Lester Bangs
Lester Bangs | |
|---|---|
| Lester Bangs during an interview Lester Bangs during an interview | |
| Occupation | Music critic, musician, author |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1969–1982 |
| Subject | 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.[1]
History
Bangs was born in Escondido, California, USA. His mother was a devout Jehovah's Witness; 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, Jann Wenner fired Bangs from Rolling Stone over a negative review of Canned Heat. He moved to Detroit to edit and write for Creem. After leaving Creem, he wrote for The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical Express, and many other publications.
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?"[2]
Bangs idolized the noise music of Lou Reed.[3] Bangs wrote the essay/interview "Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" in 1975.
Bangs was also a musician in his own right. He teamed up with Joey Ramone's brother, 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.
Excerpts from an interview with Lester Bangs appear in the last two episodes of Tony Palmer's All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music.
Death
Bangs died in New York on April 30, 1982, overdosing (through drug interaction) after treating a cold with Darvon and Valium. According to the Jim Derogatis biography, Bangs was listening to The Human League's album Dare at the time of his death.
Selected works
By Lester Bangs
- "The Greatest Album Ever Made", on 1975 Lou Reed album Metal Machine Music[4]
- Stranded (1979) on Astral Weeks, album by Van Morrison, released in 1968.[5]
- 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)
- The first piece for Rolling Stone[6]-A Review of The MC5's debut album Kick Out The Jams.
About Lester Bangs
- 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
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, biography, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Penguin Books, 1997. (ISBN 0-14-026690-9).
References
- ^ Lester Bangs. Random House. Retrieved on November 4, 2007.
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim (1999 November). "A Final Chat with Lester Bangs". Perfect Sound Forever.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Unknown parameter|access=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Charlie Gere, Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body (2005) Berg, p. 110
- ^ Matt Carmichael
- ^ Lester Bangs. "Astral Weeks". personal.cis.strath.ac.uk. Retrieved 2009-02-14.
- ^ MC5: Kick Out The Jams : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone
External links
 | This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. |
- French Audiobook (mp3) : "Iggy Pop, Blowtorch in Bondage" translated in French
- MENTOR. EDITOR. LESTER: A Personal Appreciation by Jeffrey Morgan of Creem.
- A Bangs tribute at Perfect Sound Forever.
- 1980 interview with Bangs posted at rockcritics.com
- Bangs' own section at rockcritics.com.
- Bangs reviews (1979) Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.
- 13th of May 1980 Interview with Lester Bangs Complete MP3 of interview
- Richard Hell remembers Lester Bangs in the Village Voice, August 7, 2003
- Lester Bangs at Find a Grave