25 October 2008

I've Got a Right - Lenny Kaye Connection

UPDATE: This post has been re-uploaded 08/09/2013. Enjoy, NØ



By Request... Lenny Kaye - Renaissance man.


Lenny Kaye has been Patti Smith's musical collaborator since 1971. They both went down to CBGB Easter Sunday, 1974, to see Television, who had just started playing there two weeks earlier. The rest, as they say, is history.

But wait: there's more! Lenny has also played guitar with a number of other bands, including those of Eugene Chadbourne & Jim Carroll. Lenny's been a bandleader (The Lenny Kaye Connection); producer (Suzanne Vega, James, Soul Asylum, Throwing Muses); journalist & critic; compiler for Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 & author of several books, the most recent being You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Art of the Croon.

After the Patti Smith Group broke up, Kaye remained a rock 'n' roller & devoted most of his energy to a couple of enterprises. In 1980, he formed the Lenny Kaye Connection. Describing the music resulting from this period as "more traditional than Patti's," Kaye said he didn't want to try & become more avant-garde because that would not be true to himself.

In 1986, he returned to Rutgers University (he earned his bachelors degree there in 1969, he eventually earned his masters degree in history years later) to teach an American Studies course entitled "Rock Music & American Culture". The course broke registration office records. It was a remarkably well-formed & thoughtful critical survey of rock history.

Presently, Kaye plays on Patti's new album Peace & Noise. He is once again a member of her Group.

The Lenny Kaye Connection is: Lenny Kaye - guitar; Paul Dugan - bass; C.P. Roth - synthesizers; David Donen - drums; additional musicians -Jan Mulaney - organ, synthesizers; Patrick O'Conner - bass, vocals; Jonathan Helfand - pedal steel; Jim carroll & John Giorno - anvil chorus.

Lenny Kaye Connection - I've Got a Right, Giorno Poetry Systems #032, 1984.)
decryption code in comments

Side 1:
I've Got a Right
Luke the Drifter
Still Life
Tell-tale Heart


Side 2:
Jealousy
I Cry Mercy
Record Collector
As I Make Love


Enjoy,

6 comments:

  1. hahaha, I thought the 1st picture was Twin Peaks' Harold Smith!
    http://nikkita.n.i.pic.centerblog.net/d7tkzhph.jpg

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  2. Nice family photo - I was accused of being a lenny kaye look-a-alike in my younger days: saw him and patti on the easter tour in kansas city.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can see some iconic black & white photos of Lenny (playing in the Lenny kaye Connection) here:

    http://eclypso.com/rock/lennyk/index.html

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  4. C9hxKm9WZyXAFfvcjZ6U00_HD3NurTcunetyHJbhm5I

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks!
    What are the other songs in the zip file?
    CrazyLikeAFox.mp3 and Cromwell--Crazy.mp3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cromwell - Crazy is a jpeg, the 45 cover..."Crazy like a Fox" & "Shock Me" are two songs from LK aka Link Cromwell. Read below...

      Kaye was working at Associated Recording Studios on Times Square. He recorded "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").

      I just added them for some more fun.

      Delete