Talk:Lester Bangs/Archive 1

Archive 1

Reed?

"...producing several essays which depicted hilariously faked interviews with Reed."

Is this true? I mean according to the biography "Let It Blurt" his interviews with Reed were quite real. Perhaps whoever wrote this article was getting mixed up with his famous posthumous interview with Hendrix. --Thetriangleguy 14:18, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Article archive

i thought it would be valuable if any other editors would like to help me in creating an archive/links to various pieces on the web demonstrating the varied journalism of a number of music writers, including Lester Bangs. I was thinking about including the great writers of the seventies and eighties, such as Paul Morley, Simon Reynolds, Ian Penman, Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray etc. If anyone is interesyed i'd appreciate some help and guidance. Thanks. Ask me — Preceding undated comment added 18:53, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Gàidhlig article

There's also an article about him on the Gàidhlig page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sfniall~enwiki (talk • contribs) 18:43, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Infobox

I finally added an infobox, but its my first and I know there are errors. Can someone help? --User:PrinceMyshkin 1:44 AM, 15 December (UTC) — Preceding undated comment added 06:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

External Link suggestion

As an editor at Crawdaddy!, and to comply with COI guidelines, I am not posting the link to this piece about Lester Bangs and his unpublished Rock Gomorrah. However, I would like to recommend it on its merits, and hope that an editor will find the time to examine the article and—if he or she sees fit—post it to the external links section. I appreciate your time. Crawdaddy! [1]
Mike harkin (talk) 23:51, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

List cruft

I have removed the following random bits of trivia, mostly unsourced or poorly sourced to here in case some editor is able to find some third party sources that would allow the information to be capsulized into a legitimate encyclopedic disucssion that appropriately describes a legacy.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.69.139.139 (talk) 17:49, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Who is "I"? Most of the stuff below is completely legitimate and trivially verified with google. Instead of removing it it could have just been sourced with less effort than removing other people's work required. Pmetzger (talk) 00:50, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Legacy

• Bangs is mentioned in the 1987 R.E.M. hit "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".

• Bangs is mentioned again in the Dillinger Four song "Our Science Is Tight".

• Bangs is also mentioned in the 1981 Ramones track "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)" from the album Pleasant Dreams.

• Bangs is mentioned in Of Montreal's "There Is Nothing Wrong With Hating Rock Critics" on the album If He Is Protecting Our Nation, Then Who Will Protect Big Oil, Our Children?.

• Bangs is the subject of "Les Bang", a track by Gumdrops, from their 1996 debut album High Speed... OK?.

• Bangs is the subject of "La Sindrome di Bangs", a song by Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, an Italian rock band, in their 2007 album "La Seconda Rivoluzione Sessuale"

• Science fiction author Bruce Sterling's story Dori Bangs (published in Asimov's Science Fiction, 1989) was inspired by Bangs (along with the underground comic book artist Dori Seda). Sterling speculates on what Bangs might have done had he lived longer.

• Bangs is depicted by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous (2000), in which a budding music journalist idolizes him. Bangs acts as a guide for the film's protagonist and a critic of what rock and roll has become by the time of the film. Crowe himself credits Bangs as a mentor during his own years as a rock journalist.

• Long Island punk rock band Ghost of Lester Bangs as well as defunct Kill Rock Stars band Bangs are named after the critic.

• The Buzzcocks' song "Lester Sands" is actually referring to him, dismissing Bangs' criticism as a "drop in the ocean".

• Bob Seger wrote and recorded a yet-unreleased song about the critic titled "Lester Knew".

• Notorious for applying the term "white nigger" (which originated in Norman Mailer's 1957 essay "The White Negro") as a euphemism for a punk, or more specifically a white social miscreant with questionable or objectionable outward idiosyncrasies, and radical beliefs deemed unacceptable by the status quo. (Conversely, the term now has a different connotation, as "wigger" is used to describe a white individual infatuated with the hip-hop lifestyle). He often referred to himself as the "last of the white niggers", and a famous photograph of Bangs shows him wearing a t-shirt bearing this title.

• As popular as he was when he was alive, his work has become even more influential in the wake of his death, which has led to the publication of two anthologies of his writing.

• In the tv show The Black Donnellys, the two brothers Tommy and Kevin bet the protection money they have collected on a horse named Lester Bang

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.69.139.139 (talk) 17:49, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

References

WikiProject Christianity

Are you serious? Lester was a Jew. So are [Lou Reed] and [Joey Ramone].--115.186.67.32 (talk) 20:37, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Bangs was not Jewish, but I don't know why this is in WikiProject Christianity. All Hallow's Wraith (talk) 19:06, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

inventing the term "punk"

actually, the term was coined by Legs McNeil & his Punk Magazine cohorts. They came into contact with Lester after the fact. That's how Legs recounts it anyway (see Please Kill Me).

Well the article uses the phrase "often credited with" which is quite true because he is often credited with the claim. There's an article he wrote once where he said that he stole it from Greg Shaw who stole it from Dave Marsh and that's who's credited on the Punk Rock page. (Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure I also remember Lester writing an article refuting Legs McNeil's claims)

He's also credited with inventing "heavy metal" as a genre term, which I believe merits some mention in the article. WesleyDodds 10:07, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

---

The first person to use "punk rock" in an article was Dave Marsh in CREEM referring to ? & the Mysterians in 1971. Lester cited this, in fact. This was years before Legs and crew were using it...and it continued to be used for years before they used it. Billy Altman has a magazine called PUNK out of Buffalo, NY in the early '70s.

Lester also wasn't the first critic to use the term "heavy metal." Metal Mike Saunder was..also in CREEM.

The unsigned editor above me is correct. Legs McNeil was certainly not the first person to use the term "punk rock." The term was being used in the CBGB's scene before he got a hold of it. He probably got it from his partner at the magazine, John Holstrom, who was very well-versed on things.

We do not know for sure who originated the term "punk rock," or exactly when it was first used, but the earliest clear, conscientious, meaningful, and relevant uses of the term (in writing) are from the early 70s, when well-known rock critics, such as Dave Marsh, Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, and Greg Shaw used the term (in Creem, Rolling Stone, and Who Put the Bomp) to retroactively describe the garage bands of the mid 60s and their genre. They also used the term to describe later artists (such as MC5, the Stooges, etc.) whom they felt were continuing in this line of rock & roll. There is also a website devoted to the etymology of punk.

Lester Bangs was instrumental in helping, not only define "punk rock," as a term for past and present music, but in forging a consciousness about the whole idea of "punk rock" as a basis of a new movement that he wanted to see in rock--a concept that would influence the subsequent punk movements in New York and London. This is a matter that needs to be addressed in this article. It may be Bangs' greatest legacy. Garagepunk66 (talk) 10:59, 14 July 2014 (UTC)