Lester Bangs
| Lester Bangs | |
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| Born | Leslie Conway Bangs December 13, 1948 Escondido, California United States |
| Died | April 30, 1982 (aged 33) New York City United States |
| Occupation | Music critic, musician, author |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1969–1982 |
| Subjects | Rock music, jazz |
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 13, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, author, and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was known for his leading influence in rock music criticism.[1][2]
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Early life [edit]
Bangs was born in Escondido, California, the son of Norma Belle (née Clifton) and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver.[3] Both of his parents were from Texas. His father was from Enloe, Texas, and his mother was from Pecos County.[4] Norma Belle was a devout Jehovah's Witness. Conway died in a fire when his son was young.
Career [edit]
In 1969 Bangs became a freelance writer 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 requesting that if the magazine were to pass on publishing the review, that he receive a reason for their decision; however, no reply was forthcoming as the magazine did indeed publish the review.
Bangs wrote about Janis Joplin's death by drug overdose, "It's not just that this kind of early death has become a fact of life that has become disturbing, but that it's been accepted as a given so quickly."[5] In 1973, Jann Wenner fired Bangs from Rolling Stone, a negative review of Canned Heat being the final event.[6] He moved to Detroit to edit and wrote for Creem. After leaving Creem, he wrote for The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical Express, and many other publications.
Bangs was enamored with the noise music of Lou Reed.[7] Bangs wrote the essay/interview "Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" about Reed in 1975.[8]
At one point he climbed onto the stage while the J. Geils Band were playing in concert, and typed a supposed review of the event, in full view of the audience.[9]
Style [edit]
Bangs adopted a radical and critical style of working, apparent in this quote:
Well basically I just started out to lead [an interview] with the most insulting question I could think of. Because it seemed to me that the whole thing of interviewing as far as rock stars and that was just such a suck-up. It was groveling obeisance to people who weren't that special, really. It's just a guy, just another person, so what?[10]
Music [edit]
Bangs was also a musician in his own right. In 1976, he and Peter Laughner recorded an acoustic improvisation in the Creem office. In 1979, he released, as a solo artist, a 7" vinyl single named "Let It Blurt/Live", mixed by John Cale. The following year, 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.
In 1981, he teamed up with Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh, to put together a New York City group named "Birdland". Their only album, mixed by Ed Stasium, was released in 1986.
In 1990 The Mekons released the EP F.U.N. 90 with Bangs on vocals in the song "One Horse Town".
Trivia [edit]
Excerpts from an interview with Lester Bangs appeared in the last two episodes of Tony Palmer's seventeen-episode television documentary entitled All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music.
He was portrayed in the 2000 movie Almost Famous by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The rock band R.E.M. mentions Bangs in their song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".
The indie pop band Tullycraft mentions Bangs in their song "If You Take Away the Make-Up (Then the Vampires They Will Die)"
Death [edit]
Bangs died in New York City on April 30, 1982, of an accidental overdose of Darvon, Valium, and Nyquil.[11]
Selected works [edit]
By Lester Bangs [edit]
- "Where Were You When Elvis Died?" Elvis Presley obituary. The Village Voice, August 29, 1977
- "The Greatest Album Ever Made", on 1975 Lou Reed album Metal Machine Music[12]
- Stranded (1979) on Astral Weeks, album by Van Morrison, released in 1968.[13]
- Blondie (Fireside Book, 1980)
- Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic, collected writings, Greil Marcus, ed. Anchor Press, 1988. (ISBN 0-679-72045-6)
- Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, collected writings, John Morthland, ed. Anchor Press, 2003. (ISBN 0-375-71367-0)
- Review of The MC5's debut album, Kick Out The Jams[14] – his first piece for Rolling Stone
About Lester Bangs [edit]
- Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic, biography, Jim Derogatis. Broadway Books, 2000. (ISBN 0-7679-0509-1).
Works citing Lester Bangs [edit]
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, biography, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Penguin Books, 1997. (ISBN 0-14-026690-9).
- Bangs is mentioned in the R.E.M. song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", along with Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, and Leonard Bernstein, all of whom share the initials 'LB'.
- Bangs is mentioned ("Hangin' out with Lester Bangs you all") in the Ramones song "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)" on the album Pleasant Dreams.
- Bangs is mentioned ("They kept alive the great casino sound, for Leslie Conway Bangs") in the Tullycraft song "If You Take Away the Make-Up (Then the Vampires They Will Die)" on the album Every Scene Needs A Center.
References [edit]
- ^ Lester Bangs. Random House. Retrieved on November 4, 2007.
- ^ Rock criticism from the beginning: amusers, bruisers, and cool-headed cruisers Ulf Lindberg, Gestur Guomundsson, Morten Michelsen, Hans Weisethaunet. Ed. Ulf Lindberg. Publisher Peter Lang, 2005. ISBN 0-8204-7490-8, ISBN 978-0-8204-7490-8 p. 176.
- ^ Derogatis, Jim. Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic. New York: Broadway Books. pp. 3–4. ISBN 0767905091.
- ^ "My Highschool Days With Lester Bangs". San Diego Reader. July 13, 2000. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
- ^ Jackson, Buzzy, A bad woman feeling good: blues and the women who sing them (WWNorton): 234 Unknown parameter
|http://books.google.com/books?id=ignored (help) - ^ DeRogatis, Jim. Let it blurt, p. 95 at Google Books
- ^ Gere, Charlie. Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body (2005) Berg, p. 110
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim. Milk it!: collected musings on the alternative music explosion of the 90s, p. 188 at Google Books
- ^ Maconie, Stuart (2004). Cider With Roadies (1st ed.). London: Random House. p. 227. ISBN 0-09-189115-9.
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim (1999 November). "A Final Chat with Lester Bangs". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
- ^ The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists By Amy Wallace, Handsome Dick Manitoba. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 56.
- ^ Matt Carmichael
- ^ Lester Bangs. "Astral Weeks". personal.cis.strath.ac.uk. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
- ^ MC5: Kick Out The Jams, Rolling Stone
External links [edit]
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lester Bangs |
- MENTOR. EDITOR. LESTER: A Personal Appreciation by Jeffrey Morgan of Creem.
- 1980 interview with Bangs posted at rockcritics.com
- Bangs reviews (1979) Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.
- May 13, 1980 Interview with Lester Bangs by Sue Mathews of ABC Radio (Australia) Complete transcript plus MP3 stream of the interview.
- Richard Hell remembers Lester Bangs in the Village Voice, August 7, 2003
- Lester Bangs at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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