Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
WRITING CREDITS:
Lester Bangs and The Delinquents
I sleep in torment.
Dream while I'm awake.
If love is dormant.
I'd only love you for my own sake.
Oooh, mamma, take me away
from that terrible, terrible day.
The car of death, and the casket enclosing.
You've lost yourself, and everyone knows it.
I want you more than life itself.
but life's been such a paltry thing.
That doesn't mean I need your help.
We're all sailing on broken wings.
Oooh, mamma, take me away
from that terrible, terrible day.
The car of death, and the casket enclosing.
You've lost yourself, and everyone knows it.
I want it all.
I want it all.
I want it all.
I cry when you call.
The kindness of strangers should not be disdained.
I don't want the rest of my life
to feel so defiled—defiled and stained
What could I possibly think of my wife?
Ooh, mamma, take me away
from that terrible, terrible day.
The car of death, and the casket enclosing.
You've lost yourself, and everyone knows it.
Oooh, yes they do.
Everyone but you.
APPEARS ON
Jook Savages On the Brazos, CD
Track §10
CD: Moll Tonträger [GER], Moll 6 (1995); CD: re-issue: Live Wire Records, LW-20 (2009)
SOURCES
DeRogatis, Jim. "Appendix 2: Selected Lyrics by Lester Bangs." Let It Blurt. Broadway Books, 2000.
ABOUT THE LYRICS:
One of the few lyrics by Bangs in which he writes about his relationship with his mother, Norma (Clifton) Bangs, a subject about which he was usually quite reticent. These particular lyrics recount the day eight-year-old Lester was told in the car about the details of his father's death. (Conway Bangs burned to death in an Escondido house fire on August 5, 1957.) The line, "What could I possibly think of my wife?" suggests the influence Norma had on Lester in his later relationships with women: Norma forbad Lester from bringing up the subject again, or even expressing emotion about it in public. (Source: Nelson, Chris. "Longtime Fan Chronicles Legendary Critic Lester Bangs' Life." MTV 12 June 2000. on-line.)
Bangs recorded only one other song about his father's death, "There's a Man In There," included on the album Birdland, With Lester Bangs. (In the sleeve notes, the songwriting is formally credited to Bangs and members of Birdland, but the subject matter and details in the lyrics are undoubtedly attributable entirely to Lester.)
Norma Bangs passed away on March 13, 1982, just a month and a half before Lester, himself, died from an accidental overdose in his New York apartment.
Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
8800 Grossmont College Drive
El Cajon, California 92020
619-644-7000
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