Lester Bangs – författare

Until his death aged thirty-three in 1982, Lester Bangs wrote wired, rock 'n' roll pieces on Iggy Pop, The Clash, John Lennon, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed. As a rock critic, he had an eagle-eye for distinguishing the pre-packaged imitation from the real thing; written in a conversational, wisecracking, erotically charged style, his hallucinatory hagiographies and excoriating take-downs reveal an iconoclast unafraid to tell it like it is. To his journalism he brought the talent of a great a renegade Beat poet, and his essays, reviews and scattered notes convey the electric thrill of a music junky indulging the habit of a lifetime. As Greil Marcus writes in his introduction, '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.'

Before his untimely death in 1982, Lester Bangs was inarguably the most influential critic of rock and roll. Writing in hyper-intelligent Benzedrine prose that calls to mind Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, he eschewed all conventional thinking as he discussed everything from Black Sabbath being the first truly Catholic band to Anne Murray’s smoldering sexuality. In Mainlines, Blood Feasts, Bad Taste fellow rock critic John Morthland has compiled a companion volume to Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, the first, now classic collection of Bangs’s work. Here are excerpts from an autobiographical piece Bangs wrote as a teenager, travel essays, and, of course, the music pieces, essays, and criticism covering everything from titans like Miles Davis, Lou Reed, and the Rolling Stones to esoteric musicians like Brian Eno and Captain Beefheart. Singularly entertaining, this book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the history of rock.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Not since the dawn of the music video has pop music undergone a pioneering effort as exciting as this. In LIT RIFFS, America's latest generation of celebrated storytellers joins a list of the most world-renowned rock critics in composing a unique anthology. The anthology consists of fiction, non-fiction, and free-form riffs based on the writer's reaction to the songs that have inspired us all. The book features contributions from Dave Eggers, Jonathan Lethem, Jennifer Belle, Lisa Tucker, Greil Marcus, Rebecca Wells, Nelson George and many more. This is the first book with it's own soundtrack and readers will be able to listen to it, thanks to a CD from Manhattan Records that will be distributed simultaneously. Taking both the written word and the sung lyric to new places, LIT RIFFS is a revolutionary medium from some of today's most influential young talents.

Vintage presents the paperback edition of the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs--the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s--edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rack critics, Greil Marcus.

Following in the footsteps of the late great Lester Bangs -- the most revered and irreverent of rock ''n'' roll critics -- twenty-four celebrated writers have penned stories inspired by great songs. Just as Bangs cast new light on a Rod Stewart classic with his story "Maggie May," about a wholly unexpected connection between an impressionable young man and an aging, alcoholic hooker, the diverse, electrifying stories here use songs as a springboard for a form dubbed the lit riff. Alongside Bangs''s classic work, you''ll find stories by J.T. LeRoy, who puts a recovering teenage drug abuser in a dentist''s chair with nothing but the Foo Fighters''s "Everlong" -- blaring through the P.A. -- to fight the pain; Jonathan Lethem, whose narrator looks back on his lost innocence just as an extramarital affair careens to an end -- this to the tune "Speeding Motorcycle" as recorded by Yo La Tengo; and Jennifer Belle, who envisions a prequel to Paul Simon''s "Graceland" -- one that takes place at a children''s birthday party replete with a real live kangaroo. With original contributions from Tom Perrotta, Nelson George, Amanda Davis, Lisa Tucker, Aimee Bender, Darin Strauss, and many more -- riffing on everyone from Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen to the White Stripes, Cat Power, and Bob Marley -- this is both an astounding collection of short stories and an extraordinary experiment in words and music. Soundtrack available from Saturation Acres Music & Recording Co.

Until his death aged thirty-three in 1982, Lester Bangs wrote wired, rock ''n'' roll pieces on Iggy Pop, The Clash, John Lennon, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed. As a rock critic, he had an eagle-eye for distinguishing the pre-packaged imitation from the real thing; written in a conversational, wisecracking, erotically charged style, his hallucinatory hagiographies and excoriating take-downs reveal an iconoclast unafraid to tell it like it is. To his journalism he brought the talent of a great a renegade Beat poet, and his essays, reviews and scattered notes convey the electric thrill of a music junky indulging the habit of a lifetime. As Greil Marcus writes in his introduction, ''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.''

Lester Bangs ist ''die'' große Rock-Kritiker-Legende in Amerika. Geboren 1948, arbeitete er ab 1971 fünf Jahre lang beim Rockmagazin Creem und beeinflusste mit seinem neuen subjektiven Stil eine ganze Generation junger Autoren. Bangs ging 1976 als freier Journalist nach New York, schrieb u.a. für den Rolling Stone und gründete die Rockgruppe "Lester Bangs and the Delinquents". In seinen Reportagen, Kritiken, Glossen und Fragmenten entdeckt er in "Wild Thing" von den Troggs eine Art unkontrolliertes Lebensmanifest für die Zukunft. Er bewundert Richard Hell, analysiert den Mythos von Elvis, reektiert sein schwieriges Verhältnis zu Lou Reed, begleitet die Clash auf Tour, schreibt über Iggy Pop and the Stooges, David Bowie, Kraftwerk, PIL u.a. Mit seinen gnadenlos subjektiven Urteilen und vehementen Verurteilungen, Beleidigungen und großen Lobeshymnen war er der Gonzo-Autor des Rock-Journalismus, der wie kein anderer um die Faszination und Anziehungskraft der neuen Musik wusste. Lester Bangs starb am 30. April 1982 an einer Tablettenunverträglichkeit.