LESTER BANGS & THE DELINQUENTS - Jook Savages on the Brazos,LP, 1981, USA
Lester Bangs and the Delinquents
Lester Bangs recorded an album with the Austin, Texas base Punk group "The Delinquents" in 1980, entitled "Jook Savages on the Brazos". It was quoted that, "Lester's album with the Delinquents was the predecessor of so-called alternative-country bands such as Wilco and Son Volt".
Lester Bangs Bio
Lester Bangs Bio
Lester Bangs died April 30,1982 and his legend still lives on in music, movies, and books.
He started as a rock critic for Rolling Stone magazine and was fired for writing many a negative article, including a slant on the rock group, Canned Heat.
He moved on to a home in Birmingham, Michigan on Brown street where he wrote for Creem magazine and then on to New York to do freelance work for various publications. Lester lives on in the biographical book "Let it Blurt, the Life and Times of Lester Bangs" by Jim DeRogatis who was influenced so much by Bangs that he became a writer for Rolling Stone and was fired as well. DeRogatis is now a pop rock critic for the Chicago Sun Times. Lester is portrayed in the Cameron Crowe movie, "Almost Famous" that features many a Bangism.
Whether you hate or love Lester Bangs, he must be remember as one who brought the musician down to earth and his writings for the most part are pure poetry.
Lester writes about the Delinquents
He started as a rock critic for Rolling Stone magazine and was fired for writing many a negative article, including a slant on the rock group, Canned Heat.
He moved on to a home in Birmingham, Michigan on Brown street where he wrote for Creem magazine and then on to New York to do freelance work for various publications. Lester lives on in the biographical book "Let it Blurt, the Life and Times of Lester Bangs" by Jim DeRogatis who was influenced so much by Bangs that he became a writer for Rolling Stone and was fired as well. DeRogatis is now a pop rock critic for the Chicago Sun Times. Lester is portrayed in the Cameron Crowe movie, "Almost Famous" that features many a Bangism.
Whether you hate or love Lester Bangs, he must be remember as one who brought the musician down to earth and his writings for the most part are pure poetry.
Lester writes about the Delinquents
One solution:you write songs and sing and maybe play an instrument too.
Okay, so do what I've started doing: I just went down to Austin, Texas, where I hooked up with a group called the Delinquents(I hope this doesn't come off like hype, because it's not meant to ), and we wrote music for and rehearsed up 10 of my songs and one cover in three months flat, then recorded a whole album in 16 hours including mixing.
Everybody who's heard the album thinks it's good and nobody believes we did it in 16 hours, and I may well never see any of the Delinquents again, but I tell you this: the last time I tried to get something like this together, with a band called Birdland in New York City, me and the lead guitarist/co-songwriter went through bassist after drummer after bassist after drummer-well, let's see, we started rehearsing and writing in September 1977, finally got this thing on stage in June of 1978, it broke up in August, we finally got it onstage with another bassist and drummer in December of that year, that broke up in April 1979...see what I mean?
Okay, so do what I've started doing: I just went down to Austin, Texas, where I hooked up with a group called the Delinquents(I hope this doesn't come off like hype, because it's not meant to ), and we wrote music for and rehearsed up 10 of my songs and one cover in three months flat, then recorded a whole album in 16 hours including mixing.
Everybody who's heard the album thinks it's good and nobody believes we did it in 16 hours, and I may well never see any of the Delinquents again, but I tell you this: the last time I tried to get something like this together, with a band called Birdland in New York City, me and the lead guitarist/co-songwriter went through bassist after drummer after bassist after drummer-well, let's see, we started rehearsing and writing in September 1977, finally got this thing on stage in June of 1978, it broke up in August, we finally got it onstage with another bassist and drummer in December of that year, that broke up in April 1979...see what I mean?
A review
The only album to be released while Lester was alive finds him working with the Texas-based Delinquents, who had a pretty hot guitar player by the name of Andy Fuertsch. It wasn't as though he was looking for a roots-rock sound in working with the Delinquents, it was more that they were in Texas and outside of the incestuous New York post-punk scene that Lester was so much a part of. The music contained within these grooves is very good, especially the bitterly funny "Life Ain't Worth Living (But Suicide is a Waste of Time)," which, more than any of the other songs he wrote, gets to the heart of Lester's worldview. His singing is a little thin and inexpressive, but never unlistenable, and the record as a whole has an engaging Richard Hell-influenced psycho blues feel to it.
- John Dougan, All Music Guide
- John Dougan, All Music Guide
A masterpiece!Absolute classic!
2 comments:
Praise the Lord and pass the Robitussin! Finally found this album in the Blogosphere, after having lost my vinyl and CD copies (a decade apart). A truly insprired and elegantly sloppy album - just like Lester himself.
Finally I found it!
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