Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway Bangs (born December 14, 1948 in Escondido , California , † April 30, 1982 in New York , NY , USA ) was an American music journalist, author and musician.
Life
Bangs grew up in a small town near San Diego . His devout mother was a member of Jehovah's Witnesses . His alcoholic and convicted father was killed in a house fire when the boy was nine years old. Bangs began writing as a child. As a teenager he was enthusiastic about beat literature , jazz , but also garage and surf music .
Bangs began his journalistic career in 1969 as a freelance journalist for the music magazine Rolling Stone . A few years later he switched to Creem magazine , where he was employed as an editor for five years. With his texts he became an important protagonist of New Journalism , but also wrote texts in the gonzo style. In the mid-1970s he went to New York, where he worked as a freelance writer a. a. wrote for Village Voice , New Musical Express and again Rolling Stone, but also for Penthouse and Playboy . His texts were also taken over by the German music magazine Sounds and have appeared in several rock session volumes that were published by Rowohlt Verlag during the 1970s .
Although Bangs primarily wanted to write books and biographies during his lifetime, he only completed the less ambitious biographies about Blondie and Rod Stewart . Posthumously, two readers published by former Rolling Stone colleague Greil Marcus were published.
Bangs died of a drug intolerance when he took a flu medicine with Valium while catching a cold.
Movie
Bangs was immortalized in the film Almost Famous by director Cameron Crowe , a former colleague of his at Rolling Stone . He was portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman .
Literature (selection)
From Lester Bangs
- Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic . Collected Writings, Greil Marcus , ed., Anchor Press, 1988, ISBN 0-679-72045-6
- Psychotic reactions and hot air. Greatest hits. Rock'n Roll as literature and literature as Rock'n Roll . Greil Marcus (Ed.), Edition Tiamat, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-89320-127-0
- Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader . Collected Writings, John Morthland, ed., Anchor Press, 2003, ISBN 0-375-71367-0
- The first piece for Rolling Stone [1]
About Lester Bangs
- Jim DeRogatis : Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic . Biography, Broadway Books, 2000, ISBN 0-7679-0509-1
See also
Web links
- A tribute page on Perfect Sound Forever. (English)
- Bangs' own section at rockcritics.com. (English)
- Bangs' review of one of his two favorite 1960s albums, Van Morrison 's Astral Weeks . (English)
- Interview from May 13, 1980 Lester Bangs (English)
- Literature by and about Lester Bangs in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Bangs, Lester |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bangs, Leslie Conway (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American music journalist, author, and musician |
DATE OF BIRTH | December 14, 1948 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Escondido , California |
DATE OF DEATH | April 30, 1982 |
Place of death | New York , NY , USA |