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

By: Jim Derogatis

Published April 18th 2000 by Broadway Books (first published April 2000)

Category: Biography

Pages: 352 pages

ISBN: 9780767905091

Description:
Let it Blurt is the raucous and righteous biography of Lester Bangs (1949-82)Ðthe gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock criticism. No writer on rock ÔnÕ roll ever lived harder or wrote betterÐmore passionately, more compellingly, more penetratingly. He lived the rock ÔnÕ roll lifestyle, guzzling booze and Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that erupted from the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice. Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher, louder, more electric, and more alive, in the course of which he charted and defined the aesthetics of heavy metal and punk. He was treated as a peer by such brash visionaries as Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Debbie Harry, and other luminaries.

Let it Blurt is a scrupulously researched account of Lester BangsÕs fascinating (if often tawdry and unappetizing) life story, as well as a window on rock criticism and rock culture in their most turbulent and creative years. It includes a never-before-published piece by Bangs, the hilarious "How to Be a Rock Critic," in which he reveals the secrets of his dubious, freeloading trade.