'Music belongs to the moment': Patti Smith's guitarist Lenny Kaye is 'Goin' Local'

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Lenny Kaye has been Patti Smith's guitarist since their early days, when he was a rock critic and she was doing poetry readings. In 1971, when Smith decided she wanted guitar accompaniment for her next reading, it was Kaye she asked to join her. With the exception of her long breaks from performing, their partnership continues to this day. Lenny Kaye has played with other bands, but finally, at the age of 79, he has a new solo album of his own songs. It's called "Goin' Local," and it will be released July 17. It shows off his versatility as a guitar player and songwriter. I also love his singing. There's some scorching guitar, tender ballads and songs that made me smile and laugh.

Lenny Kaye is one of those people who seems to know everything there is to know about rock and pop music. He's written several books related to rock 'n' roll history, including his latest, "Lightning Striking," about 10 transformative periods in rock history and the cities they originated in. His record anthology, "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts Of The First Psychedelic Era 1965-'68 (ph)," inspired many first-generation punk rockers. Next year will be its 55th anniversary, and it's still considered a classic. As proof of his open mind, musical curiosity and wide-ranging taste, he wrote a book about the crooners - the singers from the early days of the microphone, which allowed them to sing in more intimate voices, like Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee and Russ Columbo.

Lenny Kaye, welcome back to FRESH AIR. It is always great to have you on the show, and I love the new album.

LENNY KAYE: Oh, thank you so much, Terry. It's great to be FRESH AIR'd (ph).

GROSS: (Laughter) Your guitar playing is so good in so many different styles. And I want to start with the song "Goin' Local."

KAYE: OK.

GROSS: Because this is, like, the real, like, high-energy song on there, and I love your guitar playing on it. So can you talk about writing it at all?

KAYE: Well, a lot of these songs come from my personal experience as a living being on the Lower East Side. I like to stay out late sometimes. You can often find me at 3:30 in the morning dancing to "White Wedding" at a local bar.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: But, you know, it's just a song about hanging out in your neighborhood. And it's probably the most rock-oriented song on the record because a lot of the songs on there started with me on the couch with an acoustic guitar, musing about a situation or thinking about a relationship or just kind of, you know, growing from a more acoustic thing. A lot of the songs are personal and actually somewhat vulnerable.

GROSS: Yes to all of that, and we'll hear some of those a little bit later. So here's "Goin' Local."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOIN' LOCAL")

KAYE: (Singing) I didn't mean it. I didn't even try to conceal it. I didn't think that you would treat me this way. How could I know it? You're not the type to talent show it. Looks like we've got the devil to pay. I still remember the nights we used to spend together. You know I hate it when you leave me alone. It's not one thing. It's one thing or another, baby - my price for turning skin into bone. We're getting out of control, can't keep our hands off, going local at the watering hole. We've got a spot on the dial, a little hideaway, inside-away, a place that we can do it in style.

GROSS: That's Lenny Kaye from his new solo album. We heard the title track, "Goin' Local." It's about time you made your own album. Why did you never do it before, and why did you do it now?

KAYE: Well, Terry, I've been slightly busy.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: I can only really deal with one thing at a time. And also, I didn't quite know how to present myself. This is a different side of what people might expect from me. I felt like these songs kind of had a theme, which is who I am at this very moment in time. And I like the fact that there's a progression of my musical consciousness that's reflected in this album. I do a lot of things, and a lot of times, I kind of duck into somebody else's soundscape. But I thought it was time for me to really understand who I am as an artist, and I wanted artistic closure for some of these songs that I've come up with over the last, you know, at this point, 10 or 15 years.

GROSS: How do you think you've changed musically in what you want to say and what you want to hear? And I'm thinking, like, is it, in part, age, experience?

KAYE: I think it's less age and more experience. I've been through so many musical genres in my time. I've sung to you some of the great crooners. I love country music. I'm a passable pedal steel guitar player. I love heavy music. I have a band called Adrift, my side project, which is kind of a power trio that accesses the darker side of my personality. But I thought that in a sense, these songs show a personal thing. When I played them for Patti, she said something to me, which I thought was good. She says, I've never heard you sound like this.

And I'm all about the future, Terry. I mean, I have to say, I have a long list of things I've done in the past, but to me, that's the past. I really like the fact that I've given myself a new persona that I can pursue and understand who I am at this point in my life.

GROSS: Well, I want to play a song that - I've never heard a song like it. I've never heard lyrics about this subject before.

KAYE: (Laughter).

GROSS: And it's a really reflective song. It's called "The Things You Leave Behind." And it seems very autobiographical 'cause it's, in part, about as you're getting to the end of the line, what do you do with all your stuff? What do you do with all your records?

KAYE: (Laughter).

GROSS: What do you do with the stuff in the storage lockers? Does anybody want to inherit it? Should you be selling it, like, donating it?

KAYE: My daughter always says to me - she says, Dad, what are you going to do with it? It's all going in the dumpster. Well, I don't think so.

GROSS: Not the dumpster.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: No, no.

GROSS: Please, not the dumpster.

KAYE: No, no. I mean, you know, I call my accumulation the museum of me because, you know, I look at all the books - some of which I'll never read but I like seeing their spines on the shelf - of course, you know, the accumulation of records, which is a curation of a sort. And anytime I get rid of a record, I want to hear it a week later.

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: And the song was birthed when someone I knew passed on, and I was given the honorary - an honorable job of moving their stuff out. And I thought, man, this is - you know, it's a great responsibility to make sure that somebody's sense of curation is honored.

GROSS: Yeah. Well, let's hear it. This is "The Things You Leave Behind," written and performed by my guest Lenny Kaye on his new album, "Goin' Local."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE THINGS YOU LEAVE BEHIND")

KAYE: (Singing) Sooner or later, we're all going to find that we've made it to the end of the line. It gets heavier every mountain you climb. It's the things you leave behind. It's been one of those years when people keep passing into the past and you're still here, gonna pick up the pieces of your life and theirs. Who gets what and why? We all cart around a whole lot of baggage that would better be left by the side of the road. Books and records, old clothes and photos carry a heavy load. But sooner or later we're all...

GROSS: That's "The Things You Leave Behind" from Lenny Kaye's new album "Goin' Local," which will be released next week.

What's your plan for the things you leave behind - for the records and books? Do you want to, like, donate it to an archive? Do you want to sell it? Do you want to bequeath it to somebody?

KAYE: I mean, actually, I'm amused by the fact that Tom Verlaine's book and record collection have been kind of put out into the world. Discogs just sold a thousand of Tom's records. They had an event where you could go and buy a Tom Verlaine book. I'm not that - you know, I mean, who knows? That's kind of a prideful thing that anybody would want a record that I personally scratched (laughter) after listening...

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: ...To it for a hundred times. And to be honest, you know, I probably - you know, when the time comes and it gets dispersed, I won't know anything about it (laughter). I'll be up there with the great, you know, file cabinet in the sky thinking, oh, man, I want to hear this record. So...

GROSS: My husband decided before he died that he wanted, you know, most of his collection - thousands and thousands and thousands of albums and CDs - sold so that record buyers could experience the pleasure he got from buying the records - from searching for them, finding them, buying them, listening to them. And I thought there was something really wonderful about that sentiment.

KAYE: It - they will return to the great flea market in the sky.

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: I mean...

GROSS: You worked at Village Oldies, which was a...

KAYE: Yeah (ph).

GROSS: ...Famous record store in Greenwich Village. Yeah. So what did you get out of working in a record store, since you're so obsessed with music and with recordings and with making them?

KAYE: I got a lot of records...

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: ...I'll tell you that.

GROSS: Discounted, I hope.

KAYE: I like to joke that I - well, you know, I like to say that I worked for $10 a day and all the records I could slide out the door. You know, you get a sense of the expanse of recorded music, which is a beautiful thing. I mean, in my crooner book I got to investigate a world that I didn't personally experience, you know, to understand how, in these 78 grooves, an entirely new music was being invented. My "Lightning Striking" book is more my personal journey through the many transformative moments of rock 'n' roll.

GROSS: You know, it's funny because I think at the same time you were working at Village Oldies, which was a stop for, you know, like, serious record buyers and also just, like, you know, people in the neighborhood, tourists, but it was a very, you know, alternative kind of culture. But you also had a band, and I think at the same time, were playing for fraternities, which seems like a really different culture than Village Oldies' culture. Did you feel like you lived in different worlds at the same time?

KAYE: Well, I believe that it's all the same culture. When you're playing in a band that's playing in a fraternity party as The Zoo did, you know, the...

GROSS: That's the name of your band. Yeah.

KAYE: Yeah, The Zoo - bringing down, you know - for your very own horror show, I think was our thing. We had dancing girls called the Zooluz (ph). I know. What can I say?

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: You can apologize later.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: OK, thank you. But, you know, you'd play "Shout" for 20 minutes and the fraternity brothers would be swimming in beer on the floor. And that's a great response. You know, music releases us, music elevates us, music illuminates us. You know, and no matter the different styles - this is what I've really found, given all my many, you know, investigations into different genres - is that it's all kind of accessorizing because the basic reasons for a song stay the same. I want love. I don't have love. I'm sad. I've lost love. Who am I? I'm peeved at the world. All of these things are universal. And no matter the decoration or the genre or how it's presented, these are the elements of why we sing. And I'm, of course, quite blessed to be part of those who sing and see it come back to them in the response of the audience.

GROSS: Well, let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Lenny Kaye. He's Patti Smith's longtime guitarist, has performed in other bands and now has his first solo album. It's called "Goin' Local" and will be released July 17. We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Lenny Kaye. He's Patti Smith's longtime guitarist, although she's also been performing with her son featured on guitar. Lenny Kaye has his first solo album, and it features his own songs. It's called "Goin' Local" and will be released next week.

Let's go back to the beginning. Your first instrument, as far as I know, was accordion, which seems like an unusual choice, if it was a choice. I don't know whether somebody chose it for you. What's the story behind accordion?

KAYE: My dad played the accordion and the piano. I almost wish he would have started me on piano because when I was growing up and rock 'n' roll was getting going, the accordion was not the most mobile of instruments. But, you know, after - when I was about 10, I stopped playing it. And then I picked up the guitar when I was getting out of high school.

GROSS: And that one - you knew that was the one for you?

KAYE: Well, you know, folk music was happening. I originally wanted to be a lonely folk singer in the backyard. But in February of '64, the Beatles came on "The Ed Sullivan Show," and in that seismic moment, that's when I bought my first electric guitar.

GROSS: I want to talk about your first brush with professional recording. Your uncle, Larry Kusik, was a lyricist. Your family name was Kusikoff, if I'm pronouncing that right.

KAYE: Yes.

GROSS: Your father changed it to Kaye, your uncle changed it to Kusik. And he was a lyricist. And among the things he wrote the lyrics for was the "Love Theme From 'The Godfather'," which was a hit for Andy Williams in 1972. So let's just hear a little bit of that.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE THEME FROM 'THE GODFATHER'")

ANDY WILLIAMS: (Singing) Speak softly, love, and hold me warm against your heart. I feel your words. The tender, trembling moments start. We're in a world, our very own, sharing a love that only few have ever known. Wine-colored days warmed by the sun. Deep velvet nights when we are one.

KAYE: I love that line - wine-colored days kissed by the sun. Warm-colored nights. My uncle was - my uncle wrote a lot of, you know, 60, 70 - I have 45s, you know, that nobody ever heard. He was a journeyman songwriter. And when I was 18, he knew I was in a band. And he called me up, and he wanted to jump on the "Eve Of Destruction" bandwagon and write a folk protest song. And so he had me sing it over the phone. And next thing I knew, I was in a recording studio - first time ever - in Times Square being Link Cromwell.

GROSS: Yeah. Your pseudonym for the recording was Link Cromwell. Is that Link, as in Link Wray?

KAYE: I was just - you know, they had, you know, 25 first names, 25 second names. I might've been Link Saunders (ph) at one time.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: So it was like...

KAYE: I like Link.

GROSS: ...Choose one from column A and one from column B?

KAYE: Yeah. But yeah, I like Link 'cause it's kind of like Lenny Kaye. I mean, you know, it's got the same - and the L and the K in there.

GROSS: Well, let's hear the recording that you made for your uncle. And this was, you know, professionally released, and it's called "Crazy Like A Fox." So this is my guest Lenny Kaye under the name Link Cromwell.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRAZY LIKE A FOX")

KAYE: (Singing) You call me neurotic and say I'm psychotic because I let my hair grow long. They say that I'm crazy, and they call me lazy 'cause I don't like to work all day long. Well, I'm crazy like a fox. Oh, I'm crazy like a fox 'cause while they're working on the inside, I'm having fun on the outside. Oh, yeah. I'm crazy like a fox. Oh, man.

Foxy.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: They call me neurotic and say I'm psychotic 'cause I let my hair grow long. Your hair is still pretty long.

KAYE: Yeah, man. You know, thank you, DNA.

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: I mean, I remember when growing your hair long could get you in really big trouble.

GROSS: I remember that, too. Why did you keep it that way? Why is it still long?

KAYE: I don't know. I just like it. You know, it's getting good in the back, as they say. I cut it every once in a while.

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: When I feel like my hair is wearing me, I - you know, I cut it back so I get the proportion right. But I don't know. I just like it. It's who I am.

GROSS: What did that recording do for you in terms of your sense of identity as a possible, like, real professional recording artist? And...

KAYE: Well...

GROSS: Yeah.

KAYE: ...It gave me a sense of who I could be, even though I didn't dare think about it. You know, it gave me a sense of purpose, one might say. But thank God it wasn't a hit because if it was a hit, my life would've really had a different arc. You know, I would've had that million seller, you know, gotten the drug habit, been found on the streets of San Francisco.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: Or playing an oldies festival.

KAYE: Yeah. I might be on PBS' folk protest singers of the 1960s.

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: But I believe the musical gods had different ideas for who I might become.

GROSS: Well, let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Lenny Kaye. His new solo album, which is his first album on his own, is called "Goin' Local." It will be released next week. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF PARKER'S "MANNERISMS")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with Lenny Kaye. He's Patti Smith's longtime guitarist. His first solo album, called "Goin' Local," will be released next week. It features his own songs. He's also known for curating the anthology "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts Of The First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968." It's credited with inspiring many performers from the first generation of punk rockers. Next year marks its 55th anniversary, and it's still considered a classic.

Early in his career, Kaye was a rock critic. He's continued to write about music through liner notes and several books. His latest book, "Lightning Striking," is about 10 transformative periods in rock 'n' roll history and the cities they originated in. Earlier, we were talking about Kaye's uncle, Larry Kusik, who was a lyricist. He wrote the lyrics to the theme from "The Godfather," "Speak Softly Love," and for the love theme from "Romeo And Juliet," "A Time For Us." He even wrote lyrics for a quasi protest song that Lenny Kaye recorded under a pseudonym after his uncle auditioned him by having him sing the hit protest song "Eve Of Destruction."

I've been thinking what it might've been like for your late uncle to want to, like, you know, ride the crest of this, like, folk protest music movement and ask you, his nephew, to sing "Eve Of Destruction," which was an anti-war protest song. Because it wasn't his generation. His generation was more Andy Williams and not, you know, not the music of young people. Do you think about that a lot, like, the dilemma he was in wanting to write popular songs but not being a part of that generation?

KAYE: I don't think he cared. You know, he was a journeyman songwriter. How he got "Speak Softly Love" was that probably the publisher had this track by Nino Rota, and they asked him to write English lyrics. You know, he wrote, "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" with Burt Bacharach. He wrote the love theme from "Romeo And Juliet," "A Time For Us." He was just a writer.

And the nicest thing about my record is that I asked him toward the end of his days if he had any lyrics. I said, Q (ph), I'm a musician. Do you got any lyrics? And he gave me a sheaf of them. And toward the end of his life, when he was in the hospital for quite a while - and I kept asking his wife, I said, I'd like to see my Uncle Q. And she said, oh, wait till he gets better. And I knew he wasn't getting better.

And then one day, I just took these lyrics, and I put the ones called "Yes I Will," the most simple of lyrics, on the music stand and I started playing it. The chords fell to hand. And at the end of it, when it starts repeating the yes, I will, yes, I will, I just burst into tears. And I said, I have to see my Uncle Q. And I went up to the hospital, and he was there, and he was very frail. And I sang it to him. And he said, thank you very much. And the next morning, I got a call that he'd passed on. So I got to show him a little love and respect very much at the end.

GROSS: This is also one of my favorite tracks on the album. And it's a tender, beautiful song and sung with such tenderness. And also, it's a song that I think you can sing to someone you're in love with, a romantic partner, or to a child.

KAYE: Absolutely. I mean, it's a song that is so simple and yet conveys so much emotion. I actually marvel at it. And it's probably, for me, a true expression of my uncle's gift for making a lyric that touches, goes directly to your heart, just no - you know, just no stopping. Right right there, started beating.

GROSS: So let's hear it. This is "Yes I Will" from Lenny Kaye's new album, "Goin' Local."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YES I WILL")

KAYE: (Singing) If there's anything I can do for you, I'll always come through for you. I'll make your dreams come true for you. Yes, I will. Yes, I will. Yes, I will. And when things go wrong for you, I'll always hang on strong for you. I'll write a happy song for you. Yes, I will. Yes, I will. Yes, I will. I'll be there when you need me to help you work it out.

GROSS: That was "Yes I Will," with music by my guest, Lenny Kaye, and the lyric by his late uncle. And it's on Lenny Kaye's new album called "Goin' Local." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Lenny Kaye. He has his first solo album, and it features his own songs. It's called "Goin' Local," and it will be released next week.

So you started off as a rock critic. You were still playing, you know, in a band, but you were a rock critic. You were reviewing records. You wrote for all the pop magazines, but you also wrote for men's magazines. It's through an article that Patti Smith first got in touch with you. This was, I think, in 1971 or 1972. And you'd written about a cappella music, or doo-wop. What did you love about the music? And what did she love about the article?

KAYE: It touched Patti very much because it was the kind of music that she listened to growing up in South Jersey and Philadelphia. We both enjoyed Jerry Blavat - the Geator with the Heater, the Boss with the Hot Sauce - playing beautiful, beautiful group harmony. And when I was growing up in Brooklyn, I would see the older kids on the corner hitting notes, as it were. And that was the first music that touched my soul.

I'd once had hopes to be a high tenor in a doo-wop group. Of course, I've completely lost that part of my vocal range, so I'll never (laughter) achieve that one. But when Patti called me up about this article I'd written for Jazz & Pop, which was about a very niche thing. A cappella music was doo-wop music without, of course, musical instruments, but it was specialized from Oldies stores. And this is, like, 1963, 1962, which meant that the music was already past dated. And it was - and of course, it would be knocked off the charts by the English invasion.

But I wrote this article, and that's when Patti first called me up. And she said she was moved by it, and that's when she started visiting me at Village Oldies. And I'd put on our favorite records, "My Hero" by the Blue Notes, "Today's The Day," Maureen Gray, "Bristol Stomp." And we just became friendly. And that's where she asked me to join her at St. Mark's Church for her first poetry reading 'cause she wanted to shake things up a little bit.

GROSS: Can you describe what that night was like, your first time playing with her? And not that many people were doing, like, music behind poetry.

KAYE: Patti didn't want to do a standard poetry reading. We were opening, quote-unquote, Gerard Malanga, so there were a lot of Warhol people there. There were a lot of music people. It was kind of a cross section of downtown. But Patti felt that if she just did a standard poetry reading, Gregory Corso would be up in the balcony, you know, saying, come on, liven it up. And so she wanted to, you know, have a little action.

I went over to the loft where she was living with Robert Mapplethorpe, and she read me her poems. And I just kind of put some rhythmic energy behind the poems, and we went there and did it. It was not meant to be anything. We didn't even perform again together for another 2 1/2 years. It was more like an art event. But it was very well received. Again, it was so casual. New York at that time was just a hotbed of artistic creativity - theater, film, you name it. In that little 10-block circuit of the East Village, so much was happening. And this was just another night of going out and, you know, putting on a performance.

I always marvel at the fact that we didn't think of it as, oh, hey, let's have a band. I mean, we didn't have a band for another three years. We developed organically, and that, to me, is what made us so special. We sounded like ourselves by the time we had all the pieces of a real band.

GROSS: On your first album together, you do "Gloria." And it reminds me of Charlie Parker's early recordings in the sense that...

KAYE: Wow. Thank you.

GROSS: And here's why. I mean, both "Gloria" and Charlie Parker, they start a movement. I mean, "Gloria" is so punk and it inspired so many punk rockers. And Charlie Parker inspired, like, every jazz musician. And so you'd think, when you listen to them, that it would sound like everything else, since so many musicians pattern themselves on it. But both those early Parker recordings and "Gloria," every time I listen to either one of those, it just sounds so radical and so fresh and new and energized. Can you talk about, like, recording it together, what it was like for you to be doing something that was, like, so different and so exciting?

KAYE: It didn't seem that different to us. I mean, here we are. We were basically - we started out as a trio, myself, Patti and the pianist Richard Sohl. And what we would do, especially as we were beginning, Patti would do a poem, we'd connect it with a song and then she would improvise. And you could do that in the structure of this little trio. Richard Sohl was such an accomplished pianist, except - you know, he could play Rachmaninoff. You want that? Sure.

He was used to accompanying cabaret singers. But he could also not show off and just hit those chords and keep things propelling. And I'm pretty much of a rhythm guitarist at that point, and so we would just explore these fields, as we call it. "Gloria" happened because Richard Hell had sold us his bass guitar for $40. And Patti strapped it on and whacked the E note. And then she said, Christ died for somebody's sins, but not mine, which was a poem of hers called "Oath." And, you know - and then I connected it with the most glorious of songs.

"Gloria," of course, is not only the great Van Morrison song done by every garage band, but it was also a classic doo-wop song done by The Cadillacs' Esther Navarro. It seems to be a word that replicates and understands each other. And by the time we got in the studio, it had been sculpted into a kind of quasi arrangement. But launching it in the studio was kind of - you know, made us aware that we were writing ourselves into history, which is kind of daunting in a certain way and somewhat presumptuous.

GROSS: Well, let's hear "Gloria" from Patti Smith's first album, "Horses," with my guest Lenny Kaye on guitar.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GLORIA")

PATTI SMITH: (Singing) Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. Melting in a pot of thieves, wild card up my sleeve. Thick heart of stone, my sins my own. They belong to me, me. People said beware, but I don't care. Their words are just rules and regulations to me, me. I walk in a room, you know I look so proud. I move in this here atmosphere where anything's allowed. Then I go to this here party, and I just get bored until I look out the window, see a sweet young thing humping on the parking meter, leaning on the parking meter. Oh, she looks so good. Oh, she looks...

GROSS: That's Patti Smith - Lenny Kaye, my guest, on guitar - from Patti Smith's first album, "Horses." What did she bring out in you?

KAYE: She brought out in me a sense of trust in my own musical abilities. I'm not a virtuoso guitarist by any means, but she stayed with me and let me express my musicality. She helped me understand who I am as a musician and how it helped her understand herself as a singer because Patti learned how to sing on the stage with the band.

She also sensed a positive energy in me that I would - I could go anywhere. I'm not hidebound by genre or how things should be done. And Patti, of course, is a creative force that continues to move ever forward. She's not one to rest on her laurels. She wants to see what happens next. And she encourages that in me. And I think, you know, to be honest, that I have this solo album at this point in my life shows that I also understand that - that you have to keep evolving. You have to keep moving forward. You have to be true to your art. You can't be blinded by fame or money.

I'm a worker. That's really what she encouraged in me. She's a worker, too. No matter what we did yesterday or five years ago or 10 years ago or, at this point, 55 years ago, it's all about the future. Her - she has an expression - progress isn't the future. It's keeping up with the present. And so I try to incorporate that in my life. Whatever I've done in the past, great. But what I'm really interested in is getting up and seeing who I am today and as it moves into tomorrow.

GROSS: Well, it's time for me to reintroduce you again so we can take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Lenny Kaye. He's Patti Smith's longtime guitarist, has performed with other bands and now has his first solo album. It's called "Goin' Local," and it'll be released July 17. We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF LENNY KAYE SONG, "SOLSTICE")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Lenny Kaye. He has his first solo album, and it features his own songs. It's called "Goin' Local," and it will be released next week.

So you're such a New York City guy. I think you were born in Manhattan, and you lived in Brooklyn, Queens in New Jersey. Do I have that right?

KAYE: Yep. Yeah.

GROSS: Are you - you're living in East Stroudsburg now?

KAYE: Yes, I am. I've wound up in Pennsylvania.

GROSS: In the Pocono Mountains.

KAYE: Yeah, yeah. It's not that far from New York. It's an hour and a half drive when there's no traffic. But...

GROSS: There's a bunch of musicians who live there for that reason - you can get to New York to play gigs. But it's - you know, it's beautiful country up there.

KAYE: It's really nice, and it has, of course, the Delaware River, which is one of the great rivers of our time. I was just swimming in it two days ago when it was so hot (laughter).

GROSS: Among the musicians who used to live there was Bob Dorough, the singer-songwriter.

KAYE: Yeah, and right nearby is the Delaware Water Gap. They have the Deer Head Inn. And Phil Woods lived there, Bob Dorough. They have quite a little underground jazz scene, and it's just a nice place to be. I grew up in New York City, but I - when I first moved to Pennsylvania, there was a sign as you got over the border from New Jersey. It said America starts here. And I believe that. You know, all of a sudden, you're outside of the ring of one of the world capitals, New York City, and also in a certain way outside of the ring of another world capital, Philadelphia. And you can see the expanse of the country, and it gives you a perspective on your life in New York - things that seem so important are less so - and also what the rest of the country might be feeling and thinking.

GROSS: On your song "Let's Make A Memory," there's a line in the lyric that says, I don't know if I could live in this part of the country, but you make me want to try. Did you move there because your wife wanted to?

KAYE: (Laughter) Yes, yes. I was a little shocked. But we had a 3-year-old daughter, and the East Village in the late '80s was not as gentrified or even habitable as it is now. You know, when you have a 3-year-old, you want them to go out and play and not have to watch for shards of glass. So we went out there. And it took me a while to understand my place there, but I've come to love it.

GROSS: When your daughter was young, did you sing lullabies to her?

KAYE: Yeah. I actually sang The Beatles' "If I Fell." And when she got married, for our dance, as it was, we played that song. Yeah, I would always sing to her little lullabies.

GROSS: Did you try to shape her taste?

KAYE: Impossible. My daughter, when she got old enough to get into the radio, we'd be driving along and she'd hear a song with a guitar in it, and she'd immediately change the station to a hip-hop station.

GROSS: Oh, right.

KAYE: Yeah, which is great, you know? I mean...

GROSS: Did you expect that there was going to be a generation gap musically? 'Cause there was such a big one when you were growing up 'cause rock 'n' roll was new. Parents were listening to Perry Como. And now, I mean, there is a generation gap with hip-hop.

KAYE: I always hope that there is a generation gap. I don't believe that music was, quote, "better" then. Music belongs to the moment. I would not want people to venerate the music that I grew up with or even that I make now. I believe that music exists as the soundtrack of our present time. And often, when I'm in the car, I listen to hit radio. I might not make music like that. I might not even understand how to make music, but I can certainly appreciate the cleverness and the skill that goes into making the hits of the day. And so I would hope that when her kids grow up, you know, they're not going to be listening to what she did. They're going to be listening to the music of their generation.

GROSS: Well, I want to close with another song from your new album, and I want to play "A Friend Like You." Would you talk about the song?

KAYE: "A Friend Like You" - I heard the original French version by Stephan Eicher when I was in Paris in the '90s, and I just loved the song. I bought it, and I brought it home, and I always thought, I would like to write English lyrics to this. And so I did. I recorded it. It's actually one of my favorite songs on the record. And when I finished it, I sent it to Stephan, and he loved it. So, you know, I guess I kind of did what my uncle did with Nino Rota's music. I took...

GROSS: (Laughter).

KAYE: ...Stephan Eicher's music and spun it into English.

GROSS: But is it a translation or a brand-new lyric?

KAYE: It's a brand-new lyric. I think the chorus is kind of like a translation 'cause I had to figure out what that is, but I just wrote a new lyric to it.

GROSS: So this is "A Friend Like You" from Lenny Kaye's new album, "Goin' Local." Lenny Kaye, it has been such a pleasure to have you back on the show.

KAYE: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A FRIEND LIKE YOU")

KAYE: (Singing) If you forget about me far away, you know I will return. Of all the places I've been or will see, it's you that my heart yearns. And in the darkest night, you're a light, a glow that never goes. You reach out to me tenderly, and so our story goes. Because a friend like you, oh, no, no, no - don't have a friend like you. Don't have a friend like you, oh, no, no, no. Don't have a friend like you, like you.

GROSS: Lenny Kaye's new album, "Goin' Local," will be released next week.

If you'd like to catch up on interviews you missed, like this week's conversations with Peter Asher from the British invasion duo Peter and Gordon, who also produced James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, or journalist Ari Berman on the latest developments in voting rights, or Rachel Aviv on tensions in mother-daughter relationships, check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews. And to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers' recommendations for what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN SCOFIELD'S "BOOZER")

GROSS: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer today is Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN SCOFIELD'S "BOOZER")

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