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From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Today Andy Warhol was assassinated-well, I shouldn't say "assassinated," he was shot by some chick who wanted to murder him, and right now he's in critical condition, 50-50 chance or so they say. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Everything in the title, and unabashed populism to boot!,
By
This review is from: Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader (Paperback)
This is probably the more well-rounded of the two volumes of Bangs' articles and miscellaneous whatnot now available. The big issue I've been having with it is that it was clearly designed as an entry point for curious parties. "Main Lines" avoids being too obscure if it can help it - even Captain Beefheart seems to me part of the Popular Music Canon - and the pieces here are far more watered-down than the ones in "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung." What I mean by that is that, aside from Bangs' juvenalia (which is briefly touched on at the beginning of the book), this book lacks much of the spirit of discovery that was so beautifully brought to the fore in the first. If you're a Bangs fan or a voracious reader of musical criticism, it wouldn't hurt to read this... but if you're new to Bangs and want to know why he's one of the best music journalists of all time, you should pick up "Psychotic Reactions."
3.0 out of 5 stars
Living / Loving Life a Little Too Hard,
By CincinnatiPOV "Bibliophile" (Cincinnati, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader (Paperback)
Once at an allergist appointment to treat my asthma I had to use a nebulizer, a machine to help my medication get deep into my lungs. There were two end results: I started breathing better and was high on oxygen and I got more medication into me than normal and got high on that. Basically, I was high as a kite for an hour or two and then it wore off. But for that brief period of time, I was happy and did everything at warp speed and was lovin' life.Lester Bangs, for those of you not familiar with him, was a rock critic who was lovin' life a lot of the time, but he wasn't being supplied with happy, legal drugs from his allergist. When you read his work, you don't have to be told, though he does tell you, that he often wrote under the influence of a myriad of things. Sometimes his reviews don't make a stitch of sense. Other times they are pure genius. The bottom line is, if you consider yourself music savvy, you should know who Lester Bangs is. If you need an introduction to his work, Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader is a great place to get it. The reader is a collection of Bangs' writing, edited by friend John Morthland. Most of the reviews are written as Bangs must of spoke. In fact, I often found myself reading his work out loud because they sounded better than they read. He would write an accent - not in a Zore Neale Hurtson I-spell-out-dialect sort of way, but in a William Shakespeare rhyme-and-meter-are-everything sort of way. It's magic. Some of the reviews in Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader are tedious and near impossible to get through. He often refers to music that is most likely inaccessible to you, because, let's be frank, the man was a music snob. Snobbery or no, he knew his stuff and his developed completely original creative ways to write reviews. Bangs loved life a little too hard and died of an overdose in 1982. He is still remembered in movies like Almost Famous and his mark is left on music / rock criticism everywhere.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Supercharged rock writing,
By
This review is from: Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader (Paperback)
The rock writer Joh Morthland has compiled a companion volume to Psychotic Reactions And Carburettor Dung, the first collection of the writings of Lester Bangs, rock 'n roll's most influential critic and the one who defined the genre.The book is divided into the following sections: DRUG PUNK, including previously unpublished writings on Andy Warhol and autobiographical ruminations on Bangs' adolescence; HYPES & HEROICS includes pieces on the MC5, Beatles, Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, Patti Smith's album Horses, Wire and Jello Biafra. PANTHEON contains pieces on The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Captain Beefheart, Nico's Marble Index album, Brian Eno, Jim Morrison and Lester's famous review of Lou Reed's notorious Metal Machine Music album. TRAVELOGUES includes impressions of his trips to Paris, Jamaica, Austin and California. The last chapter is titled RAVING, RAGING AND REBOPS and contains writings on the roots of punk, The Mekons (Bad Taste Is Timeless) and an excerpt from the previously unpublished All My Friends Are Hermits from 1980. Lester's adrenalin charged writing has lost none of its appeal. He wrote with an enthusiasm that transcends the decades. I highly recommend this book to all rock fans that are passionate about the music. I also recommend the great biography by Jim DeRogatis, titled Let It Blurt: The Life And Times Of Lester Bangs and The Dark Stuff by Nick Kent.
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