tonyhightower 's review for:

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs

5.0

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I probably should give this four stars instead of five -- it's as inconsistent as the subjects he writes about, it reads like it was slapped together by Greil Marcus in an afternoon (which it probably was), the feud with Lou Reed that occupies the middle third of the book is not nearly as interesting as the two principals would like to have thought, and for a compendium of his greatest work, it doesn't give an image of the man or even the man's career arc ferfucksake, but by god the best parts of this cook with broken-line gas so hot you'll feel like you're being blinded by science, kicked in the heart, slapped in the bunghole and stomped by the sheer awesome ass-kickin-finger-lickin rage of his prose. The opening piece on how the Yardbirds were the beginning of the next great wave of rock and roll that rose with his own social awakenings through the MC5, Iggy Pop, the Godz, Slade, Uncle Lou and (yes) the Count Five sets the tone for all the sowhatwhocares that follows about the Guess Who, Coltrane, James Taylor and the Clash. But maybe the best piece of all is his amazing first-person short story spun from the lyrics of Rod Stewart's greatest hit. Sweet creamery elvis costello in a bucket, but give that boy a bottle of cough syrup and a typewriter and he could give you the friggin' moon and stars.