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Liked It “A great collection of most the legendary music journalist's best work. His snarky ramblings usually entertain even if he nearly always gets off topic of the album supposedly in review and goes on about his Lou Reed obsession. Ha, ha. Rock's greatest critic doesn't actually even really review...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“A great collection of most the legendary music journalist's best work. His snarky ramblings usually entertain even if he nearly always gets off topic of the album supposedly in review and goes on about his Lou Reed obsession. Ha, ha. Rock's greatest critic doesn't actually even really review albums in the traditional sense of the word. If you're looking to get into criticism, make sure you pick this one up. His essay on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks is completely spot-on and I couldn't have described the feelings I get while listening to that album better than he did.”
Kristen B wrote this review Wednesday, October 28 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Lester Bangs was the best rock critic ever. In my opinion, he was the ONLY rock critic ever. Literate, funny, and pretty much dead on, this book is a gateway into the mind of one of the all-time great music geeks. ”
Bollocks! wrote this review Tuesday, October 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Read the book just for the long essays on Pschotic Reaction, the Velvet Underground, and Astral Weeks. You could call this Gonzo rock criticism at its absolute perfection.”
Mike T wrote this review Wednesday, September 2 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“they just don't write rock criticism like this any more. i don't necessarily agree with him on everything, but i like the way he was balls out passionate about the music. he's greatly missed.”
michele b wrote this review Thursday, July 9 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“ A fascinating collection of articles from his years at CREEM - required reading. The history of pre-punk.”
moik wrote this review Saturday, February 7 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The essential work by the best writer of all time. Period. Just ask Richard Wink, who ain't half-bad himself.”
Greg O wrote this review Tuesday, June 10 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This collection of core articles by rock critic/journalist Lester Bangs covers a lot of historical ground: from the declining counterculture to the birth of punk. At the same time, the essays in toto give the reader a different story, an autobiographical tale of a man in motion, a clever man who got wiser with age.”
X D wrote this review Monday, June 9 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I first read this when I was 18, it just seemed to crystalize my thoughts on music and life. It's real funny too, and shot through with a warmth lacking in most other music journalism. I keep going back to this book more than any other.”
Duncan F wrote this review Saturday, May 31 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I love the Peter Laughner piece in this book. I like all of his writing, but I remember the Laughner essay the most & best. "The sky cried warm blood" or something like that refering to the day Laughner died.”
Jeff S wrote this review Friday, March 14 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Well, why would this book be so exceptional, so fantastic, at all? First, it was never intended to be a book: it was originally written as spare reviews, along the years, to be published in magazines, that, if today are part of big editorial conglomerates, then were a little more than what we know today as fanzines. Second, and still for the same reason, because it is not a bunch of written pieces about sex, drugs and rock and roll: they are more like transcriptions of conversations that the author had on a random bar about the subjects above.
Francisco Jose Pereira M wrote this review Thursday, January 31 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I am sure you already saw this movie. A friend that sit in front of you, in front of a glass of something that you wouldn't dare to try, not even on a pit stop of the Paris-Dakar, and monologue about rock and roll, surrounded by the supernatural mist of Marlboro. And you listen to some brilliant bits, here and that, and think "F*, this M*F* is so damn righ, I must repeat this to my friends later!".
Bangs is way different of Greil Marcus. Marcus sound like a rock and roll scholar, something like a beneditine describing an orgy (well, even through the beneditine filter, an orgy is an orgy, so it worths A LOT to read Greil Marcus). But Bangs sometimes describe the reality with the low definition of a webcam, so it would be impossible to edit or fake it. Let's take the anthological talk with Lou Reed, one of the chapters of this book. I never had the pleasure to meet Mr. Reed in person, but I bet you had meet many minor "stars" that you will recognize perfectly on the portrait that Bangs paint of him. Some would call it "street wise", so, this is a "street wise" book about icons, heroes and media fabrications in general, showing what they have of miserable or brilliant.
I insist: you will feel in a bar table listening to Uncle Bangs stories about the record he listened last night or about the (no)future of rock and roll. I would even bet that, in the end of this book you would have a hangover... ;)”
