Lemmy …A Documentary

This is about Lemmy Kilmister the founder of Motorhead. The documentary is called Lemmy: 49% motherfucker. 51% son of a bitch. His name was Ian Fraser Kilmister…better known as Lemmy.

I’m not a huge fan of Motorhead but I do like a few of their songs. Lemmy though is another matter. He is a great subject for a documentary. This was made in 2010 and it’s hard not to like the guy. He was who he was and he wasn’t changing for anyone. He reminds me a little of Keith Richards…but a rougher version.

Lemmy saw The Beatles in the Cavern and is a huge fan which surprised me. He was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and he played with Hawkwind and later formed his band…Motorhead. They took punk and heavy metal and cross-pollinated the two forms in some ways.

This documentary was released in 2010. Some of the people in this documentary per Wiki are Slash, Duff McKagan, Ozzy Osbourne, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo, Kirk Hammett, Nikki Sixx, David Ellefson, Scott Ian, Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Peter Hook, and Marky Ramone, as well as Nik Turner and Dave Brock of Lemmy’s former band Hawkwind. The filmmakers were also able to capture many candid moments with colleagues such as Dave Grohl and Billy Bob Thornton conversing with Lemmy in bars and recording studios.

Lemmy passed away on December 28, 2015. Even if you are not a fan…you probably will enjoy this.

This is the complete documentary.

Advertisement

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

45 thoughts on “Lemmy …A Documentary”

  3. he was a real ‘character’, that’s for sure, and a pretty unique voice. I know from Dave Grohl’s book he was a big fan of both Motorhead and the dude himself. Cool stuff!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Thanx a lot for sharing the documentary. Lemmy is a magnificent subject for a film ’cause he strongly banged the metal music machine. He’s a kind of god for some, and, did you know he’s got a steel statue in the entrance of the Hellfest festival in France (and inside an urn containing part of his ashes !) ? No french subtitles but I’ll try to take a look at that film on youtube.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. Thanks for sharing, Max. My first reaction was exactly what you wrote – shocker we would ever have the same thoughts! 🙂 I never got into Motörhead. I always found “Ace of Spades” was a little over the top. And, yet, based on your post, I’m curious to watch the documentary. I just don’t know when, but that’s clearly my problem! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. I just need to watch it. Who knows, it may even change my perspective on Motörhead. The reality is I’ve only listened to a handful of their tunes. Plus, I once didn’t think much of Zep who are now among my favorite bands!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. His opinion about the Beatles and Rolling Stones may surprise you…it’s in the first 10 minutes or so…he goes and gets a Beatles box set…I totally agree with what he says.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I’m happy to report I’ve watched most of it. I’m not sure it has changed my mind about Motörhead, though the film is really more about him. Hawkwind, on the other hand, is a different story. I like some of the group’s music I’ve heard and did not remember Lemmy was a member during the first half of the ’70s.

    Yes, I did like what Lemmy had to say about The Beatles and the Stones. And Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis, for that matter. He definitely had an appreciation for their music.

    I have to admit that as a German I have a hard time to understand Lemmy’s apparent fascination with Nazi memorabilia. That said, I believe him when he noted he wasn’t a Nazi. Still, it rubs me the wrong way when somebody seems to glorify symbols that stood for some of most horrible crimes against humanity.

    I like that Lemmy seemed to be a pretty regular guy. While he had what you could call a signature look and kind of a rock badass image, he didn’t seem to be a flashy guy. Instead, he lived in a rent-controlled apartment in LA – not how you picture your typical rock star.

    I also appreciate that while Lemmy was open about about his drug habits, he made it a point he did not want to advertise his life style, a life style he acknowledged killed many of his friends. Ultimately, it probably contributed to his early death as well.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yea Hawkwind…alot of that I really liked.
      The Nazi stuff…yea that was odd to say the least but like you…no I don’t believe he condoned it but yea…it’s still weird.

      What he said about the Beatles being from a tough Liverpool town and the Stones being from the London Suburbs is pretty much true. He saw it and lived it in a way that I could appreciate.

      The best thing I can say…he was an honest open guy.
      Speaking of Germany…Maria left last night and is at home now.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Lemmy definitely was an interesting guy, no question! And obviously widely admired in rock circles.

        Glad to hear Maria had a good trip back. Hope your son isn’t too sad.

        Long distance relationships aren’t easy. My wife (then still my girlfriend) and I essentially went through that for a year. Back then, we didn’t have Skype or WhatsApp, so it was arguably even more difficult!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. He is sad but they spent every minute together so I think they both needed this time a little bit lol.
        Yea it had to be harder back then to keep up a long distance relationship and more expensive because of phone bills.
        So far so good…but she enjoyed America and it wasn’t like she expected on the news. She said the news over there shows the worse of America.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I’m not surprised about the news drawing a more negative image. I’m afraid a certain former president bears a good deal of responsibility. Add to that the fact that bad/sensational headlines tend to draw more eyeballs than good news and I think you can largely explain the situation.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Yea…extremism has taken root on both sides now…I’m not liberal nor conservative… but like you said…common sense doesn’t sell!

        Liked by 1 person

      5. While I’m more liberal-leaning, I find the polarization very tiresome. As you rightly implied, what happened to common sense and willingness to seek compromise?

        Unfortunately, in addition to certain voices – and, yes, on both sides of the political spectrum – the pandemic has only added to the misery.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. Yes it blew it up.
        If one side came up with a cure for cancer…the other side would find something wrong with it. It gets very old. I don’t like the greed of the extreme conservatives and I don’t like the extreme political correctness of the liberals.
        I’m hoping both settle down.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Yea and he talked about how The Beatles and The Stones had the wrong images…they should have been reversed.
        The man was really accessible to his fans and everyone.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. I have one Motorhead in my vinyl collection and that was a gift from a fellow blogger from England and thats the mighty Ace of Spades record. Love that one as its noisy and thrashy and heavy. No screwing about Max lol
    This was a good watch and his book White Line Fever as well was a good read

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: