- Paperback: 331 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group (1 Jun 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0767905091
- ISBN-13: 978-0767905091
- Product Dimensions: 15.6 x 2 x 23.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,144,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product 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
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This engaging biography of Lester Bangs captures the essence of the legendary rock writer with great clarity. DeRogatis writes with passion by making Lester's passionate sense of life come alive, unlocking great swathes of rock culture and rock literature that I had not been aware of. It emerges that Bangs was a kind and likeable person with lots of integrity.
The book details his personal life but also serves as a history of rock criticism. The afterword covers his legacy in the work of music writers, in the lyrics of other artists, in his musical influence on certain alt-country bands, and in the book Psychotic Reactions, a compilation of his work by Greil Marcus.
The appendices include Lester's How To Be A Rock Critic: A Megatonic Journey and some of his lyrics. Let It Blurt provides copious notes, sources and a wonderful bibliography of Bangs' articles, reviews, books, contributions to anthologies and encyclopaedias, letters and recordings, plus articles about him by other authors.
The text is well illustrated throughout with black and white photographs of Bangs, other rock journalists and artists like Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. Let It Blurt is a classic, both as a fascinating life story and history of rock writing, and is a valuable reference source to the work of this seminal author.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
45 reviews
37 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Lester Bangs died for our sins
19 April 2000
Format:Paperback
Lester Bangs had the energy for writing that Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger had for rock and roll, back when they cared; and Lester Bangs never stopped caring. His writings deserve their legendary status, and a great reason to buy this book is to read more of them, in excerpt. But the story of his life is even more fascinating and poignant than you might have expected. These things make Let It Blurt a must-read for anyone who's taken the trouble to check out readers' reviews of this fine biography. It suffers, like most books on rock, from a glibness of tone, and perhaps even from Jim DeRogatis's reverence for Bangs - but make no mistake, it's riveting. Also included: lyrics to a few of Bangs' own songs, including the eponymous "Let It Blurt." The book makes me miss Lester Bangs more than ever.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Rock Journalism 101
6 July 2001
Format:Paperback
"Let it Blurt" is an important history lesson in the rock journalism and criticism that many of us take for granted. I for one never gave any thought to its origins, and assumed music reviews have been around since the advent of magazines. Little did I know that it was championed by charismatic dreamers, frustrated musicians, and firebrands who saw the forum as a way through which to turn others on to the music they were so passionate about. In a lot of ways, the early critics for magazines like Rolling Stone and Creem were like "old school" athletes- folks who weren't paid much, and did it for the love of the game. Lester Bangs wrote in order exorcise his own feelings about music, while broadcast his feelings to a broader audience, whether they took the form of passionate endorsements, angry tirades, or merely exorcised demons.
One of the salient points made by DeRogatis is that when Bangs wrote reviews, he used the word "we", so as to implicate the reading audience, "addressing his readers as fellow appreciators instead of mere consumers." In other words, Bangs was writing for the audience instead of to it. He was a music fan first, and a writer second. Now, however, reviewers seem more out to pitch product, or at the very least, to avoid confrontation or- God forbid- being blacklisted from a band or record company's party and/or press release invitation list.
As a character study/biography independent of a rock criticism history, the story of Lester Bangs is captivating. His celebrity was certainly unconventional, and on the periphery of the oft-told stories of rock stars. He had the addictive personality, the creativity, and the personal demons of a rock star, but communicated through a different- though overlapping- medium. He seemed like a loveable bear of a guy- no saint, to be sure- but someone you could have a few beers with while engaging in a frank discussion of (what's wrong with) your favorite band. Bangs clearly struggled with the unrealized dreams, girl problems, and increasingly-politically correct world that most of us do.
DeRogatis' research was impeccable, and it is clear that Bangs was a hero of his. Furthermore, the writings of Bangs that are quoted throughout make the book read like an interview. While DeRogatis clearly is biased in his admiration for Lester, his writing was never fawning, nor did it gloss over the character's flaws. Lastly, there is a well chosen piece from Bangs at the end- a sarcastic piece on how to be a rock critic. Anyone who enjoyed this book will surely be pursuing more of Bangs' writing. I know I will.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Lester Lived the Life, DeRogatis Did the Research
11 Aug 2000
Format:Paperback
Like many martyrs, Lester Bangs did not die for his cause, he WAS his cause and he died. This book does his life justice, because it lets Lester's writing, actions and body odor tell the good and bad of his story. I didn't finish this book feeling Lester was a God. I finished it feeling like I'd met someone who reveled in his humanity to the point where everyone who knew him either loved or hated him for doing so. Never before have I been so inspired by a writer -- not from reading his work, appendix one is the first of his writings I've ever read in its entirety -- but from simply reading about how he lived his life. The freedom and zeal with which he so naturally lived and wrote was truly a gift to me though it may have been a curse for him.
Turning to the author, I think DeRogatis' strong point is definitely his exhaustive, perfectly detailed research. His prose -- nothing special beyond its dutiful journalistic clarity -- serves his years of investigation well. I guess when you're reading a book about a literary stylist like Lester, the biographer's writing style can pale in comparison to even the few short examples of Lester's writing included in the book. But perhaps that's just another instance of Lester's expansive personality overshadowing everything around him -- even the pages of his own biography.
This book tells the story of one of the greatest characters in rock and roll AND American culture. Lester belongs in the same league as Woody Guthrie, Jack Kerouac and Andy Kaufman (who, in certain pictures, I thought he eerily resembled) -- artists cursed with a singular voice who lived in a society that refused to let it blurt loud enough.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Film, Television & Music > Music > Rock & Pop
- Books > Biography > Historical
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > History of Film > United States
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Rock & Pop > Styles
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Communication Studies > Media & Communication Industries > Television
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Cultural Studies > Popular Culture
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
