Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll
Written by Lenny Kaye
Narrated by Lenny Kaye
4/5
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About this audiobook
“We have performed side-by-side on the global stage through half a century…. In Lightning Striking, Lenny Kaye has illuminated ten facets of the jewel called rock and roll from a uniquely personal and knowledgeable perspective.”
–Patti Smith
An insider’s take on the evolution and enduring legacy of the music that rocked the twentieth century
Memphis, 1954. New Orleans 1957. Philadelphia 1959. Liverpool, 1962. San Francisco 1967. Detroit 1969. New York, 1975. London 1977. Los Angeles 1984 / Norway 1993. Seattle 1991.
Rock and roll was birthed in basements and garages, radio stations and dance halls, in cities where unexpected gatherings of artists and audience changed and charged the way music is heard and celebrated, capturing lightning in a bottle. Musician and writer Lenny Kaye explores ten crossroads of time and place that define rock and roll, its unforgettable flashpoints, characters and visionaries, how each generation came to be, how it was discovered by the world. Whether describing Elvis Presley’s Memphis, the Beatles’ Liverpool, Patti Smith’s New York or Kurt Cobain’s Seattle, Lightning Striking reveals the communal energy that creates a scene, a guided tour inside style and performance, to see who’s on stage, along with the movers and shakers, the hustlers and hangers-on, and why everybody is listening.
Grandly sweeping and minutely detailed, informed by Kaye’s acclaimed knowledge and experience as a working musician, Lightning Striking is an ear-opening insight into our shared musical and cultural history, a carpet ride of rock and roll’s most influential movements and moments.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editor's Note
Rocking history…
Join the longtime guitarist for the Patti Smith Group as he takes readers on another world tour. This time it’s to trace the origins of some of the biggest events to shape music as we know it. If you geek out on rock history, or just want to impress your friends with obscure music trivia, Kaye’s seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of the genre will dazzle you.
Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer, record producer, and writer, and is a founding member of Patti Smith and Her Band. In 2011, he was awarded the honor of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by le Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication of France. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2021.
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Reviews for Lightning Striking
6 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll by Lenny Kaye tells the history of rock using ten specific "moments" as a structuring device. This is both a fun book for those of us who remember the vast majority of these moments as well as a rich history for those always looking for more insight.Told as an insider of the industry and someone involved in, or at least with the proverbial backstage pass to, many of these moments we get anecdotes and asides mixed in with the more straightforward telling of music history. There is no "the" history of rock, but as a history of rock this volume adds plenty of information and a lot of energy to collection of histories that tell the story.I don't think one needs to be particularly well-versed in rock history to enjoy the book though it will likely be more appealing to those who are familiar with more than just the artists who topped the charts. Names and strands of various genres are tossed off regularly, some with contextualization and some not. Usually those not are also not integral to understanding the overall story, so they can be noted as one reads on then, if curious, looked up later to learn more about them.Again, these are important moments that, as the title says, transformed the music. Most did produce chart toppers but that is not really the reason for inclusion. It is how each changed the course of the genre and also how much each influenced future artists. In that regard these moments are transformative. I imagine one could argue for an additional inclusion or two, and if one wants to be arrogantly narrow can argue that the transformations a couple of these moments caused weren't "important" enough. But all in all this is an excellent selection and all are told with the same sense of excitement and energy that permeated those times and places.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.