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5th out of 411 books
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Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
Vintage presents the paperback edition of the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs--the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s--edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rack critics, Greil Marcus. Advertising in Rolling Stone and other major publications.
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
September 12th 1988
by Anchor
(first published 1987)
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Jacobmartin
rated it
I picked up this book because I was told over a video Skype call that my moustache at the time looked like that of the author of this book's 'mo, and that my friends is the weirdest God-damn method of being introduced to a great writer. Every young man should discover great authors through the facial hair they are learning to style in their early twenties. It just seems natural.
I learned by reading this book that often, my taste in music was so different to Lester Bangs, having not b...more
I learned by reading this book that often, my taste in music was so different to Lester Bangs, having not b...more
I probably should give this four stars instead of five -- it's as inconsistent as the subjects he writes about, it reads like it was slapped together by Greil Marcus in an afternoon (which it probably was), the feud with Lou Reed that occupies the middle third of the book is not nearly as interesting as the two principals would like to have thought, and for a compendium of his greatest work, it doesn't give an image of the man or even the man's career arc ferfucksake, but by god the best parts o...more
I wanted to like this book more than I did, and I tried, I really tried! And yet, I came away from it thinking I just spent far too much time with a character who used music more for self-aggrandizement than for the love of the music. Which isn't to say that I doubt Bangs' sincerity - his love for the Clash, Richard Hell, and others really shines through. It's just that his insights, such as they were, never struck me as very interesting! Or illuminating! And he so quickly descends to self-pity ...more
This is a book of pieces LB wrote for various Rock publications. It's a series of essays on live shows and albums and his general ruminations about rock music, the authors thereof and how it all fits into the world at large. it's pretty well written given that it's pretty obvious that he was on drugs of various flavors for most of the live shows and much of the writing. He was was a wild and crazy guy as is most of the writing here. Fortunately it is also pretty entertaining, full of keen observ...more
Ever year or so I return to this collection, primarily to re-read the Joycean Strand-walk of a rock record review that is Bangs' exegesis of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. It reminds me that criticism can be worthwhile, and that music is supposed to mean something. Bangs believed Astral Weeks to be a metaphysical Testament. At one point he writes:
What this is about is a whole set of verbal tics—although many are bodily as well—which are there for a reason enough to go a long way toward...more
The collection of pieces by this drug punk was strangely affirming to me. The artists and bands he goes through are a trip through my record collection! From the Stooges to Kraftwerk, Richard Hell to Van Morrison, it was thrilling to find such delinquently brilliant writing on my favorite musicians. Bangs truly understands the guts of rock 'n roll and calls out the wack imposters. Highlights (really, there are no low points) include him re-imagining a violent encounter with his landlord whil...more
I don't know what more to say about Lester Bangs other than that I think some people may revere him for the wrong reasons. He wasn't a great writer because he wrote amphetamine-fueled record reviews in a post beat style with verve and smarts to spare and extolled the oft luminous, sometimes idiotic pleasures of Count Five, the Seeds, VU, the Stooges and all that before the rest of us got up to speed (he-heh, get it?) No. He was a great writer because he realized that great art (which rock and ro...more
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Really seems like he was the best pure writer music criticism has ever known. I’m just old enough to remember a time when every wannabe tried to write like him, but none had both his intolerance for bullshit and (this is related) his humanitarianism. Or his sense of structure: everything in his 10,000 word Fun House review is in its right place, even the Ayler reference. Bangs is one of the few writers to transcend, at least in print, his self-loathing and self-destructiveness. Music crit doesn’...more
I read a lot of film criticism and immensely enjoy it. This is due to my familiarity with the subject matter. Although, I've yet to see literally hundreds of great works, I'm familiar enough with the subject that I can read essays that reference them without batting an eye. Sadly, Lester Bangs references music that I know absolutely nothing about. This is probably due to his focus on American music, since the few essays I did breeze through were on John Lennon and David Bowie, but I was worn do...more
Man, this was good! I had only read a few articles by Laster Bangs when I picked this up at my local. That’s library, not tavern. I am so completely blown away by how Bangs spoke about music. This man was a huge music fan. His writing stinks to high heaven of his love and respect for music, of how much music moved him. Maybe that’s why he’s able to write so well about music, to say so much in the space of a sentence or by his choice of words. Most critics’ writing, music or otherwise, is ...more
On VU: "...just like so many people hated the Velvet Underground for so long, and still do, one prominent ROLLING STONE critic asking me when I asked him whether he'd heard WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT: 'Are they still doing fag stuff' -- no, friend, not to worry -- they're doing MUSIC."
On ASTRAL WEEKS: "What ASTRAL WEEKS deals in are not facts but truths. ASTRAL WEEK, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled i...more
On ASTRAL WEEKS: "What ASTRAL WEEKS deals in are not facts but truths. ASTRAL WEEK, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled i...more
Lester Bangs, like Howard Hampton and Luc Sante, takes reviews of media and injects humor, crass, honesty, and a glimpse into his personality. Bangs is likeable because he's a smart asshole, but there's no shortage of self-deprecation in his writing. I also like his writing style because it often contains the same sentiments as a first album: angsty, energetic, youthful (even when he's being curmudgeonly), and somewhat vulnerable. It helps that he loves the Stooges, Velvet Underground, and music...more
In the end, Lester Bangs was of which he wrote -- a lived-fast, die-young rock star whose instrument of choice just happened to be a typewriter. He fired off countless reviews and analyses and travelogues in speed-rattle bursts, publishing in Creem and the Village Voice and countless other rock and roll tabloids and fanzines and the like. This collection, compiled posthumously by Greil Marcus, includes an incredibly vivid take on the Clash in England, several of his interview/arguments with Lou ...more
I've been reading this in bits and pieces for several months now - because to read it all at once is like eating an entire box of chocolate and chasing it with six espressos, and a lady needs some downtime every so often - so I'm just going to review it now because I don't see it changing that much.
I think the subtitle of this book says it all: literature as rock and roll and rock and roll as literature. That is exactly how I would describe Bangs' writing style: like Iggy Pop and Na...more
I think the subtitle of this book says it all: literature as rock and roll and rock and roll as literature. That is exactly how I would describe Bangs' writing style: like Iggy Pop and Na...more
Daphne
added it
Wonderful. Bangs's voice and attitude come through clearly and eloquently, a perfect mix of colloquial ease and linguistic rigor. Here's a sample phrase, from his discussion of Van Morrison's Madam George: "the seeming absurdity of a man devoting his life to the wobbly artifice of trying to look like a woman."
That's what I'm talking about.
This book is a great introduction to Bangs as well as a highly entertaining look back (through Bangs's highly opinionated eyes) at...more
That's what I'm talking about.
This book is a great introduction to Bangs as well as a highly entertaining look back (through Bangs's highly opinionated eyes) at...more
Great collection from one of my idols. Also, the funniest book about rock-and-roll ever, and a big inspiration for my Greenspeak column. One of my columns, in fact, was a direct homage (theft)--an entire column written as a series of exclamatory statements. (I credited him at the end of the column). Even if you're not a music fan, per se, his writing was godlike: prescient, biting, introspective, angry, hilarious. And most of it was done in his 20s.
Also: This is the character that ...more
Also: This is the character that ...more
Simpelthen best. Det finnes mer kunnskapsrike musikkskribenter, det finnes sobrere skribenter og mer informative skribenter. Men Lester Bangs bryr seg så inderlig, han insisterer på at musikk, livet og whatnot er av så avgjørende betydning at en mottagelig leser vil føle seg nødt til å ta seg selv og musikken man hører på både mer (og mindre) seriøst enn tidligere - et stormangrep mot likegyldigheten. Bangs er i likhet med de aller fleste subjektive journalister en godhjerta moralist på bunnen. ...more
The best music reviews I've ever read.
I recently reread many of these and was struck by the mix of travel narrative / autobiography / aesthetic treatise that Bangs indulges in. At his best, he manages to capture the thinking of a moment or pass off a theory of taste. At his worst, he's better though - rambling, often incoherent, frequently hilarious. I like this passage in particular:
"Well, here's your chance. The Stooge act is wide open. Do your worst, People, fals...more
I recently reread many of these and was struck by the mix of travel narrative / autobiography / aesthetic treatise that Bangs indulges in. At his best, he manages to capture the thinking of a moment or pass off a theory of taste. At his worst, he's better though - rambling, often incoherent, frequently hilarious. I like this passage in particular:
"Well, here's your chance. The Stooge act is wide open. Do your worst, People, fals...more
I know I'm late to the party on this one, but Lester Bangs is amazing. He had a very specific idea of what rock and roll should be (he was really against the barrier between performer and audience, a barrier many acts actively cultivate), and wrote very passionately about it.
He was often also a walking pharmacy (one of the articles mentions in passing looking up some drug in the `Physician's Desk Reference`, which he presumably owned for that very reason), which adds... err... color ...more
He was often also a walking pharmacy (one of the articles mentions in passing looking up some drug in the `Physician's Desk Reference`, which he presumably owned for that very reason), which adds... err... color ...more
Lester Bangs is mentioned (along with many other people with the initials "L.B.") in "It's The End Of The World As We Know It," by R.E.M. He deserves mention. This collection of essays shows that Lester Bangs was an impassioned, articulate writer.
His unenviable calling was that of the critic. Few critics have ever written with such sincerity.
Lester Bangs lived a short life. If I'm not wrong, he didn't live much past the time rock's biggest icons died: Elvis Presle...more
His unenviable calling was that of the critic. Few critics have ever written with such sincerity.
Lester Bangs lived a short life. If I'm not wrong, he didn't live much past the time rock's biggest icons died: Elvis Presle...more
Left alone on a desert island with just one book, I think it would have to be this one. Over the years I've kept coming back to it, dipping in, savouring the short reviews, immersing myself in the longer, more exploratory journalism.
Bangs was a man who completely understood the essence of great, primal rock and roll, and wrote with the same spirit that possessed the great rock and rollers and jazzmen. Pithy, hilarious, drunk, rambling, and always on point about great music. A champi...more
Bangs was a man who completely understood the essence of great, primal rock and roll, and wrote with the same spirit that possessed the great rock and rollers and jazzmen. Pithy, hilarious, drunk, rambling, and always on point about great music. A champi...more
Lester Bangs is the only rock critic whom musicians truly accepted as one of their own. It’s no wonder: He lived like them and he died like them, overdosing on pills at age 33. Most importantly, he wrote as they played. His wildly energetic prose reads unlike any other contemporary writer, much less a music critic: Words seemed to spill straight from his brain onto the page in the wonderful cacophony of an Ornette Coleman sax solo or a Captain Beefheart tune. He was, in some ways, a rock ’n’ rol...more
Some of the articles are absolutely beautiful while others are just great reviews -- I definitely recommend reading a review and then re-listening to the album. If nothing else, just read the review of Astral Weeks which is found in this collection. You'll get to read this: Astral Weeks, insofar as it can be pinned down, is a record about people stunned by life, completely overwhelmed, stalled in their skins, their ages and selves, paralyzed by the enormity of what in one moment of vision they c...more
On the cover it reads 'Rock and Roll as Literature. Literature as Rock and Roll' and that is nothing short of the truth. This man goes so quickly from musings of his adolesant sexual frustrations to how that relates to the raw energy and power of The Stooges... This is a man so disgusting and proud of it that every filthy noise distortion emmited on any Velvet Underground album sends him into histerics. But oh what a writing style. You want to be him, though vaugley you can never see yourself as...more
I love reading about rock 'n' roll, particularly about the music and the musicians that changed the world in the early days of the genre. And nobody writes it better than Lester Bangs. His writing was FUNNY and fun, interesting, intriguing. He revered rock music, understood its cultural importance at a time when not all did and, above all, loved good music and, even more, good characters. Apparently, rock stars are a colorful bunch! Who knew?
Due to the many excellent reviews of Lester Bangs' writing I plodded through this drug induced tome searching for a reason to like it. After reading all 416 pages I still hadn't found one. I know it's not nice to speak ill of the dead but quite frankly I think Lester Bangs is full of shit. By presenting himself to the public as some kind of "outlaw" music critic he has even conned himself into believing there was a deep and profound meaning to the punk scene of the late 1970s. Unabl...more
When so much music criticism these days has been relegated to barely 100-word reviews in aging rags like Rolling Stone and Spin, or, conversely, revels in insular purple prose on blogs like Pitchfork, the writing of Lester Bangs comes off today as the rarest of revelations. I don't think I've ever read any kind of criticism (let alone of the pop music variety) that possesses such a halcyon mix of anecdote and honest insight. Overblown, excessive, brilliant, and more fun than mixing alcohol and m...more
One of my all time favorite books, so my review will be undoubtedly filled with gushing bias and admiration...
Record reviews and cultural criticism in the hands of a burroughs fanatic. I'm not saying doc benway makes any appearances or anything, but... oh wait, he does. The amazing quality of Bangs' writing hinged on his ability to believe one hundred percent in the opinions he strove to prove, question himself in the process (while still believing in himself without question) and ...more
Record reviews and cultural criticism in the hands of a burroughs fanatic. I'm not saying doc benway makes any appearances or anything, but... oh wait, he does. The amazing quality of Bangs' writing hinged on his ability to believe one hundred percent in the opinions he strove to prove, question himself in the process (while still believing in himself without question) and ...more
A sampling of Bang’s work as a rock critic, the bulk of it in the 70s for Creem, this collection is decent, if a little uneven. As a critic, Bangs wasn’t afraid to call a band or an album bullshit, which is an admirable enough trait. And he wasn’t afraid to rave about what he did like, either: this book has fantastic reviews of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music and Van Morison’s Astral Weeks.
Bangs was also a pretty good feature writer too: his pieces on travelling with The Clash, on rac...more
Bangs was also a pretty good feature writer too: his pieces on travelling with The Clash, on rac...more
Loved Lester's Reviews. A world that I was just a tad too young to be part of Lester made Rock writing art. Not always and not all reviews or articles are well written but this collection was full of amazing ones. if you like music and you like writing and you like a bit of humor give Lester a shot. You won't be disappointed.
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Leslie Conway Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. Most famous for his work at CREEM and Rolling Stone magazines, Bangs was and still is regarded as an extremely influential voice in rock criticism.
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“Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain.”
—
4 people liked it
“I suspect almost every day that I’m living for nothing, I get depressed and I feel self-destructive and a lot of the time I don’t like myself. What’s more, the proximity of other humans often fills me with overwhelming anxiety, but I also feel that this precarious sentience is all we’ve got and, simplistic as it may seem, it’s a person’s duty to the potentials of his own soul to make the best of it. We’re all stuck on this often miserable earth where life is essentially tragic, but there are glints of beauty and bedrock joy that come shining through from time to precious time to remind anybody who cares to see that there is something higher and larger than ourselves. And I am not talking about your putrefying gods, I am talking about a sense of wonder about life itself and the feeling that there is some redemptive factor you must at least search for until you drop dead of natural causes.”
—
3 people liked it
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