Leslie Conway Bangs était un journaliste musical, auteur et musicien américain. Plus célèbre pour son travail dans les magazines CREEM et Rolling Stone, Bangs était et reste considéré comme une voix extrêmement influente dans la critique rock. Son écriture pénétrait au cœur de la musique et de la culture de son époque.
Before his death aged 33 in 1982, Lester Bangs wrote wired, passionate pieces on Barry White, Iggy Pop, The Clash, John Lennon, Lou 'I always wanted to emulate the most self-destructive bastard I could see, as long as he moved with some sense of style. Thus Lou Reed'. To his journalism, he brought the talent of a great fiction writer. As Greil Marcus writes in his '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'.
This companion to Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung compiles fifty-four of Bang's pieces, including several that are previously unpublished. Lester Bangs was for many the most intelligent and influential critic of rock and roll. Twenty years after his death, interest in him continues, as shown by the recent critically acclaimed biography Let it Blurt, and his work still resonates with breathtaking insight and audacity. This marvellous book, edited by John Morthland, Lester Bangs? friend, literary executor, and fellow rock critic, contains exerpts from an autobiographical work Bangs wrote as a teenager, as well as cultural rants and obsessive rages, and incisive reviews from throughout his career - from Black Sabbath as a Christian band, to Anne Murray as sex object, to Bob Dylan as a fraud, and, of course, the Stones, Lester Bangs's favourite band and bete noir. Endlessly entertaining, this book is a must for anyone with any interest in the history of rock and roll.
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Lester Bangs gilt als eine der legendärsten Figuren der Rockkritik in Amerika. Geboren 1948, starb er 1982 im Alter von 33 Jahren. Aufgewachsen in Kalifornien, zog er 1971 nach Detroit, wo er fünf Jahre lang als Redakteur bei Creem Magazine arbeitete. Dort entwickelte er seinen aufrührerischen, kritischen Stil, der stark von der Sprache und dem Sound des Rock‘n‘Roll geprägt war. 1976 wechselte er nach New York, um als freier Autor zu arbeiten, und gründete die Rockband Lester Bangs & The Delinquents, für die er Texte schrieb und sang. In der Rockwelt war er als exzessiver Trinker und Drogenkonsument bekannt. In seinen Reportagen und Kritiken entdeckte er in 'Wild Thing' von den Troggs ein Manifest für unkontrolliertes Leben. Er bewunderte Richard Hell, analysierte Elvis’ Mythos und beschrieb seine komplexe Beziehung zu Lou Reed. Zudem begleitete er die Clash auf Tour und schrieb über Größen wie John Coltrane, Iggy Pop und John Lennon. Mit seinen subjektiven Urteilen und leidenschaftlichen Analysen war er der Gonzo-Autor des Rockjournalismus und analysierte die Faszination neuer Musik. Bangs’ Texte haben trotz der dreißig Jahre seit ihrem Entstehen nichts von ihrem Schwung und Glanz verloren.
