Lester Bangs Quotes

• The first mistake of art is to assume that it’s serious.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Art, Mistake

  Tags in Music, Assume

• The great thing about The Clash of course is that they keep searching for answers beyond that.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Searching, Beyond, Clash, Answer

• Nothing ever quite dies, it just comes back in a different form.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Dies

• No, I see it as meaning very little at the moment because none of the groups are about anything.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Groups, Meaning

• As far as a truly radical conscience, you have to take it as part of a larger thing, that it was sort of historical inevitability that with the coming of a leaguer society people would start to use drugs a lot more then they had before.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Radical, Inevitability, Truly, Conscience

• Basically no, I mean I think that it’s very easy to like I say, smoke a joint or even to wear a Chairman Mao button, or do a lot of these things with out knowing what’s behind it, and what it really means.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Chairman, Mao, Smoke, Knowing

• In fact I think now we’ve reached a point now, where the powers that be really have sort of vested interest in all of us being stoned out as much as possible all the time so we don’t know what’s going on, and we don’t care.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Power

  Tags in Reached, Vested, Interest

• Here we are in the 70’s when everything really is horrible and it really stinks. The mass media, everything on television everything everywhere is just rotten. You know it’s just really boring and really evil, ugly and worse.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Stinks, Worse, Rotten, Boring

• It’s much easier to wear a Chairman Mao button and shake your fists in the air and all that, then to actually read the Communist manifesto and things like that and actually become involved in politics.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Mao, Fists, Communist, Wear

• 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.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Afford, Roots, Resurgence, Anymore, Wave

• Most of them are pretty down records, pretty unhappy, pretty confused. Which only reflects how people in general were feeling, I mean really the sense that you get is society running down.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Confused, Reflects, Unhappy

• The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Contempt, Entertainment, Performer, Ultimate

• Corporations are social organizations, the theater in which men and women realize or fail to realize purposeful and productive lives.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Corporations, Theater, Productive, Fail

• I mean it’s easier to be in a demonstration if it’s a trip that’s one of the reasons why the whole thing fell apart in 1971, because it wasn’t a trip any longer.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Demonstration, Easier, Apart

• Or like in the early 70’s when we had the reaction against acid rock and all the fuzz tone, and feedback, and the noise. And you had James Taylor and everyone went acoustic and that.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Acoustic, Fuzz, Reaction

• I mean the interesting thing I think would be if something happened like, what happened in England where all these kids that all of a sudden can’t afford the ticket prices.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Ticket, Afford, Happened

• And doing so you can recreate yourself and you can also come up with something that is not only original and creative and artistic, but also maybe even decent, or moral if I can use words like that, or something that’s like basically good.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Artistic, Creative, Recreate, Original

• No I don’t think it was a myth at all, anymore than what the recession that the whole country was experiencing was a myth, which obviously seems like it’s going to get worse and worse.

  Lester Bangs

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Recession, Myth, Worse

• The thing is that, they all had real strong personalities and real distinct identities, and I don’t find most of the groups that are coming out now really do.

  Lester Bangs

  Tags in Identities

• That’s one reason why it’s pretty worthless, I can’t totally buy it, if you think about it, it’s things like the Phil Spector records. On one level they were rebellion, on another level they were keeping the teenager in his place.

  Lester Bangs

  Tags in Buy, Rebellion, Totally, Teenager

Lester Bangs (25)

Birth:	13th December, 1948
Death:	30th April, 1982
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Critic, Journalist

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Births

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Deaths

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• 1946 - Walter Perry Johnson
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