No one can argue that this is a rock performance.

Nothing like a blast of Sex Pistols to get that holiday season going, here we go with another list and I want to tackle them one at a time because they demand respect. Motorhead’s version of “God save the Queen” comes in at #5

Lemmy is an icon and needs to be painted on any cave wall that talks about the history of rock music.  Some may think that heavy metal sounds cool and want to take it in a direction all their own and many have. Lemmy invented it-I know I am going to get arguments about Deep Purple and I have to admit that Smoke on the Water still sounds good. I also expect Ozzy fans to be all up in my stuff crying about the way he brought Satan and death into metal in a unique and digestible way. O.K …fine…but before we get crazy…the band Boston once claimed to have invented Heavy Metal (check the liner notes of the first Boston record). This is not a dig on any of those bands; although I reserve the right to take some shots in future posts.

With the same logic I used to proclaim that Jerry Lee Lewis made Rock n Roll an actual entity that you could see and hear and experience, I am going to say that Lemmy fleshed out heavy metal and turned it into the beast it became. He is another complicated and conflicted character that could only be a rock star or a guy pushing a shopping cart down the street yelling at himself.  He would have been great at either, I mean… would you get in his way if he was rolling a rusty cart with squeaky wheels right at you?

Anytime someone covers Johnny Rotten and Company, it gets my attention.  Whatever you think about the Sex Pistols…they were a catalyst for complete change in the landscape of music. The icon of heavy metal covering the icon of punk…delicious…makes you want to take a swig of warm beer and spit it at someone…Happy Holidays from the cave!