Peter Guralnick

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Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a American music critic, writer on music, and historian of US American popular music, who is also active as an author and screenwriter.

Guralnick's first two books, Almost Grown (1964) and Mister Downchild (1967), were short story collections published by Larry Stark, whose small press in Cambridge, Larry Stark Press, was devoted to stories and poems. Mona Dickson, writing in MIT's The Tech (May 13, 1964) gave Almost Grown a favorable review. [1]

After Guralnick graduated from Boston University in 1971 with a master's degree in creative writing, he began writing books chronicling the history of blues, country, rock and roll and soul.

His biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis (1994), was followed by Careless Love:The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (1999, completing Guralnick's in-depth examination of Presley's life. The two books, encompassing more than 1,300 pages (including 1,150 pages of text), prompted Rolling Stone to assign the Presley pages in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll to Guralnick.

In contrast to contemporaries such as Lester Bangs, Ian Penman and Nick Tosches, whose music writings are marked by idiosyncratic, self-referential and highly personal styles, Guralnick's writing is characterized by a colloquial approach that is clean and understated by comparison. In his best passages, he has an ability to simultaneously empathize and remain objective. Writing as a music fan, his enthusiasm powers his writing but doesn't overpower it.

Guralnick wrote the script for A&E's documentary, Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll, narrated by Billy Bob Thornton, and he also scripted Sam Cooke - Legend, [2] narrated by Jeffrey Wright.

[edit] Books

Peter Guralnick (1964). Almost Grown. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Larry Stark Press.
Peter Guralnick (1967). Mister Downchild. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Larry Stark Press.
Peter Guralnick (1971). Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues, Country, and Rock 'n' Roll. ISBN 0876900465. Reprinted 1999. ISBN 0316332720
Peter Guralnick (1979). Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians. ISBN 0-316-33274-7.
Peter Guralnick (1986). Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom. ISBN 0-316-33273-9.
Peter Guralnick (1989). Searching for Robert Johnson. ISBN 0-452-27949-6.
Peter Guralnick (1994). Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. ISBN 0-316-33225-9.
Peter Guralnick (1999). Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. ISBN 0-316-33297-6.
Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen (1999). Elvis Day by Day : The Definitive Record of His Life and Music. ISBN 0-345-42089-6.
Peter Guralnick (2005). Dream Boogie : The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-37794-5.