Lester Bangs

history

, | birthplace = Escondido, California,
United States | deathdate = | deathplace = New York City, New York,
United States | occupation = Music critic, musician, author | nationality = American | period = 1969–1982 | genre = | subject = Rock music, jazz | movement = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = }}

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,»Lester Bangs. Random House. Retrieved on November 4, 2007. and has been called one of the "most influential" voices in rock criticism. [http://books.google.com/books?id=8HAYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&dq=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&lr=&cd=23 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 0820474908, 9780820474908 p. 176.

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.

He 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". [http://books.google.com/books?id=vmMaOwelZKAC&pg=PA234&dq=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&lr=&cd=38#v=onepage&q=%22Lester%20Bangs%22%20dead%20OR%20died%20OR%20death&f=false A bad woman feeling good: blues and the women who sing them] By Buzzy Jackson. WWNorton p. 234. In 1973, Jann Wenner fired Bangs from Rolling Stone, a negative review of Canned Heat being the final event. [http://books.google.com/books?id=M1t_5_loZysC&pg=PA317&dq=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&cd=8#v=onepage&q=canned%20heat&f=false Let it blurt: the life and times of Lester Bangs, America's greatest rock critic] By Jim DeRogatis p. 95. 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.

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Bangs idolized the noise music of Lou Reed.Charlie Gere, Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body (2005) Berg, p. 110 Bangs wrote the essay/interview "Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" about Reed in 1975. [http://books.google.com/books?id=mOrIdzNZJEwC&pg=PA188&dq=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&lr=&cd=20#v=onepage&q=%22Lester%20Bangs%22%20dead%20OR%20died%20OR%20death&f=false Milk it!: collected musings on the alternative music explosion of the 90s] By Jim DeRogatis P. 188

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 .

He was portrayed in the movie Almost Famous by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Death

Bangs died in New York on April 30, 1982, of an overdose of Darvon and Valium and Nyquil. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HFKSxVpoPbMC&pg=PA56&dq=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&lr=&cd=32#v=onepage&q=%22Lester%20Bangs%22%20dead%20OR%20died%20OR%20death&f=false The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists] By Amy Wallace, Handsome Dick Manitoba. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 56. He is reported to have been listening to The Human League's album Dare at the time of his death. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HFKSxVpoPbMC&pg=PA56&dq=%22Lester+Bangs%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&lr=&cd=32#v=onepage&q=%22Lester%20Bangs%22%20dead%20OR%20died%20OR%20death&f=false The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists] By Amy Wallace, Handsome Dick Manitoba. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 56.

Selected works

By Lester Bangs
  • "The Greatest Album Ever Made", on 1975 Lou Reed album Metal Machine Music»Matt Carmichael
  • Stranded (1979) on Astral Weeks, album by Van Morrison, released in 1968.
  • 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»MC5: Kick Out The Jams : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone-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

External links

|PLACE OF BIRTH= Escondido, California, United States |DATE OF DEATH= |PLACE OF DEATH= New York City, New York, United States }}

home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lester_Bangs ". | compliance | March 17th 2010