Oft-imitated but never quite equalled, Lester Bangs is one of those writers (like Hunter S Thompson) whose influence on modern journalism is inescapable, mostly (and ironically) for the worse. I say ironically because I consider each to be two of the best writers of the second half of the 20th century, a feeling only reinforced by decades of bad impersonations in alternative weeklies and online magazines all across the country.