" @ NEPA has almost everything, including Patti Smith's guitarist! LOL!"
One of my favorite Tweeters
Barb (aka
gatsbystyle) sent me the link for a recent article from the
Pocono Record titled
"Snowmageddon" Part II: Speeders Beware, published on their website on February 8th, 2010. The last part of the article references
Lenny Kaye, longtime collaborator of the legendary singer/poet/artist
Patti Smith and that he lives in
East Stoudsburg,
PA. Wow! Even though it's not technically a
WB/Scranton reference, it's still
NEPA...and I LOVE
Patti Smith, and
Lenny Kaye is an excellent guitarist and a modern legend, so I'm including an entry on
Lenny Kaye, damnit.
Lenny Kaye was born in
New York City on December 27th, 1946. He moved to New Jersey when he was a teenager and later formed the bands
The Vandals and
The Zoo. He graduated from
Rutgers University in 1968.
In 1971,
Kaye met poet
Patti Smith and began accompanying her at poetry readings.
Kaye became
Smith's most frequent collaborator, playing guitar on her quadrilogy of 1970s albums--the legendary
Horses, Radio Ethiopia, Easter, and Wave.
Kaye is the infamous "LENNY!" who sings the second verse on Smith's unapologetic rebel anthem
"Rock and Roll N*****." Kaye and
Smith ended their musical collaboration for a time in 1979 when
Smith left the music industry to marry
Fred "Sonic" Smith from the band
MC5 and to start a family in
Detroit.
In the 1980s,
Kaye formed his own band,
Lenny Kaye Connection, which released the album
I've Got A Right in 1984. He also became a successful producer of other artists, including
Soul Asylum, poet
Allen Ginsberg, and two bestselling albums by
Suzanne Vega (his first with
Vega, 1987's
Solitude Standing, spawned the top 3 hit single
Luka). He was also a guitarist in
The Jim Carroll Band in the 1980s.
Lenny Kaye resumed his artistic collaboration with
Patti Smith in 1994; he co-produced her album
Gone Again and has played guitar (and co-written songs with
Smith) on all of her subsequent albums. They continue to tour the world together to this day.
Kaye is also a published author, co-authoring
Waylon Jennings' 1996 autobiography and penning the 2004
Russ Columbo biography
You Call It Madness. He has been nominated three times for
Best Album Note Grammy Awards for CD boxed sets on the
Bleecker & MacDougal,
Crossroads, and
Elektrorock.
According to the
Pocono Record,
Kaye presently makes his home in
East Stroudsburg, PA, and he often plays gigs in area pubs such as
Gallo's Bar and the awesome record store
Main Street Jukebox.
Kaye also continues to tour the world as lead guitarist of
The Patti Smith Band.
Smith usually closes her shows with "
Rock and Roll N*****" with
Kaye sharing vocals, and he often does a solo cover of
The Seeds' 1966 hit
Pushin' Too Hard during the shows as well.
Lenny Kaye was also interviewed in yesterday's (February 8th) issue of the
Pocono Record; to read it,
click here. In the interview,
Kaye states that he and
Smith are presently writing songs for a new album
:)Now if only
Mr. Kaye stumbles across this blog entry via Google and can score me some impossible-to-get tickets for
Patti Smith's annual end-of-year three-night gig at
NYC's Bowery Ballroom...I can wish, can't I?
Several of
Patti Smith's CDs featuring
Lenny Kaye on guitar--including
Horses, Radio Ethiopia, Easter, Wave, Gone Again,
Peace & Noise,
Trampin', Twelve and the career-spanning compilation
Land--are available to borrow from the
Lackawanna County Library System.
Lenny Kaye is also featured in the superb documentary
Patti Smith: Dream of Life, available to borrow from
Albright Memorial Library.
Much thanks again to the ever awesome Barb (aka Twitter's gatsbystyle) for this groovy NEPA reference. And indeed, "
NEPA has almost everything, including Patti Smith's guitarist!"
