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"Peter Guralnick's remarkable work... 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."--From publisher's description.

"This is a book about the whirlwind of creativity, the passionate drive to make art born of individuated experience that is both unique and unduplicatable... This singular new book of profiles represents not so much a summation as a culmination of Peter Guralnick's groundbreaking work over the years, covering not only the vast sweep of the American musical landscape but its profound personal impact on the author as well"--Adapted from jacket flap.

Falling into place

Robert Johnson and the transformative nature of art

Whose Skip James is this?

COSMIC RAY: 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

Hag at the crossroads: portrait of the artist in midlife

Bill Monroe: hard working man blues

Lonnie Mack: funky country living

Delbert McClinton: night life

Joe Tex: hold what you've got

Dick Curless: the return of the tumbleweed kid

John R. Cash: I will rock and roll with you (if I have to)

Tammy Wynette: 'til I can make it on my own

Lee Smith: telling tales

Call the doctor: the further adventures of Doc Pomus, Part I

Me and the Colonel

Henry Green: a personal memoir and appreciation

Some cats know: words and music by Leiber & Stoller

Producing a legend: Willie Dixon and the blues

Meeting Chuck Berry

American without tears: Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint go on a journey

The song of Solomon: a triptych

Perfect imperfection: the life and art of Jerry Lee Lewis

Howlin Wolf: what is the soul of man?

Living with the Blues: an interview with Eric Clapton

Malaco Records: life on the edge of town

My father, my grandfather and Ray Charles

Reading, writing, and real life.

Rock music > History and criticism.

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Blues (Music) > History and criticism.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

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