Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Conway Bangs needed a drink..." (more)
Key Phrases: album review, drug punk, jam tape, New York, Rolling Stone, Lou Reed (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Finally, the great American writer gets the book he deserves. Jim DeRogatis's Let It Blurt is a personal journey through the wit and the world and the ferocious spirit of Lester Bangs...it reads like rock and roll."
--Cameron Crowe

"Let It Blurt tells one of the essential rock and roll stories with great affection and panache. Lester Bangs--paradigm, mystery, great writer, tragicomic presence--has been given the biography he deserves...A splendid book."
--Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

"Lester Bangs lived fast, died young, and left a beautiful body of work. Jim DeRogatis, himself a gifted writer on rock and roll, knows both of Bangs's worlds--the music and the journalism--and has written an elegy for one of the few critics whose work is worth reading for itself, apart from its subjects."
--Roger Ebert

"To those who knew him, Lester Bangs was a force of nature, 'larger than life' and all such biz. For a mere book to capture the full sweep of his mind/body at speed and at rest may be too tall an order, but Let It Blurt is a welcome stab indeed at the whole Lester thing."
--Richard Meltzer -- Review

As Jim DeRogatis's readable and well-researched new biography of Bangs makes clear, he lived as exuberantly as he wrote. -- The New York Times Book Review, Dwight Garner

Review

"Finally, the great American writer gets the book he deserves. Jim DeRogatis's Let It Blurt is a personal journey through the wit and the world and the ferocious spirit of Lester Bangs...it reads like rock and roll."
--Cameron Crowe

"Let It Blurt tells one of the essential rock and roll stories with great affection and panache. Lester Bangs--paradigm, mystery, great writer, tragicomic presence--has been given the biography he deserves...A splendid book."
--Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

"Lester Bangs lived fast, died young, and left a beautiful body of work. Jim DeRogatis, himself a gifted writer on rock and roll, knows both of Bangs's worlds--the music and the journalism--and has written an elegy for one of the few critics whose work is worth reading for itself, apart from its subjects."
--Roger Ebert

"To those who knew him, Lester Bangs was a force of nature, 'larger than life' and all such biz. For a mere book to capture the full sweep of his mind/body at speed and at rest may be too tall an order, but Let It Blurt is a welcome stab indeed at the whole Lester thing."
--Richard Meltzer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; Later Printing edition (April 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767905091
• ISBN-13: 978-0767905091
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #344,757 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lester Bangs died for our sins, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock Journalism 101, July 6, 2001

By	buddyhead (Taxachusetts) - See all my reviews

"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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lester Lived the Life, DeRogatis Did the Research, August 11, 2000

By	Dave Miller (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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.