Let It Blurt

The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America’s Greatest Rock Critic

Bangsisms: The Wit and Wisdom of Lester Bangs

Style is originality; fashion is fascism.

 The two are eternally and unalterably opposed.

All it takes is insane persistence and a total disregard for everything but getting that yawp out if you gotta howl at the moon. And obviously most folks aren’t gonna howl at the moon just to prove a point.

Grossness is the truest criterion for rock ’n’ roll.

The cruder the clang and grind the more fun.

Lou Reed is my own hero principally because he stands for all the most fucked-up things that I could ever possibly conceive of. Which probably only shows the limits of my imagination.

Nobody reads about rock ’n’ roll because they’re interested in music, all of us peruse this trash because we wanna know what lurid snivelers all our heroes are so we can gloat over  them.

The only questions worth asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions tomorrow, and what the quality of life will be if the answer is no.

Don’t ask me why I obsessively look to rock ’n’ roll bands for some kind of model for a better society. I guess it’s just that I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for prophecy have been seeking its fulfillment ever since.

An Interview With Lester Bangs, April 14, 1982

Back to Contents

Forward to Published Reviews