1) I had never read any Lester Bangs but found this for ¥500 at a local used bookstore buried near the staircase.
2) Lester Bangs is probably the only writer I know who most celebrates amphetamines out of all drug options. Even HST and Irvine Welsh seem to relegate speed to a lower echelon. Bangs drones on and on about how great speed is. Needless to say it also sets the pace of his prose.
3) If you want to read Lester Bangs, have Wikipedia open and be ready to do some book learnin' on obscure 1960s garage bands and mid-period Lou Reed records you've never actually heard. The opening essay on The Count Five is hilarious only if you have an incredibly tight grasp on the musical career of The Count Five, which no one does and probably didn't back in the day either. You are probably not huge into the band Slade, I am guessing. Add that to the research list.
4) Bangs' episode with the J. Geils Band is probably the only good thing ever written that includes the J. Geils Band.
5) I had to go back and listen to a lot of Stooges records, which reminded me of New York around 2002.
6) Bangs' writing about Lou Reed is great even if you aren't into Lou Reed.
7) Finally someone creates literature about Tangerine Dream!
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