|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Review
"Finally, the great American writer gets the book he deserves. Jim DeRogatis's Let It Blurt is a personal journey through the wit and the world and the ferocious spirit of Lester Bangs...it reads like rock and roll."
--Cameron Crowe
"Let It Blurt tells one of the essential rock and roll stories with great affection and panache. Lester Bangs--paradigm, mystery, great writer, tragicomic presence--has been given the biography he deserves...A splendid book."
--Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn
"Lester Bangs lived fast, died young, and left a beautiful body of work. Jim DeRogatis, himself a gifted writer on rock and roll, knows both of Bangs's worlds--the music and the journalism--and has written an elegy for one of the few critics whose work is worth reading for itself, apart from its subjects."
--Roger Ebert
"To those who knew him, Lester Bangs was a force of nature, 'larger than life' and all such biz. For a mere book to capture the full sweep of his mind/body at speed and at rest may be too tall an order, but Let It Blurt is a welcome stab indeed at the whole Lester thing."
--Richard Meltzer
--Cameron Crowe
"Let It Blurt tells one of the essential rock and roll stories with great affection and panache. Lester Bangs--paradigm, mystery, great writer, tragicomic presence--has been given the biography he deserves...A splendid book."
--Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn
"Lester Bangs lived fast, died young, and left a beautiful body of work. Jim DeRogatis, himself a gifted writer on rock and roll, knows both of Bangs's worlds--the music and the journalism--and has written an elegy for one of the few critics whose work is worth reading for itself, apart from its subjects."
--Roger Ebert
"To those who knew him, Lester Bangs was a force of nature, 'larger than life' and all such biz. For a mere book to capture the full sweep of his mind/body at speed and at rest may be too tall an order, but Let It Blurt is a welcome stab indeed at the whole Lester thing."
--Richard Meltzer
Book Description
Let It Blurt is the raucous and righteous biography of Lester Bangs (1949-82)--the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock criticism. No writer on rock 'n' roll ever lived harder or wrote better--more passionately, more compellingly, more penetratingly. He lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, guzzling booze and Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that erupted from the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice. Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher, louder, more electric, and more alive, in the course of which he charted and defined the aesthetics of heavy metal and punk. He was treated as a peer by such brash visionaries as Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Debbie Harry, and other luminaries.
Let It Blurt is a scrupulously researched account of Lester Bangs's fascinating (if often tawdry and unappetizing) life story, as well as a window on rock criticism and rock culture in their most turbulent and creative years. It includes a never-before-published piece by Bangs, the hilarious "How to Be a Rock Critic," in which he reveals the secrets of his dubious, freeloading trade.
Let It Blurt is a scrupulously researched account of Lester Bangs's fascinating (if often tawdry and unappetizing) life story, as well as a window on rock criticism and rock culture in their most turbulent and creative years. It includes a never-before-published piece by Bangs, the hilarious "How to Be a Rock Critic," in which he reveals the secrets of his dubious, freeloading trade.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Conway Bangs needed a drink. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Conway Bangs needed a drink. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superb journalism, understated and compelling,
By
This review is from: Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic (Paperback)
If you want to experience Lester Bangs' writing, buy one of the many rock criticism compendiums that include his reviews. If you want to know what it was like in the 70s and 80s, in the hey day of rock--and the rock criticism Bangs helped invent--buy Let It Blurt. While it may seem that Derogatis' understated book is "just the facts," anyone who has experience writing at book length will recognize that Derogatis not only did an extraordinary job of reporting, he then did a brilliant and subtle job of selecting and arranging the information so that the book is real page-turner. I've purchased quite a few books by big-name journalists only to find them to be full of hyperventilation and name dropping. In contrast, Derogatis sticks with his story, and never gets sidetracked telling anecdotes about the glitterati. As a small-time music critic working in New England in the 70s, I had passing acquaintances with a number of the people mentioned in this book (not Bangs, though) and loved the way that Derogatis portrayed each of them using just a few key details. Absolutely top-notch work on a thought-provoking topic.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Match of Style and Subject,
By
This review is from: Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic (Paperback)
The first words we read are Lester Bangs': "There are no facts in rock and roll, there is only myth." Then Jim Derogatis opens with: "Sometimes Lester was full of s--t." That exchange represents the approach used in Degoatis' fascinating biography. His Joe-Friday-just-the-facts-ma'am style complements Bangs' jazz-like improv and spontaneousness. Derogatis is a believer in thoroughness and old-fashioned objectivity, so he is able to shed light on some dark corners in Lester's life. Like his drug abuse, his screwed-up relationships with women, the pain from his family and the Jehovah's Witness upbringing, and his general self-destructiveness. Basically, Bangs was a big, lovable slob (except when he wasn't so lovable.) But he was also an important American writer, the rock equivalent of Pauline Kael's criticism of the movies. He was tremendously influential and Derogatis admirably makes this clear.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, well written,,
By Jeffrey C. Turbitt (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic (Paperback)
I really enjoyed Let It Blurt, which is about the deceased rock critic Lester Bangs. I first read about Lester when Almost Famous came out, and read this book on a beach in Thailand last year, and it has stayed with me since that time. Lester died when I was 10, so I certainly didn't follow him, and other than a passion for music, Lester's taste in music was very different from mine, but I really enjoyed reading about him in this book. That is a good comment on DeRogatis as a writer, as I bore easily. Lester was a true individualist and someone with real passions, faults and weaknesses. He struggled and was human, and had this passion for music that many people have, so it is easy to relate in many ways if you have ever felt like you don't quite fit in, or are hyperopinionated, or just dislike the corporate machine. Highly recommended book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Authors
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical
- Books > Entertainment > Music > Biographies
- Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Rock
- Books > Entertainment > Pop Culture
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Popular Culture
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
