Lenny Kaye

Lenny Kaye
Kaye performing with Patti Smith in 1978
Background information
Birth name	Lenny Kusikoff
Also known as	Lenny Kaye Connection
Born	(1946-12-27) December 27, 1946
Origin	New York City, U.S.
Genres	Rock protopunk punk garage rock
Occupations	Musician songwriter record producer music journalist
Instrument(s)	Guitar, bass, vocals
Years active	1964–present
Labels	Giorno Poetry Systems, Arista, Columbia
Website	LennyKaye.com

Lenny Kaye (né Kusikoff; born December 27, 1946) is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group, led by vocalist and poet Patti Smith.

Early life and education

Kaye was born to Jewish parents in the Washington Heights area of Upper Manhattan, New York City. His father changed the family name from Kusikoff to Kaye when Lenny was one-year old. He grew 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. In 1960, his family moved to North Brunswick, New Jersey, where Kaye attended high school. In 1967, he graduated from Rutgers University, where he majored in American history.

He became a member of science fiction fandom and gained experience in writing, publishing his own science fiction fanzine, Obelisk, at the age of 15.

His personal collection of fanzines are the foundation of the Lenny Kaye Science Fiction Fanzine Library at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Though he majored in American history, his true vocation was musical, and it was there that he first began playing in bands, on a college mixer and fraternity circuit. His first gig was with the Vandals at Alpha Sigma Phi on November 7, 1964.

Career

20th century

Kaye performing with Patti Smith and her group in Germany in 1979

As musician, writer, and record producer, Kaye was collaborated with several artists and bands. He was a guitarist for Patti Smith from the inception of her band in 1974, and co-authored Waylon, The Life Story of Waylon Jennings, a biography of Waylon Jennings.

He worked in studio capacities with R.E.M., James, Suzanne Vega, Jim Carroll, Soul Asylum, Kristin Hersh, and Allen Ginsberg. He authored an anthology of garage rock during the 1960s, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968. 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 was songwriter Larry Kusik, who performed "A Time For Us" in Romeo and Juliet and "Speak Softly Love" in The Godfather. Kusic noticed Kaye's lengthening hair and musical commitment, and asked him to sing on a song that he co-wrote with Ritchie Adams ("You Were Mine").

Kaye recorded "Crazy Like A Fox" and its flip side song, "Shock Me", which was released as a 45, issued under the name of Link Cromwell, and leased to Hollywood Records, a division of Starday Records in Nashville, Tennessee; it was 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 and Australia. Kaye's group at the time, The Zoo, played the college circuit in New York to Pennsylvania, an experience captured on Live 1966, a live album released by Norton Records.

Kaye began writing reviews for Jazz & Pop magazine, and later for Fusion, Crawdaddy, and Rolling Stone. He became music editor for Cavalier, a men's magazine, where he wrote a monthly column until 1975. He also served as the New York City correspondent for Disc, a British weekly publication. As a freelance writer, he wrote for Melody Maker and Creem and edited two publications, Rock Scene and Hit Parader.

While working at a record store on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Kaye met poet and vocalist Patti Smith. On February 10, 1971, he backed her at a reading at St. Mark's Church on East 10th Street, opening for Gerard Malanga. They resumed performing in November 1973, and Kaye produced Smith's debut single, "Hey Joe/Piss Factory", and performed as part of her group throughout the 1970s, contributing to four of Smith's albums: Horses (1975), Radio Ethiopia (1976), Easter (1978), and Wave (1979).

Following the Patti Smith Group's final performance in September 1979, Kaye joined Jim Carroll and his band and fronted his own group, Lenny Kaye Connection. He coproduced Suzanne Vega's first two albums and her 1987 hit single, "Luka", 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 1960s folk revival of Bleecker and MacDougal, the white blues band Crossroads, and the progressive rock band Elektrock. With David Dalton, he co-authored "Rock 100", a comprehensive overview of leading rock stars from the 1950s through 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 30th anniversary release of their landmark debut album, Horses.

21st century

In 2010, Kaye contributed a solo recording for Daddy Rockin' Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong and the Diablos, released by The Wind/Norton Records. Kaye recorded a version of "I Wanna Know", a 1950s rhythm and blues ballad. He appeared on and wrote one song for The Fleshtones 2011 album Brooklyn Sound Solution, released by Yep Roc. He appeared on the R.E.M. songs "Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter" and "Blue", which appear on the band's 2011 album Collapse into Now.

In mid-February 2018, Kaye took over the night shift on Underground Garage, replacing Richard Manitoba.

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, 2010, TWR002 LP)

track: "I Wanna Know"

Further information: Patti Smith discography

• "Child Bride" b/w "The Tracks of My Tears" (Mer Records 604, 1980)

External links

• Official website (archived from 2008)
• Lenny Kaye at AllMusic
• Lenny Kaye discography at Discogs
• Lenny Kaye at IMDb 
• Lenny Kaye discography at MusicBrainz
• Lenny Kaye