Autumnal Covers 11

Lemmy has always been one of rock's greatest wild men. Women, whisky and loud, fast rock 'n' roll is what has fuelled him for several decades, and all power to him for that. Sadly, all his excesses are now beginning to show, but he's led more of a life than most of us could ever dream of.

Motörhead once wrote a song in tribute to the Ramones called R.A.M.O.N.E.S in which Lemmy sings "Keep it up, rock n roll / Let the music save your soul". Both Motörhead and the Ramones had parallel careers, though Lemmy's gang have outlasted Da Bruddahs by some 20 years. Interestingly, of all of Motörhead's back catalogue, the Ramones chose to cover the tribute to themselves! Pretentious? Well, I'm not sure you could ever accuse the Ramones of that, but it is a curious choice nonetheless.

Lemmy himself grew up to the sounds the original rock 'n' roll heroes of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry et al. As well as Motörhead, for the last 15 years, he's been recording on and off with Head Cat who also feature members of the Stray Cats. They've made three albums of classic-era rock 'n' roll numbers, including a rather raucous reading of Eddie Cochrane's Something Else. Sounds like Lemmy's having an absolute blast.


Soundtrack:

• R.A.M.O.N.E.S - The Ramones (from '¡Adiós Amigos!' [Japanese edition])
• Something Else - Headcat (from 'Walk The Walk... Talk The Talk')