Book review: Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

WHAT this book demands from a reader is a willingness to accept that the best writer in America could write almost nothing but record reviews.

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

Lester Bangs

Serpent’s Tail, £9.99;

Kindle edition, £4.19

That’s a bold statement to open this collection of essays by rock critic Lester Bangs, an iconic figure in the 1970s industry known as much for his persona as his writing.

Bangs became a powerhouse in the American music journalism scene before his untimely death in 1982 — not from the rock ’n‘ roll lifestyle, but an accidental overdose of common cold remedies. He was only 33.

Lester’s reputation comes from the enthusiasm of the truly obsessed, paired with a unique writing style that oscillates between reverence for the artform and obscene treatment of the superstars he covered.

John Lennon, Lou Reed, The Clash, Bowie — they’re all here. Each essay is remarkably different, though they all share an intensity that fits their short format.

One is a love letter to the otherwise obscure, one-album pop group Count Five (fronted by Irishman John Byrne).

That album was 1966’s Psychotic Reaction, from which Bangs invented an alternate future timeline — in Bangs’ vision, they became one of the seminal bands in music history. It’s one of the oddest yet most original pieces on music you’re ever likely to read.

Astral Weeks is an emotional and in-depth analysis of Van Morrison’s lyrics and musicality that would put many poetry critics to shame.

And ‘Of Pop Pies and Fun’ pretends to be a review of The Stooges’ album, but is more a rallying cry against the cult of superstardom and ego.

“You’re goddam right Iggy Stooge is a damn fool,” Bangs wrote of the frontman in ‘Pop Pies’. “He does a lot better job of making a fool of himself on stage and vinyl than almost any other performer I’ve ever seen. That is one of his genius’s central facets.

“What we need are more rock ‘stars’ willing to make fools of themselves… [until] they have not one shred of dignity or mythic corona left.”

This is rock criticism in its raw state — it is vulgar, conversational, and abusive towards its subjects. Some knowledge is assumed, but that’s not a problem for the modern reader armed with an infinite music library online.

Written in an era of vinyl, the book encourages a modern reader to listen to albums closely, in a way we rarely do in this era of musical plenty.

In that way, the book serves as a springboard for an era of music many of us didn’t grow up in, as we look up whatever fired Bangs’ imagination all those years ago.

Psychotic Reactions is not for every reader — it is, after all, a collection of essays on music. Given its age, this collection is not just for aspiring music writers and vinyl collector-types, both of which will enjoy it.

For a modern audience, it also serves as a history of western rock in the ’70s, and the iconic figures that young listeners today never saw in their prime.

Psychotic Reactions was assembled by friends of the late Lester Bangs in 1987, and has been selling steadily ever since.

That a collection of music criticism continues to be republished 28 years after its first appearance — and 44 years after the publication of the earliest essay it contains — is perhaps a better testament to the quality of Bangs’ writing than anything else. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to listen to Astral Weeks one more time.