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Although the spirit of Lester Bangs lives on, especially in fanzines, not
a lot of people know who the man is. Why is he still relevant? Why should people
learn about him?
"The reason to learn about Lester is not only that he was the best
practitioner in the now relatively sorry business of rock criticism.
Generally speaking, I think it's worth learning a little something about the
best practitioner in any field -- like, the world's greatest didgeridoo
player, or chess champion, or pastry chef...
Lester was also a writer of considerable talent -- a funny and passionate
stylist who is well worth reading even if you don't care about the subject
matter.
Finally, and most importantly, Lester had deep philosophical insights into
what it's like to be a sentient, caring human being. He gave you a lot to
think about as he entertained and informed you. And there can be no better
reason to read any writer."
A lot of critics seem confused, mistaking "Let It Blurt" with a book
written _by_ Lester Bangs. As though you should have written it in the same
Beat style as the subject Lester. Was it at times not difficult to fall in
that trap?
"No, it wasn't really difficult, because I don't write like that. I write like
me. Most of the time, anyway.
A few reviews do make the point that Lester's bio should have been written in
Lester's style, but that's just silly, and it shows that these reviewers
haven't read many biographies or probably many books at all. You don't
expect a good Shakespeare biography to be written in the style of the Bard's
sonnets, or a biography on Freud to be written in the (I find it
impenetrable) style of Herr Doktor. In fact, you can argue the exact
opposite, that the writer should establish his own voice that is separate and
distinct from the subject's so that the subject's shines through even more.
There is a lot of Lester's writing in Blurt, and I think his voice registers
loud and clear, as always. But it is not an anthology. It is intended to be
read alongside Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung and the rest of his
incredible body of work."
How were you influenced by Lester Bangs? Did he give you any tips when you
interviewed him?
"Actually, all of our interview is online at Jason Gross' web zine, Perfect
Sound Forever. There's a link to it from my own web site, jimdero.com. I
don't know if you'd call them "tips," but we talked about the business of
rock writing, for sure. You can read it for yourself.
The thing I take away most is not Lester's style, but his passion and his
honesty. There's a sense of commitment to the reader -- he's gonna tell it
exactly like it is, from his heart and from his intellect. And if he later
doubles back on himself, that's irrelevant; the most important thing is that
he's giving it to you straight, without hype, which is obviously the dominant
force in most rock writing today.
I also think that those ideas I mentioned earlier -- giving readers something
to think about -- well, that's an ideal for any critic of any art form to
aspire toward."
You interviewed Lester as a teenager. Now, years later, you wrote a
biography on the man. When did you decide to write a book on his life? And
what were the reasons?
"Again, the ideas: If those were not there, this would simply have been an
entertaining story about a funny writer who drank a lot of Romilar, made a
lot of noise, insulted rock stars, then died. He was worth writing about at
length because his ideas are important and worth preserving, and also because
he personally touched so many people, either through his work or in his own
personal contacts. Nobody who met Lester Bangs ever came up short on a story
about him while I was doing interviews for the book."
He is in a way the James Dean of Rock-writing. If he would still be alive,
I think he wouldn't be on that pedestal (or stage?). Your book shows that
Lester was a human being. Was it difficult to demystify him?
"No, because he came from the Beats, and he believed as they did that he owed
the reader his honesty, baring himself warts and all in his prose. I think
Lester did a pretty good job of demystifying Lester every time he wrote,
certainly in the second half of his career. But rock by its very nature tends
to make heroes of people. Lester deserves to be remembered, but he should be
remembered honestly -- no pedestals involved, please. And if he ever gets
nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I intend to show up and streak
across the stage in his memory. And that will NOT be a pretty site!"
Was his death a result of him trying to emulate his idols? Did he realize
it himself?
"He had come to the realization in the last two years of his life that he had
to stop chasing that absurd rock myth of live fast, die young. He was
cleaning up and getting serious about living and working, and he intended to
do both to a ripe old age. But something happened -- a slip, a moment of
weakness or depression -- and he took an overdose and this time it was fatal.
It's sad, but it's a story that happens all too often in rock. If Kurt Cobain
had stopped to think for five minutes longer about his daughter..."
He played with the Delinquents and Birdland. But he didn't reach the same
level of quality as he did in his writing, which is quite ironic in a way.
How do you rate the man's music?
"I love the music, especially the first single, "Let It Blurt"/"Live," which
gave me the title of the book. With Robert Quine cowriting the tune, and
Lester Bangs on lyrics, how could it NOT be brilliant?
I don't think you can separate the music out from the writing -- the lyrics
are extraordinary, and the music is sort of like Lester in action. It's sad
that it's not more readily available for people to assess on their own. The
Birdland record is a good place to start, and that's in print on CD via
Dionysus, but "Jook Savages On the Brazos" and the single really need to be
heard."
To quote the man himself: "They wouldn't be heroes if they were
infallible, in fact they wouldn't be heroes if they weren't miserable
wretched dogs...". Do you think he was a product of his upbringing? That he
wouldn't have been such a great rock-crit, if he had been happy?
"I tried to avoid that sort of cheap armchair Gail Sheehy psychoanalyzing in
the book; I hate that crap. Obviously, everybody is a product of their
upbringing to some extent. But plenty of people escape that, and that was one
of Lester's big themes. I talked to his shrink, and his shrink didn't offer
any such easy answers, so I certainly won't."
He more or less created rockwriting alongside Meltzer and Tosches. At
times it must have been difficult to make ends meet. Did people look down on
his rockwriting, not seeing it as a full time profession?
"It was absolutely not a profession until the early to mid-'70s, and as soon
as it started to become one, the quality took a giant nosedive into the
crapper. Does this mean that to do anything worthwhile, you have to do it for
free? Well, I'm no indie rock purist. I happen to work for the eighth largest
newspaper in America and I think I do good work there. But it certainly is
HARDER to do things with honesty and passion once commercial concerns enter
the picture. Just ask any band that's ever moved up from the indie ranks to
the majors."
Apart from fanzines, I don't really see journalists who use the same pen
as Lester did. His style of writing was quite frank and it seems to me that
in the *big press* this wouldn't be tolerated. Do you agree with this?
"Fuck, yeah. I don't think Lester would get published with the same freedom he
had at Creem or the Voice in today's mainstream rock rags -- or even in
today's Voice! He could write for free on the web. But that would not keep
him stocked with spinache souffles and Ramblin' Root Beer. And that's a
frigging shame.
I mean, turn it around: What are YOU reading anywhere today in the American
press that's as good as Creem or Fusion were when Lester and Meltzer and
Tosches were doing some of their best work? What are you reading that's worth
reading, period??"
If he had survived the overdose of painkillers, where would he be now?
Reading the last pages of "Let It Blurt", I would imagine him not writing
about Rock anymore. If he would still be alive today, what bands would he listen to? Seeing
how he adored Abba, maybe he would be support the Spice Girls. Or maybe he
would be too busy listening to Silvers Sessions? So when's your book on Jim DeRogatis coming out? Just kidding. If you had
to make a choice between rockwriting, drumming and deejaying, what would it
be? » Check
out Jim DeRogatis' own website » Check
out our interview with Jim about Psychedelic Music http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/709/lester-bangs/505/
"Again, I tried to avoid this kind of speculation in the book, so I won't
indulge here. He was a perverse and contrary son of a bitch, and he loved
confounding people's expectations. He could have survived and become a bus
driver and gone on to write that great American Novel he promised at night.
Or he might still be writing lead reviews for Spin about how great Limp
Bizkit is, like Robert Christgau just did. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I sincerely doubt the latter, but who knows? Lester did tell me two weeks
before he died that he wanted to stop writing about music, and he said this a
lot in the two years before. So I will take him at his word without ruling
out the possibility that he could have done one of his famous 180s."
"Who knows? I ain't gonna say he'd love Nirvana and hate Eminem
or vice versa. I don't know, and my heavenly hot line ain't working. It sure
would be fun to have that talk with him when we're both strumming our harps
on a cloud some day -- just like his posthumous interview with Hendrix."
"Actually, the next book I'm considering is a lot more personal, if I wind up
pursuing it. So maybe that's sooner than you think.
But as for making a choice, I would say, "All of them!" I started writing
about rock in the indie '80s for the same reason I started buying records and
playing the drums and doing college radio -- I was an obsessive fan with
obsessive opinions to inflict on people. I stole that line from Lester, but
it's so true. To me, it was all part of the same impulse, and I can't
imagine NOT doing any of it, and in fact I'm still doing it all today."
Meer op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/709
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