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Quite so, quite so

British music journalist Mark Beech tweeted that Lemmy had told him: “I will be killed by death. I might be killed by too much booze, women or music, but it’s not a bad way to die.”

His music was abrasive, but his tastes were cultured: Monty Python and PG Wodehouse were lifelong companions. “I’ve had a whale of a time out of rock’n’roll,” he once said, “and rock’n’roll has had a whale of a time out of me. That’ll do.”

15 thoughts on “Quite so, quite so”

  1. Struck by a large meteorite, or vapourised while standing at ground zero of a 50 megaton warhead, both with no warning. Those would be my first choices.

    Third on the list would have to be a hollow-point 9mm round through the skull.

  2. I’m not sure which of the meteorite or nuclear strike would be the coolest way to get squished. Probably the former since the latter would within minutes become the most popular way to die whereas the former is unlikely to ever happen twice.

  3. Bloke in North Dorset

    My uncle was a very health 80+ year old who felt a bit tired when he was gardening so he went for an afternoon nap, something he did most days. He never woke up.

    Sadly the rest of my close family, including youngest brother when he was 39, all went after a battle with cancer.

    I’m hoping for BiG’s meteorite, one just big enough to affect me only, on the day I get diagnosed with terminal cancer.

  4. Was supposed to go see Motorhead in a few weeks time 🙁

    He’d been looking distinctly ropey these last few years, so it was obvious he was knackered out. Still, no-one can question his dedication to The Cause.

  5. According to my cardiologist, cardiac arrest is a good way to die. It certainly was for me, but then I fell on my bike and the mechanical shock restarted my heart.

    P.S. I can assure you that there is neither heaven nor hell.

  6. A friend of the family was found one morning sat by his garden wall, it was summer and he’d been at a lock in at his local and walked home afterwards. It seems he’d stopped, most probably to watch the sunrise, fallen asleep and not woken up, doesn’t seem a bad way to go on reflection.

  7. Alternatively:

    Let me die a youngman’s death
    not a clean and inbetween
    the sheets holywater death
    not a famous-last-words
    peaceful out of breath death

  8. A pulmonary embolism can do you pretty quickly (much better than anything cardiac), the trouble is you know about it, have often known for weeks that it might happen, and know there’s nothing you can do about it.

    Withering of cancer or heart failure, stewing in one’s own excrement, while stuck full of drips and tubes and CPRd every time you try to get nearer to your deity of choice just doesn’t cut it. Shame most of us will end that way.

    There really aren’t any good natural deaths that I can think of (if you’re awake to experience them). People just don’t tend to do the proverbial slipping away compos mentes with a smile, hand held by the 17th great granddaughther who’s just announced her first is on its way. Misadventure is far cooler, if sometimes just as horrible. Michael Schumacher will probably take decades to die of the accident that killed him. Who would want his life now? Death sucks, but it’s the price of living.

    On that sombre note, a happy new year to all. May you cheat death and serious disease for another 365 days and then some.

  9. My family is full of medical folk, and one thing they say is there’s no such thing as a dying peacefully in hospital, you die with a junior doctor leaping up and down on your chest trying to get you started again.

  10. I saw Motorhead at Portsmouth Guildhall in the early 80s.

    Talk about wall of sound, I couldn’t hear properly for a couple of days after. Lemmy had optics nailed to the speakers and was helping himself to drinks during the show. Handing them out to the crowd.

    A rock n roll legend.

    When I sat one of my A levels (1981) I remember someone had scratched something into the desk I was at:

    Mods are dying
    Punk is dead
    That’s the power
    Of Motorhead.

  11. I’m planning on making my exit by being shot in the back by an outraged husband at the age of 86. 🙂

    (A man can dream, can’t he?)

  12. “I’m planning on making my exit by being shot in the back by an outraged husband at the age of 86.”

    86? too young

    Or when I’m 104
    and banned from the Cavern
    may my mistress
    catching me in bed with her daughter
    and fearing for her son
    cut me up into little pieces
    and throw away every piece but one

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