I remember first seeing this book on the shelves over at Target back in the fall of 2020. I kept thinking to myself I should buy that immediately. After all, Lenny is one of my favorite artists and I’ve always been interested in how he creates his music. Days turned into months, and it wasn’t until actually over two years later, I saw the book again. It was a bit lower in price (let’s face it, it’s hard to stomach thirty dollars for a hardcover) and I decided to take a chance to read about the life and times of one Lenny Kravitz. Let’s take a look.
The original copy of this review (minus this introduction) can be found at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5563606238
Roughly five years ago I really got back into music, something I had not thought about except for a song here and album there for about ten to fifteen years. My music collection was minimal and my taste was very limited. Since then, my variety of artists has dramatically increased. Besides Prince, the very first artist I really latched onto in these last five years was Lenny Kravitz. His songs, his style, and a kind of voice that could be loud and expressive but also mellow at the same time immediately put me at ease.
So while I didn’t buy it immediately (unlike most of his albums), I certainly wanted to read Let Love Rule as soon as it hit the shelves. Even though it’s been a few years, I was finally able to sit down and enjoy his first autobiography. Wait, did you say “first”? Yes, something I wish I would have kind of known before I read it in order to set my expectations correctly.
Well, I assume it’s his first of what I hope are two or three books on his life. This book primarily focuses on his life up until his first record, Let Love Rule. The last fifty pages or so actually focus on the record whereas the other two hundred focus on his growing up and finding himself. While I have no problem reading about his life and did tend to mostly enjoy the experience, the problem is when I read a musical biography, I kinda want to read about well…the music. The songs, the lyrics, the creative process.
That is missing here. We learn about him growing up in Manhattan and eventually moving to California due to his mother, Roxie Roker landing the part of Helen Willis in the amazing television series, The Jeffersons. That show lasted eleven years and so a large part of his life was right there in the throws of Beverly Hills. We also learn a lot about his dad, Sy Kravitz who wasn’t as famous but arguably played a larger role in the development of Lenny Kravitz right up until the musician left home.
The other interesting thing throughout this entire book is how positive Lenny is about everyone, even his father who did some really terrible things to both Lenny as well as his mother. However, the musician doesn’t dwell on any of these facts and instead uses the time to spread a positive reflection on everyone in his family and those he spent time with. It’s refreshing, and takes some getting used to especially if you read a lot of musician/celebrity biographies where there often is a lot of salacious details. There is very little of that, and from what there is it’s written in a way that’s almost wholesome. Sometimes, too much I guess.
The book is rather thin at 260 pages (with a dozen more pages of photographs)which makes me think that another book will be on the way, hopefully in the near future. After all, his most famous albums came after Let Love Rule and it would be nice to know some of what went on during the formation of that music. From reading some of the reviews on Goodreads, I think I would have gotten more out of the audiobook since Lenny does the reading and apparently even sings a little bit. Traditionally, I’m more of a print guy but if Lenny is reading his own book, then I probably should look into that sort of thing.
This book is a tough recommendation, especially if we never get a follow up. I mean it makes sense that a book that’s named after Lenny’s first album is only going to cover his life up until that album, but I wanted more, way more. I could have easily read four hundred, five hundred pages. It’s simply a taste, an appetizer that makes us wonder where the main course is at. That’s why I’m stuck at three stars for this review, it’s just unfinished. Enjoy.
