The two greatest guitarists of the 1950s, according to Lemmy
Say what you will about Motörhead, but the truth of it is that they would have never gotten anywhere near the level of fame and respect they did without the legendary musical intuition of Lemmy Kilmister.
Although credited with pioneering the modern age of heavy metal, Motörhead also set a new standard for live music, a development that Lemmy himself spearheaded the moment he decided to pick up a bass guitar. As he once explained, everything he learned about the instrument happened on the road during live performances, when his lack of experience enabled him to hone his craft and figure out a groove that worked for him and the band.
This lack of proficiency when it came to bass playing didn’t hold him back in the same way it would have with any other budding rock god. Instead, it allowed him the space to feel his way through the chaos of the raw energy of being on the road, landing on a style that would have people confusing him with the band’s rhythm guitarist, mainly because of how easily he could incorporate groove into his playing, even while dousing sounds in intense distortion.
For this reason, among many others, Lemmy effectively reinvented what it meant to be a hard rock bass player, transforming the role into something far more integral and based on pure instinct, not just the literal act of providing the backbone of any given track. In turn, he became the literal driving force behind their sound, showing countless others how starting from scratch can often pave the way for greatness.
It also likely allowed him to flourish in other parts of his musical expression, too, the same way that Tom Petty’s initial foray into bass playing ended up informing much of his own musical direction. In fact, for Lemmy, these moments weren’t just seminal in setting up the band’s future success; they also provided a consistent framework from which everything else could thrive.
For this reason, Lemmy has always been drawn to people who nurture the same kind of simplicity; the kind you can tell operate on pure feeling, even if it seems like they’re doing the easiest thing in the world. Those players, in Lemmy’s mind, are the ones who really stay with you, and rock ‘n’ roll stars Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly were among them.
Praising both musicians to Music Radar years back, Lemmy explained that he never had the pleasure of seeing Cochran live, but he knew from the off that “he could play”. He went on to say that he and Holly were “the best guitarists” because they could “get a good raunchy beat going,” adding, “Back then, if you could string a solo together for 20 seconds, you had the advantage over everybody else. Link Wray, he was good, too.”
Funnily enough, Holly honed his craft through similar means, self-teaching himself while also learning from his older brother, Travis – growing up, he absorbed the styles of country singers like Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers, blending this with his love for fast-paced rockabilly sounds to create his own rhythm and groove.
For someone like Lemmy, who wasn’t so well-versed in the art of guitar playing in the beginning, a story like Holly’s was eye-opening, as not only did he show the way with following your own gut, he also proved how influential you can become without being the top of your game from the off. In fact, being inexperienced was actually the key to establishing his own unique style.
