Phil Taylor died on November 11, 2015, aged 61. Known as “Philthy Animal,” the Motörhead drummer played alongside bassist and singer Lemmy Kilmister and guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke on Overkill, Bomber and Ace of Spades. The double bass drums that open “Overkill” offer a direct introduction to his part in that trio: the song grew from a pattern he played at rehearsal.
Taylor was born on September 21, 1954, and joined Motörhead in 1975. His connection with Clarke helped shape the group before they made those records. In an interview published in 2015 by journalist John Robinson, Clarke remembered meeting Taylor while working on a barge on the Thames. Taylor later told him he had joined Motörhead and raised the possibility of Clarke coming in on guitar. Clarke followed up with Lemmy and arranged an audition. He also remembered how he learned he’d got the job: Lemmy turned up at his door early one morning carrying a bullet belt and a leather jacket, handed them over and told him he was in. By 1976, the three musicians were working together.
At a rehearsal in London, Taylor began experimenting with the two bass drums on a new kit. Clarke told Mick Wall in Classic Rock that Lemmy started playing along and he joined them on guitar. Within about ten minutes, they had “Overkill.” Taylor had supplied the starting point, with the bass and guitar building around him. The finished track gave the band’s 1979 album its name, putting that drum pattern at the front of the record.
Taylor also had a clear idea of how to keep the arrangements moving. In a 1983 interview with Artist magazine, later reproduced by Blabbermouth, he explained: “When Eddie was with the band, I played more with the guitar than I did with Lemmy.” With Lemmy playing almost continuously, Taylor said, the drummer and guitarist had to provide the changes in intensity and keep the rhythm and melody together. That division of work put Taylor in close conversation with the guitar. The drummer’s job included deciding where the music should pull back, where it should push forward and how to make those changes hold together.
That partnership carried through Bomber, also released in 1979, and Ace of Spades in 1980. The latter reached No. 4 on the UK album chart. In 1981, the live album No Sleep ’til Hammersmith took the trio to No. 1, entering at the top of the chart. Those records preserve Taylor in both settings: making the studio arrangements with Lemmy and Clarke, then playing the material in front of an audience.
Taylor left Motörhead in 1984 and returned in 1987. His second spell included Rock 'n' Roll and 1916, before he departed again in 1992 during the recording of March ör Die. His recorded work with the band extended well beyond the three-piece lineup that made “Overkill.”
That song also reached a drummer who would carry its lesson into another band. Metallica’s Lars Ulrich told Classic Rock that hearing “Overkill” in a record shop in 1979 introduced him to Taylor’s double bass drum approach and made him want to play that way himself.
