Off: 101 adjectives

[Doug Pearson]

On Tue, 16 Mar 1999 15:06:30 +0000, andrew
<andrew at DELUMINATE.FREESERVE.CO.UK> wrote:

>>> Lemmy is a true thinker. Not a lick of book smarts, but a Motorhead
>>> lyric speaks more truth than most.
>>
>>     Dunno about book smarts from _school_, but the man is
>>supposed to read voraciously.  I think it shows in his lyrics.
>>
>>     Though he's certainly not the only rocker we've seen who
>>has hidden depths!
>>
>i'll second that! Another top lost hero of rock'n'roll that any of you with
>garage punk leanings who haven't already encountered his stuff is Billy
>Childish. over 50?

Man, he passed 50 YEARS ago!  I'm too terrified to consider what his
discography must be up to by now ...

>60? 70? lps of stuff solo/ withe thee milkshakes/mighty
>caesars/headcoats/headcoatees/black hands and so on, books of poetry, a
>couple of novels, paintings all done in a very down to earth style. Whilst
>eschewing verbosity, Billy produces some of the most intense word pictures,
>and he just keeps on getting better (esp. on thee headcots stuff). From all
>out fun to the startlingly bleak, he's the Robert Calvert of thee garage
>punk scene.

Yeah!  I think that's a great analogy (except that not even the thoroughly
manic Calvert was as prolific as mr. Childish).  Then again, so's the Lemmy
one (even to the extent that even though Motörhead are pigeonholed as a
"metal" band and Thee Headcoats are pigeonholed as a "garage" band, they're
both simply great ROCK AND ROLL bands - nothing more, nothing less).  One
of the great things about him is that even though he's best known for his
garage-punk bands (yeah, Thee Headcoats have blown me away every time I've
seen them live), he's also a prolific painter, poet and writer.  And he's
done some really bizarre semi-spoken-word recordings consisting of strange
rantings and electronic noises ... not what you'd expect from a guy whose
band sounds like the Kinks circa '64.

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com

(who would much rather be discussing Billy Childish than Rush or Barbara
Streisand!)