nino_savatte said:
nino
i want to read that parsons/ burchill book now, not sure if its actually worth £17 quid though
'How to be a rock 'n roll critic- by Lester Bangs
- Thread starter Cheesypoof
- Start date
nino
i want to read that parsons/ burchill book now, not sure if its actually worth £17 quid though
nino_savatte
No pasaran!
Cheesypoof said:nino
i want to read that parsons/ burchill book now, not sure if its actually worth £17 quid though
It isn't worth the money. You should see if someone has a copy that they might let you borrow. That said, I think most copies of the book have been pulped. I don't even think you'd find it in a library...well, the British Library would probably have a copy, but you'd have to go to your local library first and try and order it from there.
nino_savatte said:
is it a load of overelaborated drug-fuelled gunk then?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
So you repeatedly inform us.Cheesypoof said:ah stop it dude, get back in your box Panda!I get paid for 'mangling the english language' very well apparently, accurately and very passionately - theres a dear.
About a dozen pages of pics, in a fairly skinny (100 or so pages?) book.
It doesn't sadden me at all. I reckon he'd have made the same bollix of it that Hunter S. Thompson did by trying too hard to be "literary".The thing that saddens me most about Lester is that he never did actually write the novel he intended...he never did get round to writing his magnum opus
You're missing the point, which is that besides having a idol notice you (a good thing in itself, it means you've ARRIVED!!!), any publicity is good publicity, especially if (as you'd be aware if you were reading the music press in the mid to late seventies and early 1980s) you bear in mind how many music journos absolutely hated Lester Bangs with a passion, and would champion bands he disliked purely because he disliked them.theres a wicked bit in his biography (which i highly, highly recommend), where hes at the party that REM sing about in the song 'The end of the world as we know it' and Lester calls Michael stipe and the other dork 'assholes' and they feel like flattered to be called something like that by Lester - what a bunch of assholes!!!
For REM Lester mentioning them would have been a major result.
ViolentPanda said:
yeh VP this having 'idols' notice you and therefore 'arriving?' is a nonsense way to be acknowledged isnt it?
people that need this affirmation are pretty vacuous IMO. Having said that I would not be one bit proud of Lester Bangs thinking I was an asshole! I would be quite upset for such a dead cool mofo, and all round nice guy like Lester to think I was an asshole. But I sure as hell wouldnt sell it as some sort of a badge of honour like they sort of did!
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
NVP said:
Only a few (or do you just mean his most famous outpouring
)?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
phildwyer said:
I don't need to. JB himself refused to claim he invented "funk", he said that members of his band brought funk with them when they left off playing for Little Richard, and that what he did was get them to play their funky music "on the one" rather than off the backbeat.
Me, I'll take JB's word for it (he mentions all this in "I Feel Good"), rather than jazzzs', thanks all the same.
Or are you, in your normal contrary manner, going to claim that JB didn't know what he was talking about?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
It depends on your point of view.Cheesypoof said:
To the fans, their idols being brought to wider public attention may be unwelcome, but to the band themselves, if they're looking for a wider listener base, it's not nonsense at all, especially if you're noticed by someone you respect.
Cheesy, be honest, you'd be thoroughly chuffed that Lester had noticed you at all!people that need this affirmation are pretty vacuous IMO. Having said that I would not be one bit proud of Lester Bangs thinking I was an asshole! I would be quite upset for such a dead cool mofo, and all round nice guy like Lester to think I was an asshole. But I sure as hell wouldnt sell it as some sort of a badge of honour like they sort of did!
ViolentPanda said:It depends on your point of view.
To the fans, their idols being brought to wider public attention may be unwelcome, but to the band themselves, if they're looking for a wider listener base, it's not nonsense at all, especially if you're noticed by someone you respect.
Cheesy, be honest, you'd be thoroughly chuffed that Lester had noticed you at all!
No VP, hypothetically i would be well upset if he didnt like me - I would rather nothing was said as i would remember it forever. i am like that if i am spurned by people who I think understand good quality. Has never happened before though, quite the opposite
maybe it would though, with you!
Johnny Canuck3
Well-Known Member
Cheesypoof said:Apart from all that, i think sometimes, superlfuity is totally allowed where passion is concerned and on a Lester Bangs thread, considering how far out on a limb he went - of all people lester - i am fully excused.
.
This is the most delicately and delightfully crafted piece of candyfloss-spun bull that I've come across all morning!
Johnny Canuck2 said:
And THAT would arguably be a great way to describe some of Lesters work too!
ViolentPanda said:I don't need to. JB himself refused to claim he invented "funk", he said that members of his band brought funk with them when they left off playing for Little Richard, and that what he did was get them to play their funky music "on the one" rather than off the backbeat.
Me, I'll take JB's word for it (he mentions all this in "I Feel Good"), rather than jazzzs', thanks all the same.
Or are you, in your normal contrary manner, going to claim that JB didn't know what he was talking about?
The difference between JB and all preceding RnB is that every instrument in JB's band, including the vocals, plays as part of the "rhythm section," thus making the very concept of such a "section" obsolete. Anyone who can't hear the difference between "PGABNB" and all preceding RnB has cloth ears.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
phildwyer said:
None of which has anything to do with JB having "invented" funk or not, phil.
ViolentPanda said:I'd say "you couldn't make it up, could you?", but Cheesy clearly does.
yes, and gets paid very well apparently for it
thank god we have someone on these boards who's a PROPER writer, eh?
ViolentPanda said:
i was pushing the concept far on an elastic limb for necessary reinforcement. Pushing that far makes a point more exciting sometimes and less boring, its up to the reader whether they are going to interpret something that isnt wrong, in a very literal, rule-following way, as you have chosen.
that's the single most bullshit post I've ever read on urban, even from you cheesy.
Dubversion said:yes, and gets paid very well apparently for it
thank god we have someone on these boards who's a PROPER writer, eh?
i am yeh dubs but i dont get paid very well for it. better than most my age but its not a field of work with that much money...
thread derail alert.
Has anyone out there - anyone - got Lester's review of The Carpenters please? The only place I can find it is on rocknrollbackpages.com, and you have to subscribe to it. I will do this and publish the review on here if no one has it....
Dubversion said:that's the single most bullshit post I've ever read on urban, even from you cheesy.
well i am hardly gonna ask you to umake sense of it am i? you only like stuff spelt out for you - thats why i am so surprised you like lester...probably the most verbose man i have ever read
again - anyone got The Carpenters Lester review from Creem, back in the 70's?
Cheesypoof said:
ah, my understanding's fine thanks very much.
Your constant attempts to cover your ignorance with wackiness and incoherent nonsense is the problem
Dubversion said:ah, my understanding's fine thanks very much.
Your constant attempts to cover your ignorance with wackiness and incoherent nonsense is the problem
lol.
am i gonna have to spell it out for you?
you really need to think more carefully about who you're going to patronise, cheesy
Dubversion said:you really need to think more carefully about who you're going to patronise, cheesy
patronise? no chance.
back to Lester. if anyone has The Carpenters review and would care to send a link, i'd be very, very grateful!
Has anyone read the link in the OP yet?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Cheesypoof said:
Or, if we translate your statement into standard English:
"I was stretching the truth in the hope of making the concept more sexy. If you decide that I'm spewing a gout of dogspunk from my lips then you're an establishment git".
Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy, even Martin Amis had learned (the hard way) by his mid-twenties that style is no replacement for substance.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Dubversion said:yes, and gets paid very well apparently for it
thank god we have someone on these boards who's a PROPER writer, eh?
I, for one, am forever grateful that we have someone on the board who's more whimsical than Adrian Thrills, more down and dirty than Steven Wells, more opinionated than Julie Burchill and just as pompous as Robert Christgau (let's face it, it's impossible to be more pompous than Christgau
).Honest!
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