{"title":"Books by Peter Guralnick","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781399622790","title":"Sweet Soul Music","description":"\u003cp\u003eAvailable in this new hardback edition for the first time in decades, \u003ci\u003eSweet Soul Music\u003c\/i\u003e was hailed by Newsweek on publication as 'a stunning chronicle.... a panoramic survey of a lost world [and] one of the best books ever written on American popular music'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince then it has acquired the status of a classic. Pitchfork included it among its '50 Favourite Music Books of All Time,' the Daily Beast placed it on their 'Essential Civil Rights Reading List,' David Bowie named it one of his '100 Must-Read books', while noted author Ta Nehisi Coates, whose work chronicles the contemporary racial divide, called it 'one of the ten books I couldn't live without.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA gripping narrative that captures the tumult and sweep of a music that will forever be linked to the Civil Rights Movement which inspired it, (think of Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come') \u003ci\u003eSweet Soul Music\u003c\/i\u003e provides intimate portraits of performers like Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green among others, whose passionate gospel-based music embodied the liberating energy of a nation in transition. Through rare interviews, Peter Guralnick tells the definitive story of the music and the musicians, bringing to it the same empathy and insight that has informed all of his other work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Roddy Doyle writes in his introduction to this new edition: '\u003ci\u003eSweet Soul Music\u003c\/i\u003e delivers all that we love to read in a great, sprawling novel, and still manages to be richly informative, historically and musically precise; it's a work of high scholarship written by a born storyteller.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44583347683506,"sku":"9781399622790","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399622790_e8ee7550-2691-4a7f-a26f-7813e17dbbe3.jpg?v=1786019823"},{"product_id":"9781399635295","title":"The Colonel and the King","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eINCLUDED IN \u003ci\u003eTIME\u003c\/i\u003e'S 100 MUST READ BOOKS OF 2025\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Guralnick knows the intricacies of this story more   than anyone, except perhaps the Colonel and Presley themselves'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe concluding volume of Peter Guralnick's critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biographies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker discovered a teenage   Elvis Presley and declared him destined for greatness. What followed was one   of the most extraordinary partnerships in music history and the creation of a   bond built on loyalty, ambition and an unshakeable belief in each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the meteoric rise that reshaped popular culture to   the struggles that shadowed their final years, this concluding volume of   Peter Guralnick's acclaimed trilogy reveals the full complexity of their   relationship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on previously unpublished letters and telegrams   from Parker's own archives, it offers an intimate, unflinching portrait of   two American originals: the visionary manager who invented the modern superstar and the artist who became one. Brilliant, flawed and inseparable, Elvis and the Colonel changed the music world forever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Guralnick's view of Parker is both clear-eyed and sympathetic, but best of all, it's persuasive'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTIME\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A riveting and revelatory read'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY INDEPENDENT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685823750517,"sku":"9781399635318","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":55897368625525,"sku":"9781399635295","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399635318_a22c6d58-ea94-43d7-88ef-53cbb4b605ad.jpg?v=1792599025"},{"product_id":"9780297609490","title":"Sam Phillips","description":"\u003cp\u003eRock 'n' roll was born in rural Alabama, 1923, in the form of Sam Phillips, the youngest son of a large family living in a remote colony called the Lovelace Community. His father had a gift for farming, which was brought to an end by the Depression. His mother picked guitar and showed the kind of forbearance that allowed her to name her son after the doctor who delivered him drunk and then had to be put to bed himself. And yet from these unprepossessing origins, in 1951 Phillips made what is widely considered to be the first rock 'n' roll record, Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston's 'Rocket 88'. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Just two years later a shy eighteen-year-old kid with sideburns, fresh out of high school, wandered into his recording studio to make a record 'for his mother', secretly hoping that it might somehow get him noticed. His name was Elvis Presley. Elvis's success, and the subsequent triumph of rock 'n' roll, was initially propelled to an almost astonishing degree by a limited number of releases by Carl 'Blue Suede Shoes' Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis - all from this tiny, one-man label.\u003cbr\u003e An engaging mix of biography and anecdote, Peter Guralnick's book brilliantly recreates one shining moment in the history of popular culture. And Sam Phillips was the man who brought it all about.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56232077820277,"sku":"9780297609490","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780297609490_4ba22963-a6d0-4522-8746-7efcdd8d1092.jpg?v=1786015925"},{"product_id":"9781399619530","title":"Feel Like Going Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFeel Like Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e vividly brings to life such early blues masters as Muddy Waters , Skip James, and Howlin' Wolf, along with illuminating excursions into the blues-based rock 'n' roll of Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, and the Sun Records label. With unique insight and unparalleled access, celebrated author Peter Guralnick (\u003ci\u003eLast Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ePresley\u003c\/i\u003e) dramatically depicts the people, the songs, and the performances that forever changed not only the American music scene but America itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith a brand-new introduction by David Keenan to cast new light on the book today, and published for the first time as part of White Rabbit's Deep Cuts series, \u003ci\u003eFeel Like Going Home\u003c\/i\u003e takes its place once again as a classic in the world of music literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298381574517,"sku":"9781399619530","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399619530_e19370f8-076c-4937-a05e-ab1be94a5226.jpg?v=1786019751"},{"product_id":"careless-love","title":"Careless Love","description":"\u003cp\u003e'\u003cb\u003eHomeric in its play of beauty and folly, this is a   monumental work\u003c\/b\u003e'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eINDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eRiveting ... A masterwork\u003c\/b\u003e'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWALL STREET JOURNAL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe second volume of Peter Guralnick's critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biographies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe next chapter in the definitive biography of Elvis   picks up where \u003ci\u003eLast Train to Memphis \u003c\/i\u003eclosed with Presley's military service in Germany 1958 and ends with his death in Memphis, 1977. \u003ci\u003eCareless Love \u003c\/i\u003echronicles the unravelling of the dream that shone so brightly,   homing in on his very close, and very complex relationship with his lifelong manager, Colonel Tom Parker.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's a breathtaking drama that places the events of a too often mistold tale in a fresh, believable and understandable context. This is the quintessential American story, encompassing race, class, wealth, sex, music, religion and personal transformation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten with grace, sensitivity and passion, \u003ci\u003eCareless Love \u003c\/i\u003eis a unique contribution to our understanding of American popular culture and the nature of success, giving us true insight into one of the most misunderstood public figures of our times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eIt must be ranked among the most ambitious and crucial biographical undertakings yet devoted to a major American figure\u003c\/b\u003e'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57483450089845,"sku":"9781399641456","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399641456.jpg?v=1786178616"},{"product_id":"last-train-to-memphis","title":"Last Train to Memphis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe' \u003c\/b\u003eBOB DYLAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Wonderful'\u003c\/b\u003e RODDY DOYLE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first volume of Peter Guralnick's critically acclaimed Elvis Presley biographies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLast Train to Memphis \u003c\/i\u003eis arguably the first serious biography that refuses to dwell on the myth of Elvis. Aiming instead to portray in vivid, dramatic terms the life and career of this outstanding artistic and cultural phenomenon, it draws together a plethora of documentary and interview material to create a superbly coherent and plausible narrative.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the first of three volumes from music critic   and author, Peter Guralnick, and covers Presley's stratospheric rise to stardom up to his departure for Germany in 1958. \u003ci\u003eLast Train to Memphis \u003c\/i\u003eis undoubtedly the benchmark by which other biographies of Elvis are judged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Soars above all other accounts of Elvis' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A triumph of biographical art... profound and moving'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57483451072885,"sku":"9781399641463","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399641463.jpg?v=1786178617"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-peter-guralnick.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}