In the fifty years that made rock and roll the most popular and important genre in music, what were the moments that mattered? LIGHTNING STRIKING: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll (Ecco Hardcover; On sale January 11, 2022; 978-0062449207; $28.99; 512 pages) by American guitarist, composer, record producer, and writer Lenny Kaye, is an insider's take on the evolution and enduring legacy of the music that rocked the twentieth century. As a founding member of Patti Smith and Her Band, Kaye was there at a moment that defined an era. With LIGHTNING STRIKING, he has gathered a treasure trove of original, hilarious, and shocking stories from the last hundred years of music and written a deep but accessible guide for fans and newcomers alike.

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.

Rock and roll was birthed in basements and garages, radio stations and dance halls, in cities where unexpected gatherings of artists and audience changed the way music is heard and celebrated, capturing lightning in a bottle. Musician and writer Lenny Kaye explores ten crossroads of time and place that define rock and roll, its unforgettable flashpoints, characters and visionaries, how each generation came to be, and how it was discovered by the world. Whether describing Elvis Presley's Memphis, the Beatles' Liverpool, Patti Smith's New York or Kurt Cobain's Seattle, LIGHTNING STRIKING reveals the communal energy that creates a scene. It is a guided tour inside style and performance, a look at who is on stage and off, the movers and shakers, the hustlers and hangers-on, and why everybody is listening.

Grandly sweeping and minutely detailed, informed by Kaye's decades of insider knowledge and experience as a working musician, LIGHTNING STRIKING gives us ear-opening insight into our shared musical and cultural history, a carpet ride through rock and roll's most influential movements and moments.

"I first knew him as a writer. Then guitarist, lifelong friend, and collaborator. We have performed side-by-side on the global stage through half a century and shared his love of the evolution of our mutual vocation. In Lightning Striking, Lenny Kaye has illuminated ten facets of the jewel called rock and roll from a uniquely personal and knowledgeable perspective. He draws from a lifetime of inspiration and experience. A youth plugging in his first electric guitar, a fan taking the dance floor, a propelling player, a humble guardian of history, and the writer I have always known him to be." -Patti Smith

"Lightning Striking is a true testimonial and epic love letter to the soul saving power of rock and roll. Lenny Kaye writes with a guitar player's rhythm and the image-strewn fevered prose of a beat poet, sharing arcane knowledge of the joy of a true believer. Read it and be inspired, as I was."-Bobby Gillespie