Lightning Striking

★★★★ Lenny Kaye

Patti Smith’s guitarist details rock’s “10 transformative moments”.

As a sometime Creem contributor and Nuggets compiler, not to mention Patti Smith foil, Kaye is generously qualified to ruminate on the seismic eruptions in rock’n’roll’s backstory. Yet, you do wonder how even this beloved lifer could inject fresh or worthwhile perspective on such abundantly documented phenomena as index entries “Memphis 1954” and “Liverpool 1962”. Somehow, he manages, chronicling each with rare depth of understanding. Initially, for instance, he’ll pinpoint how, even before Elvis Presley, country and R&B “both drank from the same fountain”, sharing repertoire and key vocabulary such as “boogie” and, indeed, “rock”. Increasingly, the NYC fanboy becomes an inside-track observer, obviously in the interpersonal patchworking circa New York City 1975, but also in Seattle 1991, making sense of grunge’s Green River/ Soundgarden roots, aptly pegging Nirvana as “runt of the litter” and revealing the traumas of amigo Eddie Vedder. Told with an unflagging jive energy, Kaye’s musical lifetime is a ripping yarn. Andrew Perry