The Current, Episode 25: Peter Guralnick
Join acclaimed music critic Peter Guralnick in conversation with Michael Pietsch, CEO of Hachette Book Group. On this special episode of our weekly author interview series The Current, Guralnick discusses his new book LOOKING TO GET LOST: Adventures in Music and Writing.
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 Reviews/Rolling Stone’s Top Music Books of 2020
One of No Depression’s Best Books of 2020
Best Music Books of 2020, Variety