Lightning Strikes - Lenny Kaye

 

Lenny Kaye is, of course, a renown rock'n'roll writer - as Doc Rock in Rock Scene magazine he was even indirectly responsible for the formation of the Gizmos via his pen pal section! - and the guitarist for the Patti Smith Group, the person responsible for the original Nuggets comp and his knowledge of r'n'r is pretty damn encyclopedic. In this tome, subtitled "Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll", he does his best to bring to life major episodes in the formation of what we know of as rock'n'roll today. Having lived through it, he includes his own personal remembrances, as well, which is a nice touch, especially in the sections on the 50's and 60's.

Occasionally, I believe that he tries to include a little too much information and details - for instance, giving a lengthy treatise of Motown and similar, smaller labels in the chapter about Detroit 1969 - but possibly that is my too-short attention span. Sometimes this works well but in other chapters I think he attempts to be too inclusive, but it seems his style is to give as much background and context as possible to the phenomenons he is discussing.

He has a fun style, though, filled with puns (love "deca-dance" in reference to the VU in his chapter on NYC 1975), trivia, r'n'r excitement and wish-you-were-here personal anecdotes - everything from first hearing the music on the radio to the NYC story is truly his story, as a member of the popular rock critics of the time as well as the guitarist in the aforementioned PSG. NYC's influence on the already-burgeoning London scene is undeniable and Lenny and his friends observe that attempted anarchy firsthand, as well. 

Earlier chapters revolve around Cleveland (where Alan Freed coined the phrase "rock'n'roll" in relation to the hip sounds he was spinning), Memphis (naturally), New Orleans, Philadelphia (home of what became American Bandstand), Liverpool (of course), and San Francisco, before moving into Detroit, NYC, London and then a combined chapter on the blandly hedonistic LA hair metal scene and Norway's all-too-serious death metal scene (where suicides, murders and church burnings were part of the parcel) and finally concluding with Seattle's grunge happenings.

For fans of rock'n'roll, especially those of us who have been around for a while, there's not a lot of new info, although there are a few tidbits here'n'there, but it's an entertaining concept and execution, and I'm damn glad that Doc Rock is still around to educate the masses.