Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven





	[quote name="mark"][quote name="motherfuckerfoodeater"]This is a misunderstanding that may prevent you from seeing why Lester Bangs was the best music writer of all time. For the most part, a music critic's job is to have conventional but highly developed tastes, which is why they tend to not be worth reading. Lester Bangs was awesome because he craved crazy shit like "Metal Machine Music" (which is Lou Reed's best record, and I like it better than any of the Velvet's records, although I'm not necessarily willing to say it's better than them).[/quote] No, I think I get that. But are his tastes so unconventional? I know several people that get on stage and make noise that is similar to MMM. Lots of people are in the FUCKIN' ROCK (also Miles Davis) school of music enjoyment (I think Bangs would be saddest to have never heard Iggy's rerelease of "Raw Power," which is probably the loudest mixed album I have heard...). Lots of people think Astral Weeks is the best pop album ever made. And plenty are in all of those categories at one. Maybe I don't find Bang's views that odd because I share most of them with him or because of his influence on future generations of music reveiwers and listeners. When I'm reading I'm never saying to myself "what the hell is he talking about?" Or not often, anyway. His tastes would undoubtably be mocked by the musical and intellectual troglodytes that inhabit FUCKYOUCREW as being fucking lame and mainstream and that also you should listen to negativeland instead. Anyway, there are lots of record reviews in there. And I'm really curious, I think that Street Hassle is the greatest post Velvet's Reed record and I'd like to hear him defend it or attack it or whatever. Would he consider it a return to greatness or just more wasted talent? [quote](Also, you don't have to ask what Lester Bangs thinks of any particular Lour Reed record; he loves them all)[/quote] He hated Sally Can't Dance and Coney Island baby....I think he generally likes Reed more than his music, something he mostly admits in the unpublished notes at the end of the book. But these are all minor disagreements as we both like Bangs...what do you think of the other collection?[/quote]