Loved this book by the legend Lenny Kaye. This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction--especially musically obsessed readers.

Five Stars!
This book is a really interesting look at the times and places where "musical lightning" struck - Liverpool in 1962. San Francisco in 1967. Seattle in 1991. Author Lenny Kaye gives us brief but educational chapters about watershed moments in music history, and the vital ingredients that fed into them -- and you couldn't ask for a better tour guide on this journey. From his playing guitar for the Patti Smith Group to working with such diverse artists such as REM, Suzanne Vega, and Soul Asylum, music is in Kaye's blood.

Of course, going into the book, I was more interested in some of the chapters than others, but it was still fascinating learning more about the events and genres with which I was less familiar.

Definitely recommended to anyone with a love of music. Just bring your earbuds... you're going to be spending a lot of time on Spotify while reading this book.

I am so grateful to Netgalley and Ecco for the opportunity to read and review Lighting Striking.

Part memoir, part rock'n'roll history, and thoroughly enjoyable. Lenny Kaye takes readers on a spellbinding journey through the history of rock'n'roll by highlighting specific moments and places in time - from Cleveland, Memphis, New Orleans, and Philadelphia in the 1950s, thru Liverpool, San Francisco, and Detroit in the 1960's, and then on to New York, London, Los Angeles, Norway and Seattle in the subsequent decades. I enjoyed the detailed research but it was his entertaining, in-joke sense of humor and insightful writing that kept me reading late into the night. Highly recommended

In the spirit of American Bandstand, which is featured in the Philadelphia chapter, I give Lightning Striking a score of 98 on the 35-to-98 rating scale. As the kids used to say, "It's got a good beat and you can dance to it."

"Memphis, 1954. New Orleans 1957. Philadelphia 1959. Liverpool, 1962. San Francisco 1967. Detroit 1969. New York, 1975. London 1977. Los Angeles 1984 / Norway 1993. Seattle 1991" These are the hotspots of rock and roll covered in Lenny Kaye's "Lightning Striking". Lenny is a longtime collaborator with Patti Smith, he is a guitarist and songwriter who also was the producer for Suzanne Vega's first two albums (remember "Luka"?). He was also responsible for compiling the legendary "Nuggets" compilation album-- a treasure of garage rock and psychedelic classics.

I enjoyed some sections much more than others. I ate up everything about the Beatles, the San Francisco psychedelic era, and then the birth of punk, new wave, and grunge. "Lightning Striking" is pretty comprehensive, all chapters had something of interest, it just covers more ground than I needed, particularly in the earlier periods.

I did hit up Spotify for a number of songs listed and I have played more Patti Smith than ever before. Thank you to Ecco, NetGalley, and Lenny Kaye for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I consider this book as more of an educational piece. If you want to get bite size histories of cities and eras that shaped music industry, this is your book.

You take a quick tour of Memphis, 1954; New Orleans, 1957; Philadelphia, 1959; Liverpool, 1962; San Francisco, 1967; Detroit, 1969; New York, 1975; London, 1977; Los Angeles, 1984 / Norway, 1993 and finally Seattle, 1991. You have your Motown, Hendrix, The Beatles, Bowie, The Clash, Sex Pistols, and many more that gave you that good taste in music.

I would highly recommend having your phone nearby, so you can start listening to the songs that made rock and roll what it is. It was great to get this from an insider and hear how it shaped his perception and understanding of this genre.

I really like this book was very interesting how he would take different cities and different times and explain the music and how it became the background. I was pretty amazed about Detroit and how they had such a rich musical scene and then the highway had to come through that was not right. The title was interesting too because lightning strikes well that makes sense because it would strike a different city at different times and the music was rolling into that city. He hit Seattle right on the nail This is when the grunge took over the city and it was really a good time because everybody was free to be who they were. And especially like the Patty Smith section on New York and how she went from being a poetry to being a musician and how she transformed her life and she met up with that guy at a record store and he kind of went along with it so you can see how they expanded their careers and it was pretty amazing.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Ecco Books for an advanced copy of this new music history.

Musicians are of course great writers, either of music, lyrics or both. Very few musicians bring their skill to books. Yes there are many music "memoirs", mostly ghostwritten collections of stories used to either settle old scores, claim credit for songs, groupies or place their mistakes in a better light. Nick Cave and Bob Dylan wrote fiction, one better than the other. Few however have written about music, the history of, influences of, even when they are front in center in the changes that going on. That's why a book like this one is so rare and fascinating. Lenny Kaye in his book Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll brings both his knowledge of music and performance to write of seminal moments in rock history.

Famed for being both a founding member of the Patti Smith Group, and for creating the musical anthology Nuggets, a collection of sixties garage-rock bands that has its own fame, Kaye has also written biographies and overviews across the musical spectrum. In this book Kaye chooses 10 transformative moments in rock history where everything changed. These moments can be obvious, Memphis 1954, London 1977, to more esoteric like New Orleans 1957 or Philadelphia 1959. Kaye writes of the era, what was happening musically, socially politically, what happened, what changed, what was destroyed or left in the wake. Some seem to be more in depth than necessary, and others can be argued about their inclusion, but that is the point about books like these. They provoke thought, and conversations, sometimes raised voices and louder music. Sometimes you learn something new. Sometimes a reader disagrees, write your own book. I enjoy books like this so I will happily read it.

The writing style can be little odd. Maybe a slight case the beat writers, with a touch of Ms. Patti Smith. Also the reader is expected to know major characters in music and culture with little introduction. So this might not be the best book for new ears to read, but quite a lot can be learned. Kaye makes a very good teacher, knowledgeable about his subject matter not just by book learning but from performing, producing and doing, and is happy to teach all that he has learned over the years.

DNF. I believe this book would only be appreciated by someone already deeply knowledgeable about rock and roll history.

This book presents a selection of scenes from significant moments in rock history. Although it's clear the author has passion for this history, the average reader feels left out. The context of the events and the significance of the (many) names dropped in the stories are unexplained, making the book only suitable to a very well informed audience. The writing has a rhythm that can't decide if it's prose or poetry and is sometimes abstract.