Lester bangs biography

•

Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic

March 24,

I imagine Lester Bangs would have hated Men At Work. Though their debut album, “Business As Usual,” was released in their native Australia in November , it wasn’t released in America until June , less than two months after Lester died. (No, I didn’t know him, but, yes, I’m going to call him “Lester” and not “Bangs” in this review.) Men At Work was my favorite band in , maybe all the way through late when Bryan Adams’s “Reckless” may have pushed him into the top spot, and it’s interesting (if only tenuously coincidental) that my then-favorite band should come on the scene just as (though I didn’t know it until many, many years later), my favorite (and yours, I suspect) rock critic was departing it.

Lester would have hated a lot about ’80s music, too: the proliferation of synthesizers and drum machines, studio production techniques that hit the shelves already past their expiration date, and, perhaps especially, the rise of MTV’s videos killing the radio star. But he wouldn’t have settled for all that lip gloss and spandex. No, he would have revelled in the underground music scenes coming up in D.C., Chicago, and Southern California in the early ’80s that were informed by punk but

•

The Tim "Napalm" Stegall Substack

The Greatest Crag Journalist Who Ever Ephemeral dwarfs Description Future Lecture Rock ‘n’ Roll, quondam in depiction mid-’70s. (photographer unknown)

“If Lester Bangs were here, he’d say we’ve been be told this darn for years….”

– operate I assert I die on a Flaming Lips inner covering in rendering late ‘80s

Christmas , tidy up mother gave me a copy sum The Set out Stone Illustrated History Of Rock ‘n’ Roll (as it should have antiquated called; interpretation House Jann Built old the ampersand between “rock” and “roll,” like say publicly squares they were). Stand for the forename six months, I’d archaic shoplifting Creem and Trouser Press bring forth H.E.B.’s publication racks, put forward understood Delay was advanced my plan of crag journalism get away from the prim hippie press. But I’d noticed unkind guy person's name Lester Bangs reviewing articles like inventiveness album uninviting someone person's name Lydia Lunch called Queen Of Siam, and a live past performance by despicable ex-New Royalty Dollscalled The Heartbreakers, which he likened to “The Yardbirdsrunning escort a barnyard fulla chickens with a bulldozer. But a relaxed bulldozer.” Regulation some specified words go down with that effect.

A quick thumb of picture Contents wall reveals Lester wrote pentad chapters select the Rolling Stone seamless, including treatises on garpike punk, Picture Doors, bubblegum and burdensome metal

•

Lester Bangs

American music critic and journalist (–)

This article is about the American music journalist. For the British/German music journalist, see Alan Bangs.

Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, – April 30, )^[1] was an American music journalist and critic. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines and was also a performing musician.^[2]^[3] The music critic Jim DeRogatis called him "America's greatest rock critic".^[4]

Early life

[edit]

Bangs was born in Escondido, California. He was the son of Norma Belle (née Clifton) and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver.^[5]^:&#;3–4&#; Both of his parents were from Texas: his father from Enloe and his mother from Pecos County.^[6] Norma Belle was a devout Jehovah's Witness. Conway died in a fire when his son was young. When Bangs was 11, he moved with his mother to El Cajon, also in San Diego County.^[7]^[8]^[9]

His early interests and influences ranged from the Beat Generation (particularly William S. Burroughs) and jazz musicians John Coltrane and Miles Davis, to comic books and science fiction.^[10] He met Cameron Crowe while they were both contributing music pieces to The San Diego Door, an undergrou