Patti Smith With Lenny Kaye: Songs & Stories From A Book of Days

Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer, record producer, and writer, and a founding member of Patti Smith and Her Band. In 2011, he was awarded the honor of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by le Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication of France. Rock and roll was born in basements and garages, radio stations, and dance halls in cities where unexpected gatherings of artists and audiences changed and charged the way music was heard and celebrated. In Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll (Ecco), Kaye offers an insider’s take on the evolution and enduring legacy of the music that rocked the 20th century. It’s a guided tour inside style and performance to see who’s on stage, along with the movers and shakers, the hustlers and hangers-on. He explores 10 crossroads of time and place that define the genre. Whether describing Elvis Presley’s Memphis, The Beatles’ Liverpool, Smith’s New York, or Kurt Cobain’s Seattle, Lightning Striking – informed by Kaye’s knowledge and experience – reveals the communal energy that creates a scene. Sweeping and detailed, it’s an ear-opening insight into our shared musical and cultural history.

Patti Smith is the author of Just Kids, a National Book Award winner, M Train, Year of the Monkey, and numerous collections of poetry and essays. Her album Horses has been celebrated as one of the top 100 albums of all time and she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” She started posting images from her phone, including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo, all small windows into Smith’s world. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape. In A Book of Days (Random House), these images chart her passions, devotions, obsessions, and whims. Original to the book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain, and a husband’s Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are photos from Smith’s archives of life on and off the road. With more than 365 photographs taking you through a single year, A Book of Days is a new way to experience the expansive mind of a visionary poet, writer, and performer.