Would Lester Bang's like the Wu-Tang Clan?

tonyphronetonyphrone 1,500 Posts
edited June 2006 in Strut Central
...or hip-hop for that matter? He died at the height of Punk - in which he was an early champion. But he also worshipped at the altar of James Brown and John Coltrane. Pick up "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung : The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'N'Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'N'Roll" if you get a chance!

  Comments


  • God, I wish he were still alive. Great writer.

  • tonyphronetonyphrone 1,500 Posts
    very passionate with superb taste! A rarity...

  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    I actually like that more recent collection of his writing more, the one with his piece on his trip to Jamaica is a must-read, where he meets Lee Perry and they bond over being alcoholics in a country of stoners. Good times.

    Honestly Wu Tang are hardly controversial figures in the crit community, check out how much overheated praise Ghost's last album got.

  • very passionate with superb taste! A rarity...


    An old friend of mine from my zine days wrote the Bangs bio (It's a good read too)...

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    very passionate with superb taste! A rarity...


    An old friend of mine from my zine days wrote the Bangs bio (It's a good read too)...

    I really enjoyed that book

  • very passionate with superb taste! A rarity...


    An old friend of mine from my zine days wrote the Bangs bio (It's a good read too)...

    I really enjoyed that book


    His name's Jim DeRogatis. I think he has a book coming out about the Flaming Lips...

  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    I am not a fan of Jim Derogatis. He's one of those dudes who has no time for non-"Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" rap music.

  • I am not a fan of Jim Derogatis. He's one of those dudes who has no time for non-"Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" rap music.


    I wouldn't trust his opinion on rap, any more than I'd expect anyone to trust mine (I like it, but I can't say I know a lot about it...), but he knows his rock'n'roll, has a good sense of humor, and is an excellent writer.

  • tonyphronetonyphrone 1,500 Posts
    but he knows his rock'n'roll, has a good sense of humor, and is an excellent writer.

    i'll pick up both books!

  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    you know that part where he goes on about the girls' legs and feet in class?


    your sexy persuasive ta-ta's and thighs
    catch my eyes like highs I want your bodily surprise


    your wasteline, bangin like a bassline
    physical form is well complexed
    and yo, I love your outline, Boo
    your whole body is wild, wit your rugged profile
    enough to make a hard rock smile


    mad respect with the fat thighs

    my guess is that he would agree with wu tang on some things.

  • hammertimehammertime 2,389 Posts
    he would've HATED them vehemently at first, and then a couple years later realized the error of his ways and written another article talking about how they are the saviors of music. The funny thing is, you'd agree with him both times.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I actually like that more recent collection of his writing more, the one with his piece on his trip to Jamaica is a must-read, where he meets Lee Perry and they bond over being alcoholics in a country of stoners. Good times.

    Strangely enuff, I'm about to return this second Bangs anthology to the library today! Was rereading that hilarious Jamaican piece last night. The part where Bangs and two other journalists are sitting in Bob Marley's backyard interviewing him is a scream. Extra props to Bangs who thought Marley was far overrated as early as 1976.

    Rare groove fans may want to go to the library and track down the issue of Rolling Stone from late '69 (Miles Davis on cover), where Bangs reviews the latest albums by the Bar-Kays and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band. He thinks the Bar-Kays album is mediocre and praises the Watts Band for taking chances that the average black artist wouldn't dream of back then (remember, funk was still fairly new and the debut albums by Curtis Mayfield, Funkadelic, Swamp Dogg, etc. were still a year away, so R&B wasn't quite "progressive" yet). His views on the state of black music vs. their white hippie counterparts are on the money.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I had a pleasant surprise a few months back when I
    picked up an odd-looking classical LP named "Beethoven's Head"
    in a thrift store...despite being a standard collection of
    Beethoven compositions, it included full-cover liner notes by
    Lester Bangs on the back! Really funny stuff, too, in his
    usual style. I know it's part of a series, although I don't
    know if he did the liners for all of them or if they used
    other writers as well. Check for 'em - I'm sure
    they rarely cost more than the half-buck I paid...

    Man, LB is the Father to the Soul Strut style!
    When heads talk about music melting their face, and private
    press folk LP's causing them to shit blood, that's ground
    that Lester paved right there

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Bangs would have liked hip-hop at some point. I have a hard time believing elsewise.

    Derogatis might possibly be the single most disliked music critic in America. I don't know a single colleague of his that'd roll for him.

  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    I used to really dislike his writing, but spend enough time paying attention to critics on the internet (no nerdo) and you realize he's really a small fish in a big pond of stupid. Plenty of awful critics hate Jim Dero too.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I had a pleasant surprise a few months back when I
    picked up an odd-looking classical LP named "Beethoven's Head"
    in a thrift store...despite being a standard collection of
    Beethoven compositions, it included full-cover liner notes by
    Lester Bangs on the back! Really funny stuff, too, in his
    usual style. I know it's part of a series, although I don't
    know if he did the liners for all of them or if they used
    other writers as well.

    they used other writers. i think they may have all been rock critics - the point of the series was to turn on the rock audience to classical music, so naturally they drafted lester bangs and ed ward (the only other annotator i know for that series) to talk about the music from a rock perspective

    Man, LB is the Father to the Soul Strut style!
    When heads talk about music melting their face, and private
    press folk LP's causing them to shit blood, that's ground
    that Lester paved right there

    except that lester bangs hated MAJOR-LABEL folk albums, never mind private press!
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