Lester
Bangs
Leslie
Conway Bangs (December 13, 1948 - April 30, 1982) was a
famous 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.
Lester Bangs' on the rebellious nature of Rock 'n'
Roll:
""...I'm really schizophrenic about that, because on the one hand I
would say, yes there is, there's something inherently, even violent
about it, it's wild and raw and all this. On the other hand, the
fact is that 'Sugar Sugar' is great Rock 'n' Roll, and there's
nothing rebellious about that at all. I mean that's right from the
belly and heart of capitalism…"
Biography
Bangs was born in
Escondido, California, USA. His mother
was a devout Jehovah's Witness and his father died when Bangs was
young. In 1969, Bangs began writing freelance after reading an ad
in Rolling Stone soliciting readers' reviews. His first
piece was a negative review of the MC5
album Kick Out The Jams, which he sent to Rolling Stone with a note
detailing that should the magazine decide not to publish the
review, then they would have to contact Lester and tell him why.
Instead, they published it.
In 1973, Bangs was from Rolling Stone over a negative review of
Canned Heat. Wenner contended that Bangs was "disrespectful
to musicians". He moved to Detroit to edit and write for
Creem, which is where his legendary stature as a rock
critic really began to grow. After leaving Creem, he wrote for
The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical
Express, and many other publications.
Bangs claimed his influences were not so much predecessors in
journalism as they were beat authors. His ranting style, similar to
Hunter S. Thompson gonzo journalism, and his tendency to insult
and confront his interviewees earned him distinction.
As a
Musician
Bangs idolized
the noise music of Lou Reed, but he had a complex journalistic
relationship with Lou the performing artist, writing several
legendary articles for Creem, which depicted hilarious
confrontational interviews, often reflecting aspects of
Bangs own personality against his difficult interview subject.
Bangs was not only involved as a critic of music but as a musician
in his own right. He teamed up with, Mickey Leigh to put together a
New York group named Birdland. In 1980 he traveled
to Austin, Texas and met a punk rock group named The
Delinquents. During his stay in Austin he recorded an
album as Lester Bangs and the Delinquents entitled Jook Savages
on the Brazos.
Notable
Work
*
"The Greatest Album Ever Made", about 1975 Lou Reed album Metal
Machine Music
*
Blondie (Fireside Book, 1980)
*
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary
Critic, collected writings, Greil Marcus, ed. Anchor Press,
1988.
*
Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader,
collected writings, John Morthland, ed. Anchor Press,
2003.
Lester Bangs
contributed several chapters to Rolling Stone's History of Rock and
Roll in one of which he is characteristically scathing about
The Doors, comparing them unfavourably to The Guess
Who. This criticism was used as part of Lester's dialogue in
the film Almost Famous.
Passage
from "A Quick Trip Through My Adolescence",
1968
"I'll probably
never produce a masterpiece, but so what? I feel I have a Sound
aborning, which is my own, and that Sound if erratic is still my
greatest pride, because I would rather write like a dancer shaking
my ass to boogaloo inside my head, and perhaps reach only readers
who like to use books to shake their asses, than to be or write for
the man cloistered in a closet somewhere reading Aeschylus while
this stupefying world careens crazily past his waxy windows toward
its last raving sooty feedback pirouette."
Image Credits:
2. Dir. Salon
3. Guy Darol
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