Lemmy's Bobble Head

The Icon Status Think Tank, And, Review Board

One of the things that irks me is the way people throw the word “icon” around. So and so’s an icon. I has bothered me enough that I started using it a lot. Much to my chagrin, whenever I say something like; “Oh yeah, he/she is an icon“, the sarcasm is generally lost (somehow!!??) and people eat it up like it’s actual conversation.

ICON, Yes? by Jack Pribek, followed with Comments by Others

What is even worse is the phrase; “has reached icon status”. One minute-not icon, next minute-icon. Who decides when somebody has “reached icon status”? Well, I did some research (a lot of research, believe me) and, it turns out the answer is nobody. There is no organization or governing body that determines “icon status”. So, when you see the words, “has officially reached icon status”, it really doesn’t mean anything because, there is nothing official about it.

Until now, that is. [Article retrieved by Pat Darnell HERE]

Yes folks, this whole business of iconship has reached the point that somebody has to do something about it. Therefore, at great personal expense, I have established The Icon Status Think Tank And Review Board. It is now the official duty of the ISTTRB to determine if and when someone has reached icon status. This will undoubtedly prove to be of incalculable benefit to mankind.

The ISTTRB held an emergency meeting in the wee hours of this morning because this query was put forth.

Is this man…

an icon?

The initial reaction of many ISTTRB members was that Lemmy, might actually be too genuine an article to be considered an icon. If Lemmy is an icon then, that puts him in the company of many well-established icons that are on the far lame side of the dial. Lemmy is 61 years old and plays heavy metal. Lemmy, got kicked out of a psychedelic rock band (Hawkwind) for taking too many drugs. Lemmy, wrote “Ace Of Spades”. He does that thing where the microphone is over his head. The term “headbangers” was coined to describe Motorhead fans. Lemmy, has been getting blasted, inciting riots, screwing groupies and touring constantly since the 70’s. Do you really want to put him next to say, Bill Gates or an “icon” like Donald Trump.

But, there has been some mounting evidence. Motorhead won a Grammy. This, by itself, is not enough to garner icon status. There are plenty of Grammy winners that aren’t icons.

But then, this came across the wires.

“We’re very excited to be able to introduce the Locoape brand to the public with an iconic license such as Motorhead. Lemmy is an artist that defines modern hard rock and metal music.” said Locoape CCO, Michael Romano.” Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister is the first in Locoape’s ongoing Icon Figure Series.


I’m sure you now understand the reason for the emergency midnight meeting of the The Icon Status Think Tank And Review Board. Obviously many ISTTRB members were troubled by the fact that this is a transparent marketing ploy on the part of Locoape, using “Icon” as their brand name for action figures. Some viewed it as an attempt to usurp ISTTRB authority.

To Locoape’s credit though, they did choose to use Lemmy. I mean, if they would have went with Beck or Jeff Tweedy…..

Anyway after hours of heated debate, the ISTTRB came to a consensus. The Grammy, high profile, celebrity packed birthday parties; these were things that were already on the table but, the action figure was the thing that tipped the balance.

So, without further ado,

By Official Proclamation of The Icon Status Think Tank And Review Board…

Lemmy is an ICON

Now that the ISTTRB has this first one under it’s belt, they pledge to move ever forward. With a fully operational, high functioning staff of Google and Wiki savvy peons constantly scouring the 24 hour news hole for editorial uses of the word “icon”, rest assured no stone will go unturned.

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Tagged with: hawkwind, ISTTRB, motorhead fans, news hole, The Icon Status Think Tank And Review Board
6 Responses to “Icon, Yes?”
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com says:
March 22, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I guess the term is overused and it really depends in what situations you use it. If you speak about mainstream, icon means something and I guess it implies a certain level of visibility while in hard rock icon may mean something else. In this circle or hard rock, Motorhead and Lemmy are icons. Well, just don’t ask Michael Jackson’s fans about this…

Ovidiu – GuitarFlame.com’s last blog post..Your muscles remember what your brain forgot!

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J says:
March 23, 2008 at 8:56 pm
It’s gotta be a “Bobble-head”


J’s last blog post..From the past; Speed Lives

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Pribek says:
March 23, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Lemmy Dashboard Bobble-head would be way cool.

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Metal Music Bands says:
January 13, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I’m down for a Lemmy bobble-head.
Metal Music Bands´s last blog ..January Gear Giveaway | Such Vengeance CDs & more

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Greek_Way_over_the_top says:
March 23, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Subject: Report of the undersecretary on top of things

Dear Esteemed ISTTRB authority:
The Board asked me to find the roots of the underpinning complexities of the Icon award to Lemming. The first posit is “Who Lemming.” For which the argument for is a false negative:
“Lemming would have made a better dictator than did Sadam Hussein.”

I took it upon myself to try a secondary source literature search to determine if primary research should be pursued in the iconoclasm of Sadam Hussein by the iconoclast Lemming [slash] Motorhead. Besides being a spectacular example of present world situations, this review brings the best out of both antiquities, and modernity of 21st century. In other words these are very up-to-the-minute reviews with roots in Greek Christian Orthodox liturgies.
http://blog.rock-n-roll-action-figures.com/
The closest I came to a working definition of the roots of Lemming iconoclasticism is founded in his rigorous contextual argument for a celebration of the dead…

The propitiation of spirits is closely associated with the festivity for the dead. It is believed that from the very first carnival week the souls of the dead people return to this world. Days especially devoted to them are Saturdays (All Souls Days). On these days people prepare “colliva” (wheat boiled with cinnamon, sesame, nuts, pomegranate, raisins and decorated with sugar) and they offer it to everybody so as souls are absolved from sin. People visit the graves of their beloved people and they place on the grave specially made offerings of bread. The sanctity of these days is also shown by the fact that women abstain from all housework.
It is astonishing that dead people come up into our world and accept the offerings and the honours of the living during the spring festivities, when nature wakes up from its long winter sleep. At the memorial dinners called “makaria” apart from the “colliva”, pasta is also served.
There is an explanation for the obviously clashing concepts of mourning for the dead and the joy of Carnival activities. It is not a mere coincidence the fact that in the same period, at the beginning of spring, when Modern Greeks celebrate the All Souls’ Day, the ancient Greeks celebrated the Flower Festival (Dionysus’ feast). Both have a dual significance; they are feasts of flowers, of wine, of unrestrained enjoyment as well as the days of the dead.
The concept of death which permeates the whole carnival devotional activity, through rituals that take place on the wet soil, emphasizes the existence of many meanings in the symbolic representation of life itself: the wet soil receives the death but it is also the womb and the provider of all forms of life.

[MGSA-L] Paniyiraki -- The Feast of St. George in Arachova, Greece

As speculative as this is, the standard bobble head, or spring loaded capper as advised by “J” will definitely serve the festivities well. Also advanced notice of the All Souls Day parades must be included in the standard billing for Lemming’s arrivals and departures. There could be up to a million seekers in the peanut galleries out to have a peek at the prize. This is a large population of adulation for the Icon, and must be protected and promised secure arrival and exit.

As is often the case your Bohemian leader Mr J Pribek has presented timely discussion via this forum. It is after all Easter Day. Celebration follows a death, which is again from the earliest Lemming notes… a Greek revivalist argument for the Iconoclastic:

Easter is the largest, most glorious and favorite feast of the Greeks. It is related to promises of awakening and of overcoming of the infernal element (of death), of enslavement (including national) and of humiliation. The Greek Easter, the so – called Lambri, is a tribute to outdoor life, a ritual that seems to recreate the Flower festival (or Dionysian Festival) of the ancient Greeks. Ancient Greek memories survive through Easter traditions.
The mythical thinking proves that the ancient Greeks used to believe in the breaking down of the wall of death and in the transition and return of the livings from the world of the dead. These ideas are found in the myth of Hercules’ descent to Hades, Alcestis’ abduction from the underworld, the myth of Demeter and Persephone, Ulysses’ visit to Hades . . .)

There you have it: “…In the 19th century iconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in ‘Kant was the great iconoclast’”(James Martineau; The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company)

Conclusion:
“A multitude was at the feast and there was little water
………………………………………………………
Three lissom girls together vowed to go and tell the dragon
-the boughs are laden with spring flowers
O dragon let the water flow, so revellers may quaff it”
…………………………………………………………….(from ‘Paniyiraki’) [a Michael Jaxson label...]

Reply
Pribek says:
March 23, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Well said, Greek.


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