now if only JDR had taken this^ to heart...
― gravity tractor VS asteroid B612 (m coleman), Tuesday, 8 March 2011 11:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
seriously,"video games = death of rock" was a popular music-biz meme ca.1982
― gravity tractor VS asteroid B612 (m coleman), Tuesday, 8 March 2011 11:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
Now that the music-playing game genre has been declared dead, I wonder how many adherents moved on to actual guitar playing.
― bendy, Tuesday, 8 March 2011 12:03 (2 years ago) Permalink
Have to say I never cared for either his writing style or, all too often, his musical tastes.
― Lee626, Tuesday, 8 March 2011 12:22 (2 years ago) Permalink
A couple of posts on Facebook alerted me to the fact that it's the 30th anniversary of his death. I'm guessing there are one or two older posters here who can say they met him. I interviewed Chuck and Marcus in '86; I'd like to think that if I'd started a little later or he'd lived a little longer, I would have tried to interview Bangs (and succeeded, I imagine--he seemed extremely accessible). I didn't start reading Creem till '80 or thereabouts, so I'd read very little by him before the first book came out--really only some Rolling Stone reviews in an early-'70s collection, and some RS reviews later in the decade, when Paul Nelson was publishing him regularly. I tried to write like him early on, and of course it was egregiously wrong. Blaming him for the misdeeds of people like me makes no sense.
― clemenza, Monday, 30 April 2012 22:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Haven't read it yet, but a New Yorker contributor on Bangs's influence on her:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/08/how-lester-bangs-taught-me-to-read.html
― clemenza, Thursday, 23 August 2012 13:51 (9 months ago) Permalink
that is a really, really fantastic article. i don't think i've ever actually seen anyone else -- apart from marcus in his intro to the bangs collection -- actually pin down what i love(d) about bangs's writing so much (haven't read him in a while): even at his silliest, he was a genuinely thoughtful, reflective writer. likening him to DFW is really inspired: i don't know why i didn't think of that before.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 25 August 2012 05:08 (8 months ago) Permalink