Rating: 
Summary: The greatest essay collection of all time
Review: "Don't ask me why I obsessively look to rock and roll bands as 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 a prophecy, have been seeking its fulfillment ever since."
These words found their way to me as I browsed Lester's article on the Clash, and became my rallying cry. How can you not love a book written by a man who can so clearly encapsulate what being a fan of the loud, sweaty music we call rock and roll is all about
Rating:
Summary: Pulsates with the same rhythms as the music it chronicles
Review: "Literature as rock and roll / rock and roll as literature," declares the subhead on the title. We've heard that before, and, frankly, most of us have learned that the two are best preserved in their separate but equal provinces. Most writers simply can't dance, and the Dylans of the world are few and far between. But Bangs has actually bridged the gap; his syntactical rhythms are those of R&B, his cadences those of the garage bands he might have done more to immortalize than all the DJs, A&R men, and bands themselves ever did.The ostensible topic of each essay becomes a jumping off point for an extended meditation on some cultural matter of far greater import than the album or performance under review, but like the best musicians, Bangs never lets these extended jams get out of control; the basic theme upon which he's elaborating never wholly disappears. In discussing why he wants "James Taylor Marked for Death," Bangs re-writes the history of proto-punk by telling us the story of the Troggs, embellished with all manner of fanciful elaboration, and makes the case for what would eventually become punk. In his essays on racism in the punk movement, he turns his incisive beams upon himself, and not merely others, and find the roots of the problem in everyman. After paeans to Iggy, Lou reed, the NY Dolls, and other early punk bands finally getting their due, Marcus includes the penultimate essay, which chronicles a tour of England with the then up-and-coming Clash, is as fine a piece of writing as I've ever read. Penned in installments, one senses Bangs' growing excitement as he gradually becomes aware that this music and this movement is the incarnation of every rock and roll fantasy he's ever dreamed; it becomes the story, not merely of a band's success, but of a spirtual journey as well--though bangs was far too shrewd to ever write in that vein.
Bangs would die two years after writing that piece, athe age of 33. The lifestyle killed him; but he wouldn't have been the writer he was had he lived differently. He lived long enough to see the music which he coined the word "punk" to define transform the pretentious rock world of the 70's that he loathed. This work is a testament to the goodness and purity that remains under all of the dross, and I thank Greil Marcus for rescusitating these writings for those of us who remeber Bangs' reviews in old Creem magazines, and for those who never knew him.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Outrageous & Outrageously Beautiful
Review: A great collection of essays by a unique Rock critic. Contains what I consider to be the most beautiful Rock essay ever written: Lester's piece on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks (which was originally published in another great book titled "Stranded"). Other noteworthy writings form Bangs include everything and anything he's ever written about Lou Reed and the Clash. Highly recommended. It's one of those books you don't need to read in sequence; just open it anywhere and start reading. Beautiful (yet sometimes ugly), outrageous (yet often touching), but always heartfelt.
Rating:
Summary: Car-bu-rett-or
Review: A wonderful, extensive collection of writings by Lester Bangs, a great, dead rock critic from the 70's. During the decade he championed a range of socially-unacceptable bands, moving from Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground to Punk, and on to the New Wave, whilst simultaneously informing the public against such contemporary delights as Chicago, and James Taylor. As you turn the page you can see him change as a writer and as a person - originally writing in a sub-Beat jive-style he sharpens up as the decade wears on, and you feel sorry that he didn't live to see the rest of the 80's and the 90's. Quite what he would have made of grunge, MTV, Madonna, acid house, I don't know.Unlike many other rock critics, Bangs gives the impression that he actually likes music, that he still has faith, and that he doesn't want to use rock writing as a vehicle for self-promotion. Coming off as an American John Peel, you can even forgive the casual racism of some of the earlier pieces, especially as he recants later on in the book. Not all of it works very well - some of the more freeform pieces make you realise why Editors exist, and a lot of the book depends on whether you share his philosophy on rock (basically, but not entirely - good music comes from the heart, even when it isn't 'good', and not necessarily the head). Besides, any book with a whole chapter devoted to Lou Reed's legendary 'Metal Machine Music' is worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
Review: Although a fine collection of Bangs's work in its own right, 'Psychotic Reactions and Carburator Dung' is not as good an introduction to Lester's writing as the recently released 'Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader." While 'Psychotic Reactions' editor Greil Marcus chooses to focus more on Bangs as a prose stylist and cough syrup-chugging wildman, 'Mainlines'
editor John Morthland presents a more definitive overall sampling of Bangs's critic ideas and opinions. Nevertheless, there is plenty of Bangs's best here, including the title piece, "The White Noise Supremacists," "A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise" and the entire fourth section of the book, which collects Lester musings on the life and career of Lou Reed.
Rating:
Summary: Lester Bangs: Possibly the best writer ever??
Review: Although Lester Bangs is known to most people as simply a rock critic, this book shows that he is so much more! Lester manages to take the format of the "review" and add his somehow life-justifying observations, experiences, and feelings of daily life. He is able to express things beautifully that I have felt my whole life, but could not adequatly express myself(which is to me a sign of a great writer). Lester Bangs is truly one of the greatest (and most entertaining) writers of the modern age. Think that might be an overstatement? Read this book, and you might understand.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Bangs' article on The Godz may well be the most hilarious ever on any rock band. The mere memory of it cracks me up. Their music was so godawful I blasted one of their lps apart with a BB gun. Kinda wish I'd read this first. Oh well, thanks, Lester. The world isn't the same after you've read Lester Bangs and you can't say that about many writers!
Rating:
Summary: fester gangs
Review: boy was i sad when i left my copy of this on the daggone bronx bound d train. bangs' writing is completely uninhibited and it's solid as rock. i wish i'd been a creem reader back inna day.
Rating:
Summary: 70s Culture Potion
Review: Greil Marcus, the editor that compiled the Lester Bangs reviews in this book, shows editorial grace by leaving a piece called "from Untitled Notes 1981" as the last entry in this collection. In it, Bangs summarizes his feelings towards most of the groups he has reviewed throughout the book, and it comes down to a variation on the saying "It's not the meat, It's the motion", or in this case, "It's not the beat, It's the emotion". How else can you justify pages and pages of Bangs' favorable reviews of such groups such as the Godz, Suicide, MC5, Count Five, and Question Mark and the Mysterians, all seemingly county-fair fodder. The rest of the well-reviewed cast, better known entities such as Richard Hell and the Voidoids, The Velvet Underground, The Clash, The Stooges, are deservingly included as the acommercial agitators that they were. The reviled are also included, to round it out. But, the most interesting pieces, by far, are those concerning Lou Reed. You can almost hear Bangs calls him, "Your Travesty, Your Royal Lowness". He despises him and worships him at the same time. (Lou Reed receives mention throughout the book, including reverential treatment in said Untitled Notes.) I think Lester Bangs was the type of person, who, rather than picturing a calm beachy scene as the focus for a meditative relaxation, would rather listen to Metal Machine Music with earphones until his senses are so assualted that he dissolves into a trascendent Tibetan Buddhist high. What Greil Marcus is showing in this book is that with Lester, who had a captivating writing style, it's not the need, it the devotion.
Rating:
Summary: If it hurts - let it blurt
Review: I can't judge whether this tome (or the newer release, "Mainlines") is a truly comprehensive and accurate portrayal of Lester Bangs, since I only became aware of his work long after his death. What I can say is that "Psychotic Reactions" is an endlessly fascinating, hilarious, depressing, sardonic, joyful, frightening, and unique collection of material from one of the greatest non-fiction writers of our time. Greil Marcus, faced with the incredible task of creating a compendium of Lester's thousands of works, arranged them in a way that tell a story, and provide an autobiographical arc. Lester was a rock and roll fan in the purest and most heartbreaking sense - he romanticized it completely, and idolized those who took the most romantic (read: tragic) rock and roll stances. People like Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Richard Hell. As a writer who was a fan, he was destined to be let down, but he knew that, and saw the humor in it. More importanly, though - the man could WRITE. His articles, and even fragments, are thorougly entertaining, and stand up to multiple readings. And while Marcus has been knocked for his arrangement, he should be praised for presenting the growth, and growing sadness, of a fan as he became alienated from his love of music. "Psychotic Reactions" gets my strongest recommendations. I have two copies, because I'm always loaning one out - and it never gets returned, which doesn't surprise me in the least.
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