2023-12-06 16:29:57
Republished by the heroic Tristram editions, Psychotic reactions & other gunshot carburetorsthe compilation of major rock critic texts Lester Bangs (1948-1982), arrived for the Christmas holidays. We’re diving back into it.
Between my readings of Bukowski, John Fante, Dostoyevsky and the avid listening of Coltrane (is it possible to get out of the lives of the song “My Favorite Things”?), the sum of Lester Bangs’ articles fell on me like meeting a new friend — I hear: we crossed paths on several occasions, but suddenly (that is to say under the influence of an unreasonable quantity of alcohol), we started to discuss our whims. We talked about our unfailing reverence for unvarnished (and sometimes very strange) records like Contact High Godz). We recognized that only one thing drives us to the core: sincerity. Whether it’s a hypnotic and noisy composition from the Velvet Underground, the raspy and transcendent sound of John Coltrane, or the beer cans littering our respective apartments, the background is the same. Above all, no compromises and pretenses, especially when we are talking about the only place where we have found a small place (which is not at all comfortable, on the contrary): music, literature. Obsessed by this search for sincerity (because it is a path that leads nowhere and never ends), Lester Bangs was nothing more than a rock critic – did he dream of anything better? In his article “John Coltrane Lives” for BelieveNovember 1972, shot on cameraAfrica/Brass from “Trane”, to Porto and Jack Daniel’s, he teaches a lesson to many short story writers and other convicts of the pen.
MIDDLE DIGRESSIONS
Above all, he infused the cultural press with the only touch that gives it meaning – providing people with an absolutely necessary reason to be interested in this mongrel, ambiguous, cramped, abysmal and vital space for a few losers dispassionate by boredom. die of the surrounding world, and tell them: “ My life is not great, like you, I’m broke, lost and on drugs, but this record is fucking awesome! »
His style ? A messy digression that sometimes leaves you somewhere else (the sentences follow one another, you listen to the cars go by), but its freedom of tone is exemplary; sentences that squeeze the heart, make you cry, and ultimately require at least ten pages (I counted 26) to cover the days of breakdown.
When I imagine my future library (gloomy perspective), next to the Brothers Karamazov (the incomparable absolute), Ask the dust, After the end et WordsLester Bangs will have his place to remind me to go listen again Metal Machine Musicphasing on this bright pink and yellow cover magnificently reissued by Tristram.
PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS & OTHER FUNDED CARBURETORS
Lester Bangs
Translated by Jean-Paul Mourlon
(Tristram, 559 pages, 19,90 €)
By Alexis Lacourte
1701892422
#Book #month #Psychotic #Reactions #gunshot #carburetors