Lester Bangs Is Back from the Dead With New Stories in Creem
The greatest rock journalist and the publication he put on the map returns
I rarely look at the dozens of press releases I get in my email every day. Out of boredom, I looked in the email folder I dump them in.
Creem X Lester Bangs unpublished work: sneak peek the email said.
That’s something I would pay to read. I had no idea Creem was relaunched. Sold.
In the early 90’s, I found a box of National Lampoon from the '70s in a used bookstore. I fell in love with the stories and advertisements for cigarettes, hi-fi stereos, and 250cc Yamaha street bikes. After a few trips, I cleaned them out, but next to the National Lampoons was a box of Creem magazines.
I’m supposed to be too young to know about Creem and its former editor. People my age know Lester Bangs as the character from the movie Almost Famous, played by Philip Semore Hoffman. I hadn’t thought about Creem magazine or Lester Bangs in decades.
Lester Bangs’ reviews were epic. He made music seem like it was as important as who we elected for president. The passion behind his words was real. There were no puff pieces or coasting.
