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Book Review – White Line Fever by Lemmy

Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister Slings His Life Story From the Bar Stool

May 11, 2009 Ryan Werner

A fun, quick read for anyone interested in the music of Hawkwind or Motorhead, White Line Fever is Lemmy Kilmister being as honest and goofy as one would think.

Lemmy hates the longbox packaging of CDs from the early 90s. He brings it up three times over the course of his 2002 autobiography White Line Fever (Citadel, 0806525908), and while he’s not as scatterbrained and God-sized as David Lee Roth (Crazy From the Heat) or as into faux-debauchery as Motley Crue (The Dirt), it’s these repeated complaints that remind the reader why Lemmy made it in the first place: he’s just a nerd.

Oldies but Goodies

The fact that drugs will never kill him helps, but the nerd thing just seals it. His ramblings about the Liverpool scene in the 50s and 60s are a carbon copy of any record store dude’s experience of living through Seattle in the early 90s, the Sunset Strip in the late 80s, or Washington DC in the early 80s.

However, unlike the parade of delusion the numerous former grunge or metal or hardcore scenesters march in, Lemmy isn’t stuck in that era. He shows an obvious affinity for his roots, but he stays the same throughout his entire life. While a static personality might not be the best attribute in a person, Lemmy comes off as charming, a true rock and roll soul in a world full of irony and posing.

A Great Read, but Only for the Initiated

Picking this up as a fan of Hawkwind or Motorhead – or rock biographies in general – is a fantastic idea. The tone is laid back, the text is huge, and the details are there. That said, there may not have much appeal to those who don’t follow Lemmy and his projects (as opposed to a book like Motley Crue’s autobiography The Dirt, which is dumb and ridiculous enough to warrant a read by anyone).

Sure, there are lots of pills, lots of girls, and lots of pranks, but nothing is so over the top that a person will read it and immediately recommend it to her buddy who enjoyably listens to Top 40 radio and has no interest in music. This is certainly geek-food.

For the initiated, this story is stripped down and forward moving, occasionally senseless and always honest. The tone is pub-talk, as if Lemmy’s buying the reader shots and letting loose a gem of a story.

Lemmy leads a life filled with women, songs, and stories, and he treats them all the same. If there is one thing we learn about Lemmy from his book, it’s that he like it fast and loose. And, of course, that he hates the longbox.

Buy White Line Fever on Amazon.com

The copyright of the article Book Review – White Line Fever by Lemmy in Biographies/Memoirs is owned by Ryan Werner. Permission to republish Book Review – White Line Fever by Lemmy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

White Line Fever, Lemmy