Let the atoms collide!

I recently read an article which described Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters as one of rock’s “elder statesmen”. 

Now, as much as I like the guy and his early albums with the Foos, I don’t think he really qualifies as such - not yet, at least - although I know a man who does…

 

...Lenny Kaye.

 

Best known for his association with Patti Smith and, in particular, her iconic “Horses” album, Kaye has had a long and varied musical career, also playing with REM, Jim Carroll, Eugene Chadbourne, and The Fleshtones, as well as producing Suzanne Vega, Soul Asylum and James.

However, it’s his many other music-related pursuits which really mark him as a significant figure in rock history - an elder statesman, if you like.  The thing is, he’s not just a musician, he’s also a music fan - a rabid one. Reading about him, I've come to the conclusion that he's just as interested, enthusiastic and caring about other people's music as he is about his own - possibly more so. This is what I think sets him apart from a lot of other musicians - the music comes before the ego. What’s more, he’s also a writer: a good one.

He’s worked in record shops, including Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies, been an avid record collector, written reviews for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Creem and Melody Maker, worked as co-editor of Rock Scene magazine, and also compiled the original “Nuggets” double album. This last achievement was the result of a direct approach by Elektra label founder Jac Holzman, and just shows in what high regard Kaye was held by the music business at the time. "Nuggets" is one of the most successful and seminal retrospective anthologies of all time, and whilst there have been many expanded reissues, imitations and cash ins, the original double album is an almost perfect introduction to psychedelic music.

 

"Those records belonged to a lost underground until Lenny Kaye compiled Nuggets,” says Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. “He kept that music alive and ensured it would be passed on."

 

And all this whilst he was building a musical career that would cement his leading role in the 1970s New York punk rock scene…

 

Not that Kaye has kept his sights trained exclusively on rock. He’s co-authored books about Waylon Jennings and also 1930s crooners and this particular way of expressing his love for music brings us to his latest book, “Lightning Striking”.

 

Taking ten “transformative moments" in rock and roll from the the early 1950s to the early 1990s, Kaye doesn’t chronicle musical history per se. Instead, he takes each of his chosen moments and expands on it. So, for example, the inevitable coverage of the Beatles embraces Lonnie Donegan, Joe Meek and Rory Storm, amongst others, often tend to get overshadowed by the main protagonists and ignored in other writers' accounts, but serve to provide context and perspective in Kaye’s.

However, this is also Kaye’s own, often personal, story and some of the locations and events of the ten pivotal moments are observed and described by an author who was often there. When he’s not actually been present, he’s ready to go off at a tangent if he thinks it’s illuminating or informative in some way.

Kaye’s style is somewhat idiosyncratic and, at times, it’s hard to keep up with the sheer mass of references, allusions and sudden sidetracks. However, I got used to it and eventually this almost stream of consciousness approach just becomes part of Kaye’s unique delivery.

 

Of course, it’s helpful to have some idea of what the music Kaye discusses sounds like, so he’s compiled a double album to accompany the book.

 

 

What’s especially good is that many of the more obscure key tracks he mentions are included so you can hear what he’s writing about. There are also more familiar tracks and these have been carefully selected for this 48 track set. As a standalone audio primer of rock music, it fails. However, as an adjunct to the book, it works very well indeed, and also stands as a worthy, if very eclectic, even eccentric, compilation in its own right.

 

I'll leave it to Kaye to have the last word...

"...music is a way to transport yourself. If you listen to classic blues singers like Charley Patton or Robert Johnson in the right headspace, you can almost live it, because it sends you right back there to the corner of some San Antonio hotel room with the noise coming in from outside on the street. You can close your eyes and hear the atoms colliding.”