Goodbye Lemmy!

Goodbye Lemmy!

By: Erreh Svaia

“Death is an inevitability, isn't it? You become more aware of that when you get to my age. I don't worry about it. I'm ready for it. When I go, I want to go doing what I do best. If I died tomorrow, I couldn't complain. It's been good.”

Lemmy Kilmister

Lemmy Kilmister birthday was on December 24, 70 years ago, he died mere 4 days after, on December 28, yes, next day in the morning I read about Lemmy's death, it was no surprise to me, the iron warrior was known to be really ill for some time, and even some videos on the Internet showed Lemmy latest performance denoting something really wrong with his health, it was a hard blow, as Kilmister was a real hero to me, a man who really gave a fuck about stardom, a man who really gave a fuck about heavy metal, before all, he was a rock n roller, I think of him as someone closer to Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis more than he was to James Hetfield or Ozzy Osborne, in a way, Lemmy was closer to the British punk revolution of the 70s than he was to British waves of heavy metal.

Lemmy loved heavy music, heavy rock, he started as a roadie and as a bass player for another iconoclastic act, Hawkwind, a band that equally embraced rock, psychedelia and krautrock, Hawkwind is one of my favorite bands ever, they weren’t prog, they weren’t metal, they were something else, they were so innovative and uncompromising, they made music beyond genres, and their mythical status was precisely born in the years when Lemmy singed and played with them, showing that Lemmy was way more than just a metal icon, although he will forever be remembered as a thrash and speed metal forbearer, I tend to see him more as someone closer to another of my musical heroes, Mr. Lou Reed, as they both embraced heavy music, and they both loathed commercialism, as musicians, they belonged to the tradition of underground music becoming a big influence on countless legions of musicians without becoming popular or mainstream, everyone knew Lemmy, although not everyone knew Motorhead, few less ones were familiar even with his Hawkwind background.

You just can't imagine that people like Lemmy or Lou Reed would die one day, they always looked larger than life, is like looking at Keith Richards, who made a wonderful record last year, it looks like drugs, alcohol and hard life make them even more powerful, but well, now we know it is not true, we must accept that even those hero will meet their fate any given day, I know is kind of a cliché, but I must say that their music lives on, they found a way to become immortal, and that's the main reason we have to celebrate them.

Lemmy´s music lives on, it is forever, and one day, musically speaking, he will be “Dancing on Our Graves”, my only prerogative will be to see more acts inspired not in heavy metal, not in Motorhead, or what they think Motorheads mean, but based on what Lemmy was about, heavy music, uncompromising attitude and fearless attitude, as Lemmy was the front man of a well-known band (Hawkwind), and he wasn’t afraid to start all over again when he got thrown, a fatal mistake Hawkwind always recognized.

That leaves us with other two larger than life figures that I wish they could make more music before their times comes: Keith Richards and Tony Iommi.