Lightning Striking is a true testimonial and epic love letter to the soul saving power of rock and roll. Lenny Kaye writes with a guitar player’s rhythm and the image-strewn fevered prose of a beat poet, sharing arcane knowledge of the joy of a true believer. Read it and be inspired, as I was.
I first knew him as a writer. Then guitarist, lifelong friend, and collaborator. We have performed side-by-side on the global stage through half a century and shared his love of the evolution of our mutual vocation. In Lightning Striking, Lenny Kaye has illuminated ten facets of the jewel called rock and roll from a uniquely personal and knowledgeable perspective. He draws from a lifetime of inspiration and experience. A youth plugging in his first electric guitar, a fan taking the dance floor, a propelling player, a humble guardian of history, and the writer I have always known him to be.”
"Guitarist Lenny Kaye writes about various you-had-to-be-there music scenes that each had a transformative impact on rock and roll. . . . Kaye’s personal reminiscences about performing with Patti Smith are among the highlights. Part history, part memoir, Lightning Striking is a fat, fun homage to the glory days of rock and roll and is full of vivid and revealing memories and anecdotes."
★ 10/25/2021
Kaye (You Call It Madness), longtime guitarist of the Patti Smith Group, delivers his magnum opus, a rollicking tour through rock and roll history. He traces rock’s “geographic and temporal journey” by looking at key moments in different locations—from Memphis to Liverpool and London—where, he writes, “elements of chance, cunning, inspired personalities... and bystanders” transformed the genre. He whisks readers back to Alan Freed’s “raucous” 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, which pumped out “original r&b hits before they made over by white artists”; highlights the many British Beat groups spawned by the Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1962; drifts through San Francisco’s Summer of Love in 1967, when the Grateful Dead played to a sea of spectators hopped up on “cotton candy, corn dogs, LSD”; and explores the evolution of sounds in the 1990s in the “bucolic fishing town” of Bergen, Norway, “the nexus of black metal’s most notorious incidents.” Touching on a dizzying array of famous and obscure musicians, bars, and clubs—and injecting the narrative with his own vivid memories of playing in such legendary places as Manhattan’s CBGB—Kaye brilliantly captures the ecstasy of what it was like to be there, or, as he puts it, “the had-to-be of there.” This memorable history is electrifying. (Jan.)
His magnum opus, a rollicking tour through rock and roll history. . . . Touching on a dizzying array of famous and obscure musicians, bars, and clubs—and injecting the narrative with his own vivid memories of playing in such legendary places as Manhattan’s CBGB—Kaye brilliantly captures the ecstasy of what it was like to be there. . . . This memorable history is electrifying.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An idiosyncratic, impassioned paean to rock ’n’ roll. . . . [Kaye has a] depth of historical knowledge that enables him to enumerate the sightings of the very phrase rock ’n’ roll. . . . The author engagingly chronicles his wide travels, visiting New Orleans, London, Memphis, and many other places in search of lost and otherwise magical chords. . . . If you’re a fan of rock music of whatever flavor, you need this book." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“I first knew him as a writer. Then guitarist, lifelong friend, and collaborator. We have performed side-by-side on the global stage through half a century and shared his love of the evolution of our mutual vocation. In Lightning Striking, Lenny Kaye has illuminated ten facets of the jewel called rock and roll from a uniquely personal and knowledgeable perspective. He draws from a lifetime of inspiration and experience. A youth plugging in his first electric guitar, a fan taking the dance floor, a propelling player, a humble guardian of history, and the writer I have always known him to be.” — Patti Smith
“Lightning Striking is a true testimonial and epic love letter to the soul saving power of rock and roll. Lenny Kaye writes with a guitar player’s rhythm and the image-strewn fevered prose of a beat poet, sharing arcane knowledge of the joy of a true believer. Read it and be inspired, as I was.” — Bobby Gillespie
"Guitarist Lenny Kaye writes about various you-had-to-be-there music scenes that each had a transformative impact on rock and roll. . . . Kaye’s personal reminiscences about performing with Patti Smith are among the highlights. Part history, part memoir, Lightning Striking is a fat, fun homage to the glory days of rock and roll and is full of vivid and revealing memories and anecdotes." — Booklist
11/01/2021
Kaye, guitarist for the Patti Smith Group, focuses on a dozen seminal cities and years in the history of rock and roll in America and England, from the music's first stirrings in 1952 Cleveland to the rise of the Beatles in 1962 Liverpool to the emergence of grunge in Seattle in 1991, with a sojourn to explore metal in 1993 Norway. Kaye captures the essence of each date and locale by acts such as Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Guitar Slim, the Byrds, and Nirvana; the impact of racism and segregation; and how earlier popular music influenced the burgeoning rock scenes. Throughout Kaye draws from insider knowledge, crafting a fluent, attention-grabbing narrative and offering autobiographical asides about listening to 45s in grade school and becoming a true history maker himself. A copious biblio-discography, including classic and contemporary citations, adds value. VERDICT Kaye's felicitous turns of phrase and ability to humanize his subject paint vivid pictures of each venue and its denizens; readers of any vintage will appreciate the chance to either relive these musical moments or experience them for the first time.—Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH
★ 2021-10-13
Longtime Patti Smith Group guitarist and music journalist Kaye delivers an idiosyncratic, impassioned paean to rock ’n’ roll.
“You can’t be everywhere at once,” writes the author. True enough, but if he missed the Beatles at the Cavern Club or the first performances of Nirvana, Kaye has seen more than his share of shows. More, he has a Marcus-ian (Greil, that is, and not Herbert) depth of historical knowledge that enables him to enumerate the sightings of the very phrase rock ’n’ roll: one, perhaps improbably, in a gospel recording from 1910, a more secular one from 1922. Though a scholar of the many lightning-in-the-bottle moments of which he writes, Kaye is nothing if not an enthusiast; he hails the introduction to Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” rightly, as one of the most iconic guitar licks in history, adding, “please learn should you be in the vicinity of a C chord.” The author engagingly chronicles his wide travels, visiting New Orleans, London, Memphis, and many other places in search of lost and otherwise magical chords. He was there for some historically important moments, too, from the decline of the Sex Pistols to the rise of the Clash and the earliest stirrings of CBGB. Here, the writing turns distinctly autobiographical as Kaye recalls taking the stage with Patti Smith after grooving to the Ramones, “emulsifying rock and roll down to its primate, all downstrokes and lyrics one step removed from the asylum.” Frankie Avalon has a moment, as does skiffle, the latter of which begat the Beatles, which begat everything else—including, after 1964 and theEd Sullivan Show, the magical moment when Kaye “bought a cherry red Gibson Les Paul Special and a Magnatone 280 amp (true vibrato, the same kind Buddy Holly played) from a kid down the street who had given up the calling” and jumped into the fray.
If you’re a fan of rock music of whatever flavor, you needthis book.
