Lester Bangs

Leslie Conway Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, author and musician. A very influential, if not founding, voice in rock music criticism, Bangs died in New York City, overdosing (through drug interaction) after treating a cold with Darvon and Valium. He was listening to Human League's Dare. His work has become extremely popular in the wake of his death, which has led to the publication of anthologies of his writings and even a portrayal in Cameron Crowe's 2000 film Almost Famous (in which Bangs was depicted by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman).

History

Bangs was born in Escondido, California. 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 was 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 later worked for Creem, The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical Express and many others.

Bangs claimed his influences were not so much predecessors in journalism as they were beat authors, in particular William S. Burroughs. His ranting style, similar to Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism, and his tendency to insult and confront his interviewees earned him distinction; it also got him fired from Rolling Stone by Jann Wenner in 1973 for being "disrespectful to musicians." Bangs loved Lou Reed, producing several essays which depicted hilarious interviews with Reed.

Punk rock

Lester Bangs is often credited with inventing the term "punk" in reference to music:

"Never mind that they came on like a bunch of sixteen-year-old punks on a meth power trip...." ("The MC5: Kick Out The Jams", 1970)
"... then punk bands started cropping up who were writing their own songs but taking the Yardbirds' sound and reducing it to this kind of goony fuzztone clatter". ("Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung", 1971)
"Look at it this way: there are many here among us for whom the life force is best represented by the livid twitching of one tortured nerve, or even a full-scale anxiety attack. I do not subscribe to this point of view 100%, but I understand it, have lived it. Thus the shriek, the caterwaul, the chainsaw gnarlgnashing, the yowl and the whizz that decapitates may be reheard by the adventurous or emotionally damaged as mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation." ("A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise", 1980)

Legacy

Bangs is briefly mentioned in the 1988 R.E.M. hit "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".
Bangs is mentioned again in the Dillinger Four song "Our Science Is Tight".
Bangs is also briefly mentioned in the 1981 Ramones track "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)" from the album Pleasant Dreams.
Science fiction author Bruce Sterling's story Dori Bangs (1989) was inspired by Bangs (along with the underground comic book artist Dori Seda). Sterling speculates on what Bangs might have done had he lived longer.
Bangs is depicted by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous (2000), in which a budding music journalist idolizes him. Bangs acts as a guide and a critic of what Rock and Roll has become by the time of the film.
The Buzzcocks's song Lester Sands (Buzzcocks turn it up) is actually referring to him, dismissing Bangs' criticism as a "drop in the ocean".

Notorious for applying the term "white nigger" (which originated in Norman Mailer's 1957 essay "The White Negro") as a euphemism for a punk, or more specifically a white social miscreant with questionable or objectionable outward idiosyncrasies, and radical beliefs deemed unacceptable by the status quo. (Conversely, the term now has a different connotation, as "white nigger" or wigger is used to describe a white individual infatuated with the hip-hop lifestyle). He often referred to himself as the "last of the white niggers," and a famous photograph of Bangs shows him wearing a t-shirt bearing this title. ^*

Quotes

"...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..."

Lester Bangs 1980 on rebellious nature of rock’n’roll. Taken from a 1980 interview

"What this book demands from a reader is a willingness to accept that the best writer in America could write almost nothing but record reviews."

Greil Marcus (editor of the first Bangs anthology Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung) on the second anthology, Mainlines, Blood Feats and Bad Taste. Taken from the cover of the paperback original.

Selected works

By Lester Bangs

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic, collected writings, Greil Marcus, ed. Anchor Press, 1988. (ISBN 0679720456)
Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, collected writings, John Morthland, ed. Anchor Press, 2003. (ISBN 0375713670)

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 0767905091).

External links

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.
Bangs' own section at rockcritics.com.
Bangs reviews one of his two favorite albums of the 1960s, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.
13th of May 1980 Interview with Lester Bangs & MP3 extract of interview
Richard Hell remembers Lester Bangs in the Village Voice, August 7, 2003

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