Thursday, 20 October 2016

Music Writer Reflection: Lester Bangs (Short Essay).

For this project I have chosen to write about Lester Bangs, a writer who I have always admired as I believe him to be one of, if not the most important (rock) music journalist of all time. His cultural impact was phenomenal and I have looked up his work, specifically what he wrote in regards to The Doors, in the past. I really admire the way in which he was so unafraid to state his opinion, and didn't try to be pleasant or kind if he didn't like the music he was reviewing, no matter what the general consensus of the music was. 


Lester Bangs had quite a difficult childhood, he was born in 1948 and  spent his whole childhood in various towns in San Diego County, his father died when he was just 11 years old, and his mother, a devout Jehovah's witness was left to take care of him independently. He had a keen interest in music and other aspects of popular culture from quite a young age, taking an interest in  jazz musicians such as Miles Davies and John Coltrane but also enjoyed comic books and science fiction films. 

One of the main things I admire about Bang's writing is his cynical sense of humour when writing about music that he didn't particularly enjoy, one review which comes to mind is his 1978 review of Styx's album Pieces of Eight, in this review he says: "No one of these parts amounts to much on its own, but when smeared together, each contributes to the kind of fantasy-land effects that groups like this run on. Which at least makes Styx tight. Tight as a tissue.". Another example of his cynical yet humourous writing style is the line which he closes the same Styx article with: "If these are the champions, gimme the cripples.". 

He also enjoyed relating the music he was writing  about to "the bigger picture" or society and American life on the whole, enjoying the music of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground as he believed it reflected what real life was like, and this was extremely important to him, he stated this in answer to a question of why he wrote about the music he did: "Most of them are pretty down records, pretty unhappy, pretty confused. Which only reflects how people in general were feeling, I mean really the sense that you get is society running down." This way in which he spoke about and described things was fairly typical of fans of the genres of music he focused on, he was at the forefront of this widespread way of thinking due to his large and committed fan base. 

His writing style was always as descriptive as it was cynical, often using multiple adjectives to describe a particular part of a song in one sentence. An example of this can be seen in this quote, taken from an article about Bangs in The New Yorker: (He is referring to Mick Jagger) "a spastic flap-lipped tornado writhing from here to a million steaming snatches and beyond in one undifferentiated erogenous mass, a mess and a spectacle all at the same time". 

Bangs really was one of a kind, his writing provides the reader with encouragement to be open minded about new music but also to not be afraid to speak your mind and have your own indipendent interpretation of things, even if it is a negative and unpopular opinion. 

Words: Liam Navey.

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