Bookshelf: Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs by Jim DeRogatis

"Biographies are, for some idiosyncratic reason, practically my favorite reading matter. I've read 'em all, from Malcolm X, to Tennessee Williams, to Joan Baez" - Lester Bangs, 1976

Jim DeRogatis opens his Lester Bangs biography with "Sometimes Lester was full of shit". The same sort of jolt reaction Lester himself used to lure readers in with. Bangs' influence on DeRogatis' writing is clear from the off - he spins his words with the same passion. And with the same feeling of disregard for the rules in favor of the reader.

Of course one might ask what worth is in a biography of Bangs who spent his career in rock journalism. The last few years stuck in it and trying to get away. Bangs' never really started on his novel - despite the title All My Friends Are Hermits becoming synonymous with his unfulfilled ambitions - beyond scribbles and notes. If you read a musician or filmmakers biography for the stories behind the art, then what is to be made of the man who comments on the art?

Bangs' story is an interesting one. Very depressing, but essential if you've already been through the two published Bangs collections. DeRogatis follows Lester's life from outcasted kid in the nowhere town of El Cajon to his time as a published writer - 1969 to 1982 - in which he built up a body of work that frequently gets him called the greatest rock critic of all time.

DeRogatis, although a lively author, does little analysis of Lester. Instead he lays all of Lester out, allowing you to scan for what it is you want. I imagine if you've bought this book you've probably romantasized Bangs to the point of hyperbolic hysterics, which is exactly what the man was doing to himself. If so, you'll end up scanning for some explanation to Lester, what allowed him to write with such life and passion and react to stories so quickly. And why he could scan the music landscape and come up with answers while everyone else was so blind they had no choice but to buy into the hype. Of course there's no explanation. It's worth the ride though, demythologizing his persona; giving backstory to the more personal pieces Lester wrote.

The actual influences that DeRogatis brings up aren't particularly unique for a writer of the 70s. Lester loved the beats, devouring the twisted imagery of William S Burroughs but focusing his writing around the "spontaneous prose" of Jack Kerouac. In the early 70s Lester managed to get his writing, a beat style novel titled Drug Punk, to another beat - Allen Ginsberg - who liked his writing and said it was full of "Salingerisms". Another way of complementing Bangs' conversational style, very unique for the times and pre-dating the personal blogging style it so closely resembles by a few decades.

I won't lie: there was a shred of hope that the journey to Lester's talent would be written out here in a simple step by step guide. DeRogatis makes it clear I'm not the only one: people would travel to the offices of Creem - the first real output that seemed suited to the Bangsian style - and quiz Lester on how to write like him. DeRogatis himself was a young disciple, and while still in high school he hunted Lester down for an interview in 1982 - excerpts of which appearing throughout. None of the people wanting to be Lester, not even those who spoke to him and got his advice, seemed able to mimic his style. Lester's first advice was usually not to copy him.

Lester's life story is an explanation, though. He was a Jehovah's Witness as a child, which he hated; and after that how could he give blind faith to anything again? His father died in a fire when he was just a young boy; how could he go back to life day in day out and not question it? Let It Blurt makes the case that the term "writer" isn't at all too broad; not when something like "rock journalist" is so restrictive. At least to Bangs. If you read this book then you'll find out a lot about Lester, a lot of it depressing, some of it inspiring. But just reading his work will let you know a person as well. A persona maybe, but a one that lived and breathed nonetheless. He wrote about everything, about feminism and racism and solipsism and relationships and culture at large. It's all under the banner of rock journalism but maybe that just makes it even more genius. That's why he's loved by so many: because to read him is to see a new view of the world from someone else's eyes.