Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
5th out of 699 books
—
479 voters
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)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
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 just th...more
So forged my way through the Stooges/Iggy hard on that comprised the opening quarter of the book. Boy am I glad I did. Bangs leaves no question as to what acts he is passionate about and while I don't always share his opinions I found the dichotomy of his prose (equal parts acerbic wit and dazed ramblings) thoroughly enjoyable. Bangs is no mere Music Critic. He opens the floodgates through his articles and shines a light on culture by not only focusing the lens on the artists but on himself as...more
I read some of this back in the day; this time I skipped around and skipped over some of the padding. Bangs tended to go off on wild contraband-influenced tangents of gonzo blahblah. At first I thought, "Geez, this is sure dated." But more reading lessened that impression. Probably the two most important essays are the long road-trip profile on The Clash and "The White Noise Supremacists," an impassioned, take-no-prisoners exposé on punk nihilism/racism. Bangs is important not because he's an im...more
Rock music is basically an adolescent medium; a person will never feel as strongly about any bit of culture for the rest of their life as they felt about the bands they loved when they were 17 years old. This must be true of rock writing, too, I guess -- or at least Lester Bangs' rock writing. I loved it when I was 17 more than that of any other writer, period, and it's impossible for me to go back and make a clear-eyed aesthetic assessment of it as a 32-year-old adult.
Bangs isn't for everyone....more
Bangs isn't for everyone....more
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 been exposed...more
I learned by reading this book that often, my taste in music was so different to Lester Bangs, having not been exposed...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
This was a formative character for me as a kid, reading a lot of the Creem writings and also owning the single that the title of the book is taken from. His writing was inspiring and honest to a young cat like myself as I foraged for love in the 70's among the roller rink, music shows at the Swing auditorium and eventually the streets of Hollywood. Lester had a way of sounding different than other "critics" at the time and he eviscerated the AOR arena rock world with a language that I understood...more
Lester Bangs was a legendary rock 'n' roll critic during the 1970's, one who combined a keen analytical mind with the "gonzo journalism" of writers like Hunter S. Thompson. This anthology collects some of his best known work originally published in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Creem. Where most music reviews are short and to the point, Bangs was the master of the long form review, often digressing into his own topics but remaining fresh and funny throughout. Some of his best work is just...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
I never read Lester Bangs while he was alive (or maybe I just don't remember) but I'm happy Greil Marcus took the time and trouble to edit this collection. Compared with contemporary music reviews, Bangs emerges as a standard. His views on the role of music in culture, tinged with a generous helping of sarcasm, are just as relevant today as they were 35 years ago. His 'eulogy' of Peter Laughner is particularly moving and I've had my children read his take on racism in punk rock music called 'The...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 defining hi...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 while fr...more
there was no real tradition of critical writing about rock music when bangs started work. consequently his subjects do not admit of subtle distinctions of taste possible for older, more stable art forms. what the book does do, however, is capture a feeling of urgency and passion. bangs brings the full range of human emotional response to his writing on music. he can be funny, frivolous and sarcastic, but also earnest, serious minded, meditative. his collected writings are a full portrait of a hu...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
3 likes · like · see review
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 dow...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 in their skins, their ages...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 in their skins, their ages...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 Nabakov had a b...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 Nabakov had a b...more
May 30, 2011
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 certain music from the sixt...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 certain music from the sixt...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 Philip Seymour...more
Also: This is the character that Philip Seymour...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.
The 1970′s are a graveyard where the previous 10 years of rock and roll’s youth went to die. I like graveyards: they’re creepy as hell, serving as momentarily honest reminders of our aesthetics while hiding every single one of our true thoughts about death. So before you beat me to death with an original pressing of London Calling for dissing so many great acts, let me deflect your attention. I think it is false to identify the 70′s as a separate area. From 1963 to 1980, i.e., from the beginning...more
This collection was at times a delightful read, and at other times, a tedious one. Unfortunately the former was more often true in my opinion. Some essays felt excessively long-winded to me. I grew tired of multi page tangents which did not better my understanding of a particular body of musical work, or even of why Bangs enjoyed or did not enjoy a particular release or artist. As another reviewer commented, this is more "Lester on Lester" than Lester on music.
I imagine this particular writing...more
I imagine this particular writing...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, falsify Iggy and the Stooges, get...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, falsify Iggy and the Stooges, get...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 to his stori...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 to his stori...more
Jan 24, 2008
Frederick
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Rock fans, Punk fans, fans of The Velvet Underground.
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 Presley (1977) and John Lennon (1980.)...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 Presley (1977) and John Lennon (1980.)...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 champion of the mu...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 champion of the mu...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lester Bangs | 1 | 27 | Jul 22, 2008 07:50pm |
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.
More about Lester Bangs...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“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.”
—
14 people liked it
“Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain.”
—
8 people liked it
More quotes…
Jul 24, 2012 10:29am