. . . rock and roll, as I see it, is the ultimate populist art form, democracy in action, because it's true: anybody can do it. Lester Bangs More Quotes by Lester Bangs More Quotes From Lester Bangs They wouldn't be heroes if they were infallible, in fact they wouldn't be heroes if they weren't miserable wretched dogs, the pariahs of the earth, besides which the only reason to build up an idol is to tear it down again. Lester Bangs idolsherodog The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious. Lester Bangs mistakeartfirsts Good rock 'n' roll is something that makes you feel alive. It's something that's human, and I think that most music today isn't. ... To me good rock 'n' roll also encompasses other things, like Hank Williams and Charlie Mingus and a lot of things that aren't strictly defined as rock 'n' roll. Rock 'n' roll is an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's a way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock 'n' roll, or a movie can be rock 'n' roll. It's a way of living your life. Lester Bangs writingattitudethinking Style is originality; fashion is fascism. The two are eternally and unalterably opposed. Lester Bangs stylefashiontwo Music, you know, true music not just rock 'n' roll, chooses you. Lester Bangs rock-n-rollrocksknows Don’t ask me why I obsessively look to rock ’n’ roll bands for some kind of model for a better society. I guess it’s just that I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for prophecy have been seeking its fulfillment ever since. Lester Bangs rocksbeautifullooks I'm not saying that all college students are subhuman - I'm just saying that if you aim to spend a few years mastering the art of pomposity, these are places where you can be taught by undisputed experts. Lester Bangs collegeyearsart The only questions worth asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions tomorrow, and what the quality of life will be if the answer is no. Lester Bangs qualityaskinganswers Look at it this way: There are many here among us for whom the life force is best represented by the livid twitching of one tortured nerve, or even a full-scale anxiety attack. I do not subscribe to this point of view 100 percent, but I understand it, have lived it. Thus the shriek, the caterwaul, the chainsaw gnarlgnashing, the yowl and the whizz that decapitates may be reheard by the adventurous or emotionally damaged as mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation. Lester Bangs anxietynervesviews A hero is a goddam stupid thing to have in the first place and a general block to anything you might wanta accomplish on your own. Lester Bangs blockstupidhero I'll probably never produce a masterpiece, but so what? I feel I have a Sound aborning, which is my own, and that Sound if erratic is still my greatest pride, because I would rather write like a dancer shaking my ass to boogaloo inside my head, and perhaps reach only readers who like to use books to shake their asses, than to be or write for the man cloistered in a closet somewhere reading Aeschylus while this stupefying world careens crazily past his waxy windows toward its last raving sooty feedback pirouette. Lester Bangs readingwritingbook Realizing that life is precious the natural tendency is to trample on it, like laughing at a funeral. Lester Bangs life-is-preciousfunerallaughing At its best new wave/punk represents a fundamental and age-old Utopian dream: that if you give people the license to be as outrageous as they want in absolutely any fashion they can dream up, they'll be creative about it, and do something good besides. Lester Bangs fashiondreampeople The whole point of American culture is to pick up any old piece of trash and make it shine with more facets than the Hope Diamond. Lester Bangs piecesshiningculture Sometimes I think nothing is simple but the feeling of pain. Lester Bangs painsimplethinking Personally I feel that real rock 'n' roll may be on the way out, just like adolescence as a relatively innocent transitional period is on the way out. What we have instead is a small island of new free music surrounded by some good reworkings of past idioms and a vast sargasso sea of absolute garbage. Lester Bangs realislandspast ... the twin concepts of nihilism and the antihero have had it. What began with The Wild One and James "nobody understands me" Dean, ran with increasing vehement negativism up through the Stones and Velvets and Iggy ... [I]t may be time, in spite of all indications to the contrary from the exterior society, to begin thinking in terms of heroes again, of love instead of hate, of energy instead of violence, of strength instead of cruelty, of action instead of reaction. Lester Bangs hateherothinking Rock'n'roll is an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock'n'roll, or a movie can be rock'n'roll. It's a way of living your life. Lester Bangs rockswritingattitude Rock is for everybody; it should be so implicitly anti-elitist that the question of whether somebody's qualified to perform it should never even arise. Lester Bangs rocksariseshould The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience. Lester Bangs contemptsinreality
