2:38) 2. Keep Us on the Road (5:57; Lemmy Kilmister/Eddie Clarke/Phil Taylor/Mick Farren) 3. The Watcher (4:30; Kilmister) 4. The Train Kept a-Rollin’ (3:19; Tiny Bradshaw/Howard Kay/Lois Mann)

  Overkill

  (Bronze BRON 515; March 16, 1979)

  Produced by Jimmy Miller, except Tear Ya Down, produced by Neil Richmond

  SIDE 1: 1. Overkill (5:12) 2. Stay Clean (2:40) 3. (I Won’t) Pay Your Price (2:56) 4. I’ll Be Your Sister (2:51) 5. Capricorn (4:06)

  SIDE 2: 1. No Class (2:39) 2. Damage Case (2:59; Lemmy Kilmister/Eddie Clarke/Phil Taylor/Mick Farren) 3. Tear Ya Down (2:39) 4. Metropolis (3:34) 5. Limb from Limb (4:54)

  Bomber

  (Bronze BRON 523; October 27, 1979)

  Produced by Jimmy Miller

  SIDE 1: 1. Dead Men Tell No Tales (3:07) 2. Lawman (3:56) 3. Sweet Revenge (4:10) 4. Sharpshooter (3:19) 5. Poison (2:54)

  SIDE 2: 1. Stone Dead Forever (4:54) 2. All the Aces (3:24) 3. Step Down (3:41) 4. Talking Head (3:40) 5. Bomber (3:43)

  Ace of Spades

  (Bronze BRON 531; October 20, 1980)

  Produced by Vic Maile

  SIDE 1: 1. Ace of Spades (2:49) 2. Love Me like a Reptile (3:23) 3. Shoot You in the Back (2:39) 4. Live to Win (3:37) 5. Fast and Loose (3:23) 6. (We Are) The Road Crew (3:13)

  SIDE 2: 1. Fire, Fire (2:44) 2. Jailbait (3:33) 3. Dance (2:38) 4. Bite the Bullet (1:38) 5. The Chase Is Better than the Catch (4:18) 6. The Hammer (2:48)

  No Sleep ’til Hammersmith

  (Bronze BRON 535; June 27, 1981)

  Produced by Vic Maile

  SIDE 1: 1. Ace of Spades (3:01) 2. Stay Clean (2:50) 3. Metropolis (3:31) 4. The Hammer (3:05) 5. Iron Horse/Born to Lose (3:58; Dez Brown/Phil Taylor/Guy Lawrence) 6. No Class (2:34)

  SIDE 2: 1. Overkill (5:13) 2. (We Are) The Road Crew (3:31) 3. Capricorn (4:40) 4. Bomber (3:24) 5. Motörhead (4:47; Lemmy Kilmister)

  Iron Fist

  (Bronze BRNA 539; April 17, 1982)

  Produced by Eddie Clarke and Will Reid-Dick

  SIDE 1: 1. Iron Fist (2:55) 2. Heart of Stone (3:04) 3. I’m the Doctor (2:43) 4. Go to Hell (3:10) 5. Loser (3:57) 6. Sex & Outrage (2:10)

  SIDE 2: 1. America (3:38) 2. Shut it Down (2:41) 3. Speedfreak (3:28) 4. (Don’t Let ’em) Grind Ya Down (3:08) 5. (Don’t Need) Religion (2:43) 6. Bang to Rights (2:43)

  Extended Plays

  The Golden Years Live EP

  (Bronze BRO 92; May 8, 1980)

  SIDE 1: 1. Leaving Here (3:02; Lamont Dozier/Brian Holland/Edward Holland) 2. Stone Dead Forever (5:20)

  SIDE 2: 1. Dead Men Tell No Tales (2:54) 2. Too Late, Too Late (3:21)

  Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers

  (Big Beat NS 61; November 22, 1980)

  SIDE 1: 1. Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers (3:27; Billy Gibbons/Dusty Hill/Frank Beard) 2. On Parole (5:57; Larry Wallis)

  SIDE 2: 1. Instro (2:27) 2. I’m Your Witchdoctor (2:58; John Mayall)

  St. Valentines Day Massacre

  Credited to Motor Headgirl School

  (Bronze BRO 116; February 1, 1981)

  SIDE 1: 1. Motörhead/Girlschool: Please Don’t Touch (2:49; Johnny Kidd/Guy Robinson)

  SIDE 2: 1. Girlschool: Bomber (3:30) 2. Motörhead and Denise Dufort: Emergency (3:03; Denise Dufort/Enid Williams/Kelly Johnson/Kim McAuliffe)

  Singles

  Motörhead (3:13; Lemmy Kilmister)/City Kids (3:24; Larry Wallis/Duncan Sanderson) (Chiswick S 13; June 1977)

  Leaving Here (3:20; Lamont Dozier/Brian Holland/Edward Holland)/White Line Fever (2:38) (Stiff BUY 9; November 1978; withdrawn)

  Louie Louie (2:47; Richard Berry)/Tear Ya Down (2:39) (Bronze BRO 60; August 25, 1978)

  Overkill (5:12)/Too Late, Too Late (3:24) (Bronze BRO 67; February 23, 1979)

  No Class (2:39)/Like a Nightmare (4:13) (Bronze BRO 78; June 15, 1979)

  Bomber (3:43)/Over the Top (3:21) (Bronze BRO 85; November 30, 1979)

  Ace of Spades (2:49)/Dirty Love (2:57) (Bronze BRO 106; October 27, 1980)

  Motörhead (3:35; Lemmy Kilmister)/Over the Top (3:04) (Bronze BRO 124; July 11, 1981)

  Iron Fist (2:50)/Remember Me, I’m Gone (2:26) (Bronze BRO 146; April 3, 1982)

  Credits

  Interviews with the Author

  Bello, Frank. December 17, 2015.

  Benante, Charlie. October 23, 2015.

  Brabbs, Mark. May 26, 2015.

  Brock, Dave. 2009.

  Brock, Dave. August 7, 2013.

  Byford, Biff. November 9, 2015.

  Campbell, Phil. May 20, 2000.

  Campbell, Phil. September 2, 2009.

  Caris, Nick. July 10, 2015.

  Chesters, Neville. 2009.

  Clarke, Eddie. January 22, 2002.

  Clarke, Eddie. March 21, 2008.

  Clarke, Eddie. October 8, 2014.

  Clarke, Eddie. October 8, 2015.

  Clarke, Eddie. October 30, 2015.

  Dee, Mikkey. March 2, 2002.

  Dee, Mikkey. August 13, 2008.

  Godwin, Rob. January 4, 2016.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. 1998.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. March 24, 1999.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. June 26, 2000.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. March 2, 2002.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. February 28, 2005.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. September 15, 2006.

  Kilmister, Lemmy. August 13, 2008.

  McAuliffe, Kim. October 2, 2008.

  Pearlman, Sandy. 2009.

  Riddles, Kevin. October 6, 2015.

  Robertson, Brian. March, 2011.

  Smith, Doug. April 28, 2016.

  Snider, Dee. September 21, 1999.

  Snider, Dee. October 16, 2015.

  Taylor, Phil. December 10, 2009.

  Turner, Nik. October 7, 2013.

  Ward, Algy. May 17, 2015.

  Additional Sources

  Classic Rock Revisited. “Rock ’n’ Roll is Supposed to be Fun—In Spite of Sting!” An interview with Lemmy by Jeb Wright. October 2006.

  Classic Rock Revisited. Interview with Lemmy by Jeb Wright. April 2012.

  Classic Rock Revisited. Interview with Eddie Clarke by Jeb Wright. April 2012.

  Classic Rock Revisited. Interview with Eddie Clarke by Jeb Wright. 2014.

  Dunn, Sam. Interview with Lemmy Kilmister. 2010.

  Dunn, Sam. Interview with Phil Taylor. 2010.

  Epstein, Dmitry. Interview with Gerry Bron. November 2004.

  “Forced Exposure. Larry Wallis: The Complete Pink Fairies Story.” Winter 1987.

  Goldmine. “Pure Dumb Luck: An Interview with Lemmy Kilmister by Jeb Wright.” Issue 800. Volume 37, No. 6. May 2011.

  Kerrang! Iron Fist record review by Steve Gett. No. 13. April 8–21, 1982.

  New Musical Express. “Blue Öyster Cult, Motörhead: Hammersmith Odeon, London” by Nick Kent. October 25, 1975.

  Record Mirror. “Must We Fling this Filth at Our Pop Kids” by Ronnie Gurr. June 7, 1980.

  Record Review. “Motörhead: Monsters of Metal Madness” by Jon Sutherland. October 1982.

  RIP. “Lemmy at ’em!” by Chuck Eddy. Volume 11, No. 1. January 1997.

  Sounds. �
��Motörhead: Roundhouse, London” by Geoff Barton. July 26, 1975.

  Sounds. “Success? We’ve got it all tied up . . .” by Robbi Millar. February 21, 1981.

  Steel Mill. “Joe Petagno” by Pete Alander and Kassu Kortelainen. October 2012.

  Trouser Press. Motörhead record review by Ira Robbins. December 1977.

  ZigZag. “Motörhead” by Kris Needs. September 1977.

  About the Author

  At approximately 7,900 (with over 7,000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned 56 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was editor-in-chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost metal publication for 14 years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com, with many record label band bios and liner notes to his credit as well. Additionally, Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked for two years as researcher on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, on the writing and research team for the 11-episode Metal Evolution and on the 10-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic. Additionally, Martin is the writer of the original metal genre chart used in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and throughout the Metal Evolution episodes. Martin currently resides in Toronto and can be reached through martinp@inforamp.net or www.martinpopoff.com.

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