- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLeslie Conway Bangs
- Nickname
- Lester
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Noted rock music critic and journalist Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was born on December 13, 1948 in Escondido, California. His mother Norma Belle was a Jehovah's Witness while his Conway Lesley Bangs was a drunk and a truck driver who died in a fire when Bangs was only nine years old. Lester was raised by his mother in El Cajon in San Diego County, California. Lester attended El Cajon Valley High School and developed in interest in such things as writing, jazz music, science fiction, and comic books while growing up as a kid. Bangs briefly went to San Diego State College in 1968 before eventually dropping out and had his first album review published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1969. Lester continued to write album reviews for Rolling Stone up until 1973 when editor/publisher Jann Wenner fired Bangs for disrespecting musicians in his reviews. (He was eventually rehired by Rolling Stone in 1979.)
Lester started writing album reviews for the Detroit, Michigan-based rock publication Creem in August, 1970. Bangs subsequently moved to Detroit to became a member of the staff and a head writer for Creem, which he remained a key part of before quitting the magazine in 1976. During his time at Creem Lester established himself as an expert on the burgeoning punk rock music movement of the 1970's and carved a niche for himself as one of the most colorful, distinctive, and opinionated rock music critics of his generation. Outside of Creem, Bangs also wrote for a variety of publications that include Fusion, Playboy, Penthouse, New Musical Express, and Phonograph Record Magazine. After parting ways with Creem Lester moved to New York City and wrote a slew of album reviews for the newspaper The Village Voice. Moreover, Bangs also recorded a few singles and albums as well as wrote a controversial book on the New Wave band Blondie. Lester died at the tragically young age of thirty-three on April 30, 1982 from an accidental drug overdose at his apartment in New York City. Widely hailed as one of the all-time great pioneers of gonzo rock music criticism, his love and passion for music continues to live on in perpetuity in his highly charged and inimitable writing.- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders
- Rock music critic.
- Mentioned by name in the lyrics of the song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M..
- Was played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the film Almost Famous (2000).
- His first published album review was for the album "Kick Out the Jams" by the MC5. It was published by Rolling Stone magazine in April, 1969.
- Struggled with alcoholism throughout his adult life.
- Corporations are social organizations, the theater in which men and women realize or fail to realize purposeful and productive lives.
- Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.
- Nothing ever quite dies, it just comes back in a different form.
- When kids can't afford to see it anymore maybe we'll have a whole resurgence of garage bands all over America and this New Wave thing will start to mean something on a grass roots level.
- The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious.
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