Biography

Early life

Bangs was born in Escondido, California, the son of Norma Belle (née Clifton) and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver.[4] Both of his parents were from Texas: his father from Enloe, and his mother from Pecos County.[5] Norma Belle was a devout Jehovah's Witness. Conway died in a fire when his son was young. When Bangs was 11, he moved with his mother to El Cajon, California.

His interests and influences growing up were as wide-ranging as the Beats (particularly William S. Burroughs), jazz musicians like John Coltrane and Miles Davis, comic books, and science fiction.

Rolling Stone magazine

In 1969 Bangs became a freelance writer after reading an ad in Rolling Stone soliciting readers' reviews. His first piece was a negative review of the MC5 album Kick Out The Jams, which he sent to Rolling Stone with a note requesting that if the magazine were to pass on publishing the review, that he receive a reason for their decision; however, no reply was forthcoming as the magazine did indeed publish the review.

His 1970 review of Black Sabbath's first album in Rolling Stone was scathing, rating them as Cream wannabes:

Cream clichés that sound like the musicians learned them out of a book, grinding on and on with dogged persistence. Vocals are sparse, most of the album being filled with plodding bass lines over which the lead guitar dribbles wooden Claptonisms from the master's tiredest Cream days. They even have discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitized speedfreaks all over each other's musical perimeters yet never quite finding synch—just like Cream! But worse.

(Rolling Stone later rated the same album to be on their 500 Greatest Albums of all time, at number 243.)

Bangs wrote about Janis Joplin's 1970 death by drug overdose, "It's not just that this kind of early death has become a fact of life that has become disturbing, but that it's been accepted as a given so quickly."

In 1973, Jann Wenner fired Bangs from Rolling Stone for "disrespecting musicians" after a particularly harsh review of the group Canned Heat.[11]

Creem magazine

Bangs began freelancing for Detroit-based Creem in 1970.[7] In 1971, he had written a feature for Creem on Alice Cooper, and soon afterward he moved to the Motor City. Named Creem's editor in 1971,[12] Bangs fell in love with Detroit, calling it "rock's only hope," and remained there for five years.[13]

During the early 1970s, Bangs and certain other writers at Creem, began using the word "punk rock" to designate the genre of 60s garage bands, as well as more contemporary acts, such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges.[14][15] Their writings would provide some of the conceptual framework for the later punk and new wave movements which would emerge in New York, London, and elsewhere later in the decade.[16][17] They would be quick to pick up on these new movements at their inception and provide extensive coverage of the phenomenon. Bangs was enamored of the noise music of Lou Reed,[18] and Creem gave significant exposure to artists such as Reed, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Blondie, and The New York Dolls years before the mainstream press. Bangs wrote the essay/interview "Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves" about Reed in 1975.[19] Creem was also among the earliest publications to give sizable coverage to hard rock and metal acts such as Motörhead, Kiss, Judas Priest, and Van Halen.

Freelance career

After leaving Creem in 1976, he wrote for The Village Voice, Penthouse, Playboy, New Musical Express, and many other publications.

Death

Bangs died aged 33 in New York City on April 30, 1982, of an accidental overdose of dextropropoxyphene, diazepam, and NyQuil.