We all know that Lester Bangs got his start at Rolling Stone. Here at Glorious Noise, we've gathered up links to his Stone reviews that are available online twice: Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone (2006) and Even more Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone (2007).
Those are all great, of course, but Bangs really kicked his prose into high gear after Jann Wenner fired him from the Stone for being "disrespectful to musicians." He moved to Detroit Rock City and took over Creem. Since today marks the 26th anniversary of his death, we're honoring his memory by providing links to a bunch of his classic pieces for Creem...
Stooges - Of Pop And Pies And Fun; Part 2 (December 1970)
Black Sabbath - Bring Your Mother To The Gas Chamber; Part 2 (June 1972)
Kraftwerk - Kraftwerkfeature (September 1975)
Faces Huddle For Defensive Play: It's Last Bash On The Gridiron (sidebar) (November 1975)
Patti Smith - Horses (February 1976)
If you enjoy this stuff, be sure to pick up the two Lester Bangs collections: Psychotic Reactions and Main Lines.
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Favorite line: with innocent listeners led and hyped and duped and doped, taught to grovel before drug-addled effeminate Limeys who once collected blues 78s and a few guitar lessons and think that that makes them torch-bearers; a hapless public, finally, of tender boys and girls pavlov’d into salivating greenbacks and stoking reds at the mere utterance of certain magic incantations like "supergroup" and "superstar," well, is it any wonder your poor average kid, cruisin’ addled down the street in vague pursuit of snatch or reds or rock mag newsstands, ain’t got no truck with the Stooges?
"A friend once asked me how I could bear to listen to Love Sculpture's version of "Sabre Dance," knowing that the producers had sped up the tape; I replied: "Anything a hand can do a machine can do better."
Weirdly, I was thinking about Love Sculpture's "Farandole" this afternoon. I had no idea that stuff was sped up.