White Line Fever: The Autobiography Paperback – January 1, 2004

I’d heard good things about this book, and I knew I needed to know more about Lemmy, so I went out and bought it. Good thing I did!! It’s great fun, and like nearly every autobiography I’ve ever read starts with a modern life anecdote before heading into the usual “when I was a lad…” stuff, about growing up, in Lemmy’s case with a single mum, a deadbeat dad (who he at least acknowledges with a picture in the pictures section) and not-much-better jailbird stepdad.It quickly gets into music, which some people would sneer is an alien concept for this noisemaker and hellraiser. For a hardass like Lemmy, people may be surprised that his favorites are Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, the usual stuff that punkers and heavy metallers usually don’t refer to. But then again, you have to remember – Lemmy’s old enough to have seen them when they were starting out, even if his heart is as young as the snottiest upstart metal brat (there’s a great quote in the movie that Rollins relates: “I remember before there was rock and roll. I remember when there was only Rosemary Clooney records. Then we heard Elvis Presley and there was no turning back.”). He talks about the mods and the rockers. “The Mods used to wear eye make-up too, especially the boys. The crowd of people I was in disliked them, but in retrospect, it was no worse than what we were doing. I mean, we thought they were sissies, and they thought we were yobs – and you know, we were both right.” There’s a great story about befriending Jon Lord of Deep Purple, then living with a young Ron Wood and Art Wood. He also hung out with the Beatles (and, as we find out in the documentary, had a child with a girl who lost her virginity to John Lennon).The Beatles revolutionized rock ‘n’ roll, and they also changed the way everyone looked. It seems ludicrous now, but for those days, they had very long hair. I remember thinking, ‘Wow! How can any guy have hair that long?’ Really, it was just combed forward, with a slight fringe over the collar. We all had quiffs then – before the beatles, it had been ducktails and Elvis.He compares the Beatles and the Stones, overturning the impression that the Beatles were mellow and the Stones were dangerous: the Beatles, being from a tough town like Liverpool, knew how to take care of themselves, whereas “the Rolling Stones were the mummy’s boys – they were all college students from the outskirts of London.” There’s also the great story of him working as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix for a year and a half (and in the documentary he talks about helping Hendrix score acid, ten hits at a time – Hendrix was generous and would take seven tabs, and give Lemmy the other three.When he performed, he would drive the chicks nuts. I’ve seen him go in his bedroom with five chicks – and they’d all come out smiling too. And of course, the road crew got the spin-offs. A stud, Hendrix was; and I’m crass enough to think that’s quite a good thing. I don’t know what’s wrong with being a stud – it’s more fun than not being a stud, that’s for sure!In the movie there’s a funny quote from Lemmy: “people ask me what I think of Prince; I say ‘I’ve already seen Jimi Hendrix.’” A funny tale about the other guys in The Experience:I liked the other two guys in the Experience, too. Noel Redding was all right, only he used to wear a nightshirt to bed, and Alladdin-type shoes with the curly toes and a nightcap with a tassel. That was quite a sight. Mitch was nuts, as he still is today, in fact. One time I was standing on a traffic island in the middle of Oxford Street and Mitch bounced up to me, wearing a white fur coat, white trousers, white shirt, shoes and socks – complete vision, you know. ‘Hello, I don’t know who I am!’ he said and ran off again. I don’t think he knew who I was, either!He talks about some of the albums he played on in the early days, throwing out lines like “I must get a copy of it one of these days”, which means that someone will read this and send him a copy. Nice move.For most of the second half of the book, Lemmy is consumed with writing about the recording of albums. “We went into the studio and did an album… then we did the next one… then we did the next one…” He also talks a bit about tours, memorable shows, line-up changes, and management grief. Occasionally he pauses for an anecdote, or a bit of philosophizing. Sometimes he talks about writing a song for someone else (Ozzy, Lita Ford, Girlschool, etc), and how he made more money off of writing songs for Ozzy than he ever did in 15 years with Motörhead. He also describes how he got involved in a few unlikely pairings, such as a supergroup he was in with the Nolan Sisters that there’s a cool little video for.The Nolan Sisters were great fun – we used to run across them quite a bit because they were on the charts at the same time Motörhead was. Everybody thought they were soppy little popster virgins but they weren’t. They’d been around – they’d played with Sinatra at the Sands in Vegas. They were tough chicks, managed by their father, but they were really great. And funny as scoot. Once our manager, Douglas, was talking to Linda Nolan in the Top of the Pops bar, and he dropped some money on the floor. When he bent down to pick it up, Linda smirked and said, ‘While you’re down there…’ That was the last thing he expected out of a Nolan sister! Maybe wishful thinking and he dreamt it up, but it shocked the stuffing out of him.Naturally, being fired from Hawkwind gets the full treatment.Ultimately, the first half of the book is way better than the second half, as autobiographies tend to be.Great book. Anybody who’s ever rocked out to Motörhead songs that they didn’t pay for, do yourself and fork out for this; everybody else should as well.

Why has Motorhead survived as long as they had?Some rumors about a rock band are exactly that -- rumors.Admittedly, Lemmy touched touched quite a few strong chemicals in his time (and some of those chemicals were not necessarily good for him), but there were certain drugs that he would never do and certain delivery systems that he would never trust.(Lemmy never used a needle, and neither should you.)Also, he was a rock-hippy back in the 60s, and back then many people (from high-functioning housewives on "go-pills" to truck-drivers on "cartwheels" to to hardcore hippies on much LSD) did not know how how dangerous those drugs actually were, neither their favorites nor what what drugs others were using.(Except the H-word-drug, which was already there, an evil establishment, since the turn of the century.)Also, there were some drugs that Lemmy has truly hated, and would never use, ever since his late teens or mid-twenties. Lemmy might be a bit tolerant towards cocaine, but he would never associate himself with the H-word-drug or most of its addicts/users or (probably) any of its dealers. Why? He gives his observations in the book, and how he came to believe that the H-word-drug is evil incarnate. (I think he's right about that drug, and I wish to treat that drug's name as a dirty word, because that's an incredibly very filthy drug.)So, we now know why Lemmy did such a good job as a rocker inspite of rumors that Motorhead were a rather drug-drenched group (oh, they had the lion's share, but not as bad as their detractors said): those rumors are gross exaggerations. They learned from trial and error to control their drugs or else the drugs will punish them. (That includes booze; poor Philthy Phil Taylor.) They had no time for junkiedom, and were never junkies. (Admittedly two of them experienced dangerous accidents; "brown speed"?! no such thing.)Lemmy does not endorse the idea of everybody doing what he did, because he BROKE some RECORDS with his druggy self-indulgence. Admittedly he has an unusually strong constitution to have done all that he did and still be alive!Yet, for the many wrong things Lemmy did (so wrong that it's scary! have fun reading his paragraphs about how unusual his blood chemistry has become! he broke a record!) -- there are several things that he actually did that was medically or nutritionally right, other than the two right things I already said (avoiding the needle regardless of the drug it might be delivering, and avoiding the H-word-drug regardless of its delivery system).As for sex, the Motorheads did that because they liked it.  , Lemmy would say. Without fun, there is no reason for sex.Food? Lemmy would never become a vegan or a fruitarian -- or any other extreme sort of vegetarian for that matter. He is right on that, because basic veganism and fruitarianism are both bad turns to take. Such diets can put a person on a blood-sugar roller-coaster-ride, to say nothing of the resulting emotional roller-coaster-ride that arises from misregulated blood sugar; and then there are the questions of where a vegan or fruitarian (fruitarians are typically more fanatical fanatical than other vegans) might get their vitamin B-12 (needed for brain health) or how they might avoid dangerously high levels of the wrong sorts of fat (such as Omega-6, yes, Omega-SIX fatty acids, or anything even slightly rancid, as that vegetable-fat oxidates more quickly than animal-fat).Don't worry, because Lemmy also knows how to at least get enough Vitamin C to avoid scurvy. His mom was a either a nurse or paramedic, you see.Also, in addition to actually **AVOIDING** the worst practices in diet and drugs, Lemmy also has a healthy squeamishness about some things. He has an utter loathing towards the ugly practice of spitting at performers. That squeamish disgust has probably protected Lemmy from various infectious maladies while he was on the road.Am not saying that he had the best of habits, but he does not seem to have the worst of habits, either.Will his habits come back to haunt him? Maybe. Look at the Rolling Stones, because they did a lot of drugs, and it's showing up in their health and their looks. Yet, the fact that he is still alive, and considerably more talented of than some other musicians, is evidence that rumors of him being an raging-out-of-control addict are greatly exaggerated. Yes, he's probably a drug-addict, but he was **NEVER** a junkie.This book tells the story from the viewpoint of a musician who loves his amphetamines and booze, and never allowed his admitted his addictions to deprive him of his dreams.(In fact, the amphetamines probably have helped him through the long gruelling hours on the road as a roadie to other bands, including Jimi Hendrix -- although amphetamines are not known do a person's cardio-vascular health any favors.)Also, Lemmy began his life in a much more innocent era than what the world is like now. Things are worse, and that includes the drugs. In Lemmy's young years, people didn't know how bad it would be; but nowadays everybody seems to know about the drugs' (and delivery systems') many dangers, and yet a lot of people seem to be willing to do those drugs (and delivery systems) anway -- what's with that?So, for a cheerful romp through the world of a rock-hippie who evolved into a rock-metalurgist, and to hear the story from the horse's mouth, and find out that the seemingly dirty fellow is not that dirty after all: this is the right book.

Love anything Motörhead

Skön bok av the man, the myth, Lemmy.

Un Idolo di un'epoca. La sua ironia e sagacia accompagna la lettura descrivendo i momenti più importanti della sua vita partendo dalle origini.Musica, donne, vita da strada e droga, un uomo che ha vissuto ogni giorno al massimo.Il libro è ricchissimo di avventure e aneddoti che mi hanno fatto piegare dal ridere ma soprattutto traspare la dedizione e passione che l'hanno portato alle stelle.Born to Lose, Live to Win.La paura delle "conseguenze" spesso ci frena dall'osare ad arrivare in alto, se non ci si mette in gioco le occasioni non arrivano. Lemmy le ha sapute sfruttare.Piacevole lettura con foto storiche annesse ed introduzione di Lars Ulrich.Consigliatissimo

Lemmy, pas toujours amusant, car il y avait chez lui un côté assez sombre, mais toujours sincère et anecdotique. C'est fou de découvrir qu'il a gagné plus d'argent en écrivant 4 chansons pour Ozzy qu'en se battant depuis le début pour vivre de sa musique... Pour ceux qui parlent anglais, à ce prix là, au format de poche, c'est un nectar ! Et en plus ce bouquin a de la gueule !

You would regret to read bio about the Metal God Lemmy writing about himself. most of the time i laugh out loud, alone and people think am crazy. This books brutal honest and very humorous, enjoy!!I am Lemmy fan, i listen rock n roll !

On t'aime, Lemmy, j'étais sûre que tu étais très cool avant même d'avoir ouvert le bouquin ;) Recueil d'anecdotes croustillantes, de l'enfance au début des années 2000, en passant évidemment par Hawkwind, narrées avec maestria, c'est à dire que pour un peu, on a l'impression d'être accoudé au comptoir avec lui! Généreux, spirituel, drôle, brut de décoffrage, zéro chichi assuré; notre Lemmy... On t'aime, quoi!