16 Facts About Lester Bangs

Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, critic, author, and musician.

Lester Bangs wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock music criticism.

Lester Bangs was the son of Norma Belle and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver.

When Bangs was 11, he moved with his mother to El Cajon, in San Diego County.

Lester Bangs had a connection with The San Diego Door, an underground newspaper of the late 1960s.

Lester Bangs became a freelance writer in 1969, after reading an ad in Rolling Stone soliciting readers' reviews.

Lester Bangs's first accepted piece was a negative review of the MC5 album Kick Out the Jams, which he sent to Rolling Stone with a note requesting, if the magazine were to decline to publish the review, that he be given a reason for the decision; no reply was forthcoming, as the magazine did indeed publish the review.

In 1973, Jann Wenner fired Lester Bangs from Rolling Stone for "disrespecting musicians" after a particularly harsh review of the group Canned Heat.

Lester Bangs was enamored of the noise music of Lou Reed, and Creem gave significant exposure to artists such as Reed, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Captain Beefheart, Blondie, Brian Eno, and the New York Dolls years earlier than the mainstream press.

Lester Bangs won a 1984 Grammy Award for his liner notes on The Fugs Greatest Hits, Volume 1.

Lester Bangs died in New York City on April 30,1982, at the age of 33; he was self-medicating a bad case of the flu and accidentally overdosed on dextropropoxyphene, diazepam, and NyQuil.

At the time of his death, Lester Bangs appeared to be listening to music.

Later that night, Lester Bangs's friend found him unresponsive, lying on a couch in his apartment.

Lester Bangs's criticism was filled with cultural references, not only to rock music but to literature and philosophy.

On one occasion, while the J Geils Band were playing in concert, Bangs climbed onto the stage, typewriter in hand, and proceeded to type a supposed review of the event, in full view of the audience, banging the keys in rhythm with the music.

In 1977, at the famous New York City nightclub, CBGB, while Lester Bangs was talking to guitarist Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone's brother, the idea for a band named "Birdland" came to fruition.