HEADCAT
Walk The Walk… Talk The Talk
2011

By Shane Pinnegar

For those of you unfamiliar with The Headcat, it’s Lemmy’s “side project” with Slim Jim Phantom, drummer from rockabilly legends Stray Cats, and L.A. rocker Danny B, and their debut album of a few years ago is a great collection of old country rockers with a 50’s ish vintage, showing a lovely new side to the Motorhead legend.

Of course, this is Lemmy we’re talking about, so despite Phantom beating away in his traditional style and Danny B twanging with the best of ‘em, this is still going to sound like Lemmy – that distinctive tobacco, Jacks n’ speed voice can only sound like it does!

It’s not strictly rockabilly… it’s not strictly Motorhead… and it’s not strictly a cross between the two. What it is, is a celebration of some of rock n’ roll’s earliest classics, performed in a pretty unique style by three consummate pros who don’t really give a fuck what you think about them or the sounds they’re producing – and you can’t get much more rock n’ roll than that!

This album expands the formula of the first a little – in addition to Chuck Berry ‘Let it Rock’, Eddie Cochran’s ‘Something Else’, Elvis’s ‘Trying To Get To You’ and Larry Williams’ ‘Bad Boy’, we also get The Beatles ‘You Can’t Do That’, two bouncy and bravado-filled self-penned compositions in ‘American Beat’ and ‘The Eagle Flies On Friday’, and even a fiery stomp through Robert Johnson’s legendary ‘Crossroads’.

Above all, this is – like the first Headcat album – bloody good fun. Headbanging purists might scoff and diss it as a folly, but that’s completely missing the point – Lemmy is having fun playing these classic songs from his youth that shaped the music we listen to today and hearing them in this (unlikely) style should be enjoyed, after all – it’s only rock n’ roll… but we like it!