Lenny Kravitz plays Wednesday at the Orpheum Theatre, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his debut album, “Let Love Rule.’’ His iPod was also clearly in a nostalgic mood when we caught up with the New York native in the midst of a run of hometown shows, as a ton of ’70s gems popped up. A very chipper Kravitz marveled at how many New York-related songs and artists came up and how well it represented - from singer-songwriter pop to classic R&B to funk to hard rock - all of the influences he has synthesized into his own sound.
1. “Down and Out in New York City,’’ James Brown
2. “Here Comes the Sun,’’ Nina Simone
3. “So Far Away,’’ Carole King
4. “The Rain Song,’’ Led Zeppelin
5. “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye),’’ Gladys Knight & the Pips
6. “Angel Dust,’’ Gil Scott-Heron
7. “Back in the Day,’’ Erykah Badu
8. “Autumn in New York,’’ Bobby Short
9. “I Say a Little Prayer,’’ Aretha Franklin
10. “Mighty Mighty,’’ Earth, Wind & Fire
Surprised didn’t come up: “I go into phases, like lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Freddie Hubbard because I was at Denzel Washington’s the other night and he played this Freddie Hubbard album that I’d never heard, which I should’ve, called ‘First Light’ and I’ve just been listening to it over and over.’’
Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously said Kravitz was also playing Tuesday.
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