Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.8 / 5.0

No surprise:

that this tome gets five stars from everyone. Lester Bangs turned rock writing into a respectable craft. Critic, philosopher and party animal Bangs praises his heroes to the skies-The Velvet Underground, Iggy and The Stooges, The Troggs(!)- in gargantuan essays with the glee of Kerouac, and vilifies the artists who he feels are wrecking rock and roll with incisive precision, slaughtering sacred cows like Elvis, Elton John, James Taylor and John Lennon. Bangs clamors for the reckless spirit of rock to save... more info

Car-bu-rett-or:

A wonderful, extensive collection of writings by Lester Bangs, a great, dead rock critic from the 70's. During the decade he championed a range of socially-unacceptable bands, moving from Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground to Punk, and on to the New Wave, whilst simultaneously informing the public against such contemporary delights as Chicago, and James Taylor. As you turn the page you can see him change as a writer and as a person - originally writing in a sub-Beat jive-style he sharpens up as the decade... more info

If it hurts - let it blurt:

I can't judge whether this tome (or the newer release, "Mainlines") is a truly comprehensive and accurate portrayal of Lester Bangs, since I only became aware of his work long after his death. What I can say is that "Psychotic Reactions" is an endlessly fascinating, hilarious, depressing, sardonic, joyful, frightening, and unique collection of material from one of the greatest non-fiction writers of our time.

Greil Marcus, faced with the incredible task of creating a compendium of Lester's thousands of... more info

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