Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and WritingBy the bestselling author of Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll and Last Train the Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, this dazzling new book of profiles is a culmination of Peter Guralnick’s remarkable work, which from the start has encompassed the full sweep of blues, gospel, country, and rock 'n' roll. It covers old ground from new perspectives, offering deeply felt, masterful, and strikingly personal portraits of creative artists, both musicians and writers, at the height of their powers. “You put the book down feeling that its sweep is vast, that you have read of giants who walked among us,” rock critic Lester Bangs wrote of Guralnick’s earlier work in words that could just as easily be applied to this new one. And yet, for all of the encomiums that Guralnick’s books have earned for their remarkable insights and depth of feeling, Looking to Get Lost is his most personal book yet. For readers who have grown up on Guralnick’s unique vision of the vast sweep of the American musical landscape, who have imbibed his loving and lively portraits and biographies of such titanic figures as Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, and Sam Phillips, there are multiple surprises and delights here, carrying on and extending all the themes, fascinations, and passions of his groundbreaking earlier work. One of NPR’s Best Books of 2020 One of Kirkus Review/Rolling Stone’s Top Music Books of 2020 One of No Depression’s Best Books of 2020 |
Contents
How Ray Charles I Got a Woman Transformed the Music of Ray Charles Allowed Him to Keep His Band and Created a Musical and Social Revolution | |
Portrait of the Artist in Midlife | |
Hard Working Man Blues | |
Funky Country Living | |
Night Life | |
Willie Dixon and the Blues | |
Meeting Chuck Berry | |
Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint Go on a Journey | |
A Triptych | |
The Life and Art of Jerry Lee Lewis | |
What Is the Soul of Man? | |
An Interview with Eric Clapton | |
Life on the Edge of Town | |
Hold What Youve | |
The Return of the Tumbleweed | |
I Will Rock and Roll with You If I Have | |
Til I Can Make It on My | |
Telling Tales | |
The Further Adventures of Doc Pomus Part | |
A Personal Memoir and Appreciation | |
Words and Music by Leiber Stoller | |
I | |
My Father My Grandfather and Ray Charles | |
Reading Writing and Real Life | |
A Fans Notes | |
Me and the Colonel | |
Acknowledgments | |
Discover More About the Author | |
Also by Peter Guralnick | |
Praise for Peter Guralnicks Looking to Get Lost | |
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Common terms and phrases
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