né
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth reg ...
'' Kusikoff; born December 27, 1946) is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the
Patti Smith Group
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)
is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''.
Called the "punk poet ...
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, New York, along the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
. His father changed the family name from Kusikoff to Kaye when Lenny was 1 year old. Growing up in Queens and Brooklyn, Kaye originally began playing the accordion, but by the end of the 1950s, had dropped the instrument in favor of collecting records. His family moved to
North Brunswick, New Jersey
North Brunswick is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is centrally located in the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 43,905, reflecting ...
, in 1960 where Lenny attended high school, and later, college, graduating from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
in 1967, majoring in American history. He became a member of
science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...
and gained experience in writing, publishing his own
science fiction fanzine
A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...
, ''Obelisk'', at the age of 15. His personal collection of fanzines formed the core of the Lenny Kaye Science Fiction Fanzine Library at the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...
. Though he majored in American history, his true
vocation
A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. People can be given information about a new occupation through student orientation. Though now often used in non-religious co ...
was musical, and it was there that he first began playing in bands, on a college mixer and fraternity circuit. His first gig, with the Vandals ("Bringing down the house with your kind of music"), was at
Alpha Sigma Phi
Alpha Sigma Phi (), commonly known as Alpha Sig, is an intercollegiate men's social fraternity with 181 active chapters and provisional chapters. Founded at Yale in 1845, it is the 10th oldest Greek letter fraternity in the United States.
The f ...
on November 7, 1964.
Career
As musician, writer, and record producer, Kaye was intimately involved with an array of artists and bands. He was a guitarist for poet/rocker
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)
is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''.
Called the "punk poe ...
from her band's inception in 1974, and co-authored ''Waylon, The Life Story of Waylon Jennings''. He worked in the studio with such artists as
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...
,
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
,
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...
,
Jim Carroll
James Dennis Carroll (August 1, 1949 – September 11, 2009) was an American author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work '' The Basketball Diaries'', which inspired a 1995 film of ...
,
Soul Asylum
Soul Asylum is an American alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their 1993 hit "Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song), Runaway Train" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.
The band was originally called Loud Fast Rule ...
,
Kristin Hersh Kristin may refer to:
* Kristin (name), a Scandinavian form of Christine
* ''Kristin'' (TV series), a 2001 American sitcom
* Kristin Peak, Antarctica
* Kristin School
Kristin School is a private co-educational composite school located in Alb ...
, and
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
. His seminal anthology of sixties' garage-rock, ''
Nuggets
Nuggets may refer to:
Music
* ''Nuggets'' (series), a series of compilation albums by Elektra Records, continued by Rhino
* '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968''
* '' Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from ...
'', is widely regarded as defining the genre. ''You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon'', an impressionistic study of the romantic singers of the 1930s, was published by Villard/Random House in 2004.
His uncle, songwriter
Larry Kusik Larry Kusik (also known as Larry Kusic) is a lyricist. He is perhaps best known for writing the lyrics for the tune " Speak Softly Love", the love theme from the 1972 film ''The Godfather''. He has also written lyrics to many other movie themes, inc ...
("A Time For Us" from ''Romeo and Juliet''; "
Speak Softly Love
"Love Theme from ''The Godfather''" is an instrumental theme from the 1972 film ''The Godfather'', composed by Nino Rota. The piece was lyricized in English by Larry Kusik into "Speak Softly, Love", a popular song released in 1972. The highes ...
" from ''The Godfather'') took note of his lengthening hair and musical commitment, and asked him to sing on a song he'd recently penned with Ritchie Adams, once of the Fireflies ("You Were Mine"). Kaye soon found himself in Associated Recording Studios on Times Square, recording "Crazy Like A Fox", along with its flip side, "Shock Me". The resultant 45, issued under the name of Link Cromwell, was leased to Hollywood Records, a division of Starday Records located in Nashville, Tennessee, and released in March 1966. It garnered a Newcomer Pick of the Week from Cashbox ("A rhythmic bluesy folk-rocker with a pulsating beat") and was issued in the UK as well as Australia; but failed to move in the charts. Though hardly a smash, it gave Kaye a sense of self as a musician, and inspired him to continue performing and playing. His group at the time, The Zoo, worked a college circuit ranging from New York to Pennsylvania; this early experience has been captured on a live album issued by Norton Records, Live 1966.
Moving back to the city, Kaye began writing reviews for ''
Jazz & Pop
''Jazz & Pop'' was an American music magazine that operated from 1962 to 1971. It was launched as ''Jazz'' and managed by Pauline Rivelli, with finance provided by Bob Thiele, the producer of jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Lou ...
'' magazine (which was edited at the time by
Jim Morrison
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredicta ...
's soon-to-be wife, Patricia Kennealy Morrison); branching out to such nascent rock publications as ''Fusion'', ''Crawdaddy'' and ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''. He became the music editor of ''Cavalier'', a men's magazine, and would write a monthly column for them until 1975; and the New York correspondent for the British weekly, '' Disc''. As a freelance writer, he wrote for a wide range of periodicals, including ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'' and ''
Creem
''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential criti ...
'', and edited such publications as ''Rock Scene'' and ''
Hit Parader
''Hit Parader'' was an American music magazine that operated between 1942 and 2008. A monthly publication, it focused on rock and pop music in general until the 1970s, when its focus began turning to hard rock and heavy metal. By the early 1980s ...
'' throughout the 1970s.
While working at the record store Village Oldies on
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...
in New York, Kaye met poet-singer
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)
is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''.
Called the "punk poe ...
. On February 10, 1971, he backed her at a reading at St. Mark's Church on East 10th Street opening for
Gerard Malanga
Gerard Joseph Malanga (born March 20, 1943) is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator and archivist.
Early life
Malanga was born in the Bronx in 1943, the only child of Italian immigrant parents. In 1959, at the beginning of h ...
. When they resumed performance in November 1973, their artistic efforts bore fruit as one of the major rock bands of the 1970s. Kaye produced Patti's debut single ("Hey Joe / Piss Factory"), and performed as part of her Group throughout the decade, as reflected in four Arista albums: ''
Horses
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
'' (1975), ''
Radio Ethiopia
''Radio Ethiopia,'' the second studio album by the Patti Smith Group, was released in October 1976 through Arista Records.
Background
''Radio Ethiopia'' was the follow-up record to Smith's widely acclaimed debut ''Horses''. In interviews surround ...
'' (1976), ''
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
'' (1978) and ''
Wave
In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...
'' (1979).
Following the Patti Smith Group's final performance in September 1979, Kaye joined the Jim Carroll Band, as well as fronting his own Lenny Kaye Connection. He co-produced
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...
's first two albums, including her 1987 hit single, "
Luka
Luka may refer to:
People
* Luka (given name), a South Slavic masculine given name cognate of Luke, and a Japanese given name
* Luka (singer), stage name of Brazilian singer and songwriter Luciana Karina Santos de Lima (born 1979)
* Luka Keʻelik ...
", which was nominated for a Grammy as Record of the Year. He has been nominated three times for Grammy awards in the liner notes category for boxed sets on the sixties folk revival (Bleecker and MacDougal), white blues (Crossroads), and progressive rock (Elektrock); and in 1977, with David Dalton, co-authored "Rock 100", a comprehensive overview of leading rock stars from the 1950s till the 1970s.
In 1995, he reunited with Patti Smith and has been a part of her band since, creating six studio albums, a retrospective, and celebrating the thirtieth anniversary release of their landmark debut album, ''
Horses
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
''.
In 2010, Kaye contributed a solo recording for ''Daddy Rockin' Strong: A Tribute to
Nolan Strong
Nolan Strong and the Diablos, also billed as The Diablos Featuring Nolan Strong, were an American, Detroit-based, R&B and doo-wop vocal group, best known for their songs " The Wind" and "Mind Over Matter". They had one record that spent a week o ...
and the Diablos'' (The Wind/
Norton Records
Norton Records, is an independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller in 1986. The label concentrates on rock, rockabilly, primitive music, punk, garage rock and early rhythm and blues.The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York, United States, formed in 1976.
History 1976–1979
The Fleshtones were formed in 1976 in Whitestone, New York, by Keith Streng (born September 18, 1955, New York City) an ...
2011 album ''Brooklyn Sound Solution'' (
Yep Roc
Yep Roc Records is an American independent record label based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and owned by Redeye Distribution. Since 1997, the label has released albums from North Carolina and international artists, including Nick Lowe, Paul W ...
). Also, he appeared on "Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter" and "Blue" on
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...
's 2011 album ''
Collapse into Now
''Collapse into Now'' is the fifteenth and final studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on March 7, 2011, on Warner Bros. Produced by Jacknife Lee, who previously worked with the band on ''Accelerate'' (2008), the alb ...
'', an album that Patti Smith also contributed to, also on "Blue" and another song, "Discoverer".
In mid-February 2018, Kaye took over the night shift on ''Little Steven's Underground Garage'', replacing
Richard Manitoba
Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba (born Richard Blum; January 29, 1954) is an American punk rock singer and radio personality, best known as the original lead singer of New York City-based band The Dictators and the reunion singer of MC5.
Bac ...
who was let go mid-January 2018.
Discography
As Link Cromwell
"Crazy Like a Fox" b/w "Shock Me" (Ork Records) 1977
Lenny Kaye Connection
* ''I've Got a Right'' (Giorno Poetry Systems, 1984) with: Paul Dugan (bass), David Donen (drums), Jan Mullaney (organ, synthesizer), Charles Roth (synthesizer), John Helfand (pedal steel)
* '' Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos'' (The Wind /
Norton Records
Norton Records, is an independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller in 1986. The label concentrates on rock, rockabilly, primitive music, punk, garage rock and early rhythm and blues.
List of guitarists
This list of guitarists includes notable musicians, known principally for their guitar playing, for whom there is an article in Wikipedia. Those who are known mainly as bass guitarists are listed separately at List of bass guitarists.
A
* John ...