Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'N'Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'N'Roll

It's taken me a long time to get into the book. At first, I didn't like it. My sense was that the personal style that Lester Bangs pioneered wasn't very informative. I put the book down for a while and started reading some other things. Over the summer, I was struck by what exactly I was reading. Reading Bangs is not just reading about his opinions, some of which might seem trivial or unsophisticated by contemporary standards. Reading Bangs is reading history in the making. The music he talks about is only part of this. He was a pioneer in a way of talking about not just music, but also in talking about the world. He is the expression of a new kind of consciousness about criticism and rhetoric. After that, I couldn't read him without feeling that his work was genius. Parts of his writing are nothing short of beautiful. You can really feel the way that music was changing and becoming something different. This book is brilliant. I will probably read parts of it over and over again for years to come. Reading it is like reading classic literature. It's not for everyone, and some parts are hard to get through. But once you have that feeling, the world is different.

Really good. Love this book.

Not ONLY the greatest rock writer ;Lester Bangs is one of the greatest american writers period . The short story he derived from Maggie May is the best short story I've ever read and worth the price of the book . He writes about More than Rock . Clearly he could have turned his talent to short stories , novels , or anywhere in writing and been brilliant . It's always a good sign , for me , when a book receives only 5 stars or 1 from reviewers here - reliably a sign of great work some readers just won't " get ". Roger Ebert called him one of the only critics worth reading for their writing alone . As with John Kennedy Toole , I mourn the loss of what we could've had . Alas it seems the way with so many , who whet our appetites with their artistic genius and leave us too soon . Best said in Kerouak's beautiful meditation - "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!". That , truly , WAS Lester Bangs . Thanks !

Reading Lester Bangs is something everyone should experience. His writing was so personal, so unique that I think it forever changed the face of criticism. All I could think when reading this book was "What would Lester write today?" I think he'd be more frustrated and angry about the state of 'rock music' than ever? If he had a problem with the shiny, plastic bands of the 70s? What the hell would he think of American Idol and The Voice today? What would he think of how ALL forms of music have become 'pop' and have all blended and morphed into one giant homogenized whole?Sometimes I think it's probably best that certain people die when they do (like Lester Bangs), because really if Lester didn't die when he did-he'd surely have wanted to blow himself up today! I can almost picture him self immolating after having to live through a decade of Brittany Spears, Christina Aguillera and bad rip-offs. . .he would probably be able to find some solace in the White Stripes and the Black Keys? But really, two bands with Black and White in their monikers does not a decade of popular rock music make! RIP Lester.

A simple average calculation has led me to giving this thing three stars only. Why? Because Lester's megatonic work is evidently the best thing you'll ever read (five stars and then some), but, unfortunately, Anchor's 1988 paperback edition (which is the item this page is about, the one you see pictured above) is truly pathetic (one star... and then less). This thing is printed so badly you have to GUESS whether you're looking at a period, a comma, a colon, a semicolon, ellipses... Question Mark and the MYSTERIANS, indeed! OK, so maybe it's possible I got the really short end of the damn stick and the problem is with my particular copy only. But if I were you, I'd stay away from this edition and try a different one, one in which you can enjoy Lester's writing in all its rockin' glory.

I had so much fun reading this book. It delivers the promise - rock n roll as literature and literature as rock n roll. On a sad side, this book, like anything by Hunter S Thompson, makes me wonder about writers who lived like rock n roll stars and burned out too early. Did Lester (like Hunter) establish a "gonzo" reputation that required excessive drinking and amphetamines only to burn out too young? Hindsight is 20-20. I kept rooting for Bangs to rally… to focus on his writing and avoid the booze. He seemed to have some much un-actualized talent. I would love to hear what he would have said about all the subsequent bands that came along. He missed MTV (for the most part) and grunge and Taylor Swift. I would have loved to hear his impressions.

An interesting and entertaining collection of Lester Bangs's critical commentaries on the state of the contemporary music scene during the 1970s.

If you are at all interested in Rock And Roll, buy this book.The cover is in tatters. I should have got a hardcover version. I carried this book with me wherever I went for months.But enough effusive praise; the real reason you should get this book is because the words, the diction, the sheer energy in the sentences are rare indeed, especially in the nonfiction world. This is a primer for writing itself. I wish I would have read this when I was in High School.The purchase pays for itself (intrinsically) with the chapter focusing on his correspondences between Lou Reed. Part Pop Culture history, part hyperbolic onslaught, part soap opera, part Oedipus, these pages are packed with drama.For weeks my boyfriend and I had the TV off and we read to eachother in bed. You won't be disappointed.

Compilação dos textos de um dos maiores e mais polêmicos críticos de música que já existiu. Essencial para fãs de música. Lester Bangs era único!

Required reading for any true audiophile. I love you Lester.

Fascinating to read his opinions on music from an era when it was worth listening to.

Lester Bangs es uno de los mayores críticos de rock de todos los tiempos, para mi, lo mejor de este libro es la forma en que Bangs combina la literatura, con la historia y cultura norteamericana para crear sus textos. Ojo, no es fácil de leer, dejando de lado el hecho de que está en inglés, la jerga sesentera norteamericana y las referencias culturales de la época son abundantes. Lo recomiendo para cuando estás adentrado en el rock and roll

explendido libro que no es si no el reflejo de un personaje legendario en el mundo de la musica y la critica musical