Lemmy Kilmister on punk and why he “never had time for The Clash”
Lemmy Kilmister, the later charismatic leader of Motörhead, would introduce his band to swathes of long-haired headbangers: “We are Motörhead, and we play rock and roll” at the beginning of their shows. This rather obvious statement presumably intended to dodge any damaging sub-genre categorisation.
After becoming world-renowned in the late 1970s, Motörhead appeared to find a fanbase on a spectrum between the punk and heavy metal camps; they had a toe in each bathtub, and it was a position in which they were comfortable. Lemmy and the band were happy to be regarded as punk or heavy metal, just so long as they were far from the festering pile of prog-rock groups pervading the scene in the 1970s.
In a conversation with Spin magazine in 2009, Lemmy discussed his taste in punk rock, using The Clash and Ramones to describe how not all punk is equal in his eyes.
“Like the punks, we just swept all that tedious ’70s Rick Wakeman, artsy-fartsy, yellow bell-bottoms, caftans-and-sandals shit aside,” Lemmy began, describing his ties with the punk scene. “If you hadn’t seen what we looked like, you would have thought we were a punk band. I remember going down to the [London club] Roxy one night just to see what the punk thing was all about. I was standing at the bar, and this bush behind me said, ‘I used to sell acid at [Hawkwind’s] all-night shows in King’s Cross.’ And I turned around, and it was Johnny Rotten.”
Later in the conversation, Lemmy outlined why he felt Ramones were the pinnacle of punk and The Clash quite the opposite. “I never liked The Clash,” he asserted. “They sounded like old music, dressed up as punk. The Ramones were geniuses, though. Joey especially had a nose for rock ’n’ roll, and we were friends, although we weren’t close when he died. I hate to see people on the way out; I prefer to remember him as he was.”
Speaking to Louder Than War back in 2011, Lemmy elaborated on this perceived chasm between The Clash and Ramones. “I never had time for the Clash and their pretend politics, but the Damned and the Ramones were great rock ‘n’ roll bands,” he affirmed.
Motörhead’s style is undoubtedly more akin to Ramones than it is to that of The Clash. But it seems that a personal bias could be at play in Lemmy’s deep devotion to Ramones. In a 2007 interview with Stay Thirsty Media, Lemmy remembered his friendship with the New York punk pioneers. “I met them back in 1977 when they came to England, actually I think it was 1976,” Lemmy recounted. “I just fell in well with Joey and Dee Dee, you know. Johnny wasn’t so friendly, but then he never was. The other two I got on really well with. And, terrible they’re all gone. I couldn’t believe it.”
“I mean, Johnny and Dee went within seven months of each other?” he continued, reflecting on the tragic deaths of the Ramones. “Ridiculous. Bang, bang, bang, they’re all gone. I think they kind of died when Dee Dee left, you know, in a way. I think that crippled Joey because he had no buddies in the band then.”
In 1991, Motörhead released the song ‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S’ as a tribute to his beloved peers. Joey Ramone commented on the song at the time: “It was the ultimate honour – like John Lennon writing a song for you.” Hear the track below.
