December 30, 2015

Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister
Dec 24 - 1945 ~ Dec 28 - 2015


Young Lemmy

I've been a bit surprised to be thinking so much about Lemmy, his life, and his music the last few days. In fact, it's a bit weird to mourn any artist or musician for very long.
Around 1979, the first time I heard Motörhead; like many, I was truly blown away by the speed and fury, such a new and unique sound, not to mention a trio, and that voice. Lemmy attacked the bass guitar like a concert violinist would play a jack hammer...He grabbed life by the balls. He was smart, well-read, had a great sense of humor, liked to party, and got all the dirty fun women. All this really came out in the music.
People either got it or didn't.
Lemmy used to call Motörhead, "Rock N' Roll," which is really most accurate.
To call Motörhead, a "Metal" band always seemed a bit of a misnomer, just part of the picture, really.
Motörhead really had SOUL in the purest (and fastest) Rock N' Roll " Chuck Berry " tradition.
This really can't be said for a lot of "Metal" bands that play in this genre.

Very few artists truly inspire me, but Lemmy was special.
For more than 40 years, Lemmy was Motörhead, a sonic force of beauty. If we could all live our lives the way Lemmy did...We'd all be dead!

December 17, 2015

lovers rock / reggae ~ Jamaica 1975


Play Music - Play Audio - John Holt ~ For The Love Of ...

John Holt 1947 - 2014
This just sounds especially good this morning.
John Holt's beautiful, " Lovers rock " reggae cover of the Isley Brother's soul classic.
I decided to mix and post two different 45 sides of the same tune here by him. Both from 1975.
The vocal side (Impact! label) leads into a "dub/instrumental" version side (Clintones label).