Sweet Soul Music: Peter Guralnick

This blog is dedicated to the discussion of Peter Guralnick’s book, “Sweet Soul Music.” We’ll explore the history and impact of this important work, and consider its place in the larger story of American music.

Guralnick’s Biography

Peter Guralnick is an American music critic, historian, and biographer. He is best known for his work on the history of rock ‘n’ roll and soul music. In 1986, he published the first volume of his two-volume work, Sweet Soul Music: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll. The book is a history of soul music from its beginnings in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s.

Early life and education

Peter Guralnick was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 15, 1943. He attended Boston University, where he majored in English and American literature; while at college he worked part-time for The Boston Phoenix and became friends with future writers Greil Marcus and Ed Ward. In 1963 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to pursue his interest in country music.

Career

In the 1960s, Guralnick was employed as a staff writer at The Boston Phoenix and contributed music reviews and feature articles to such publications as Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, Salon, and Mojo. He also wrote liner notes for several albums, including an early release by Led Zeppelin and Henry Mancini’s Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to Peter Gunn.

In 1971, he wrote his first book, Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians, about the country music scene in Nashville. The following year, he began working on a two-part biography of Elvis Presley. Presley: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow was published in 1976; the second volume—Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley—was released posthumously in 1999.

Guralnick co-wrote (with Ericclordon) the 33⅓ book on the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds (2006), and is writing a biography of Sam Phillips (the founder of Sun Records) due for publication in 2019.

Guralnick’s Music

Peter Guralnick is a highly respected music critic and historian. His two-volume history of soul music, “Sweet Soul Music” is a classic. In this work, Guralnick tells the story of the rise of soul music from the early days of gospel and rhythm and blues. Guralnick’s work is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of soul music.

Music style

Soul music is a genre of popular music that originated in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, and often jazz. soulful, passionate vocals.

characterized by its emotionally intense vocals and impassioned delivery; many popular soul artists have been noted for their capacity to “get inside the listener’s head”,[1][2] convictions and emotions,[3][4] often described as “blues with a capital B”.[5][6]

Notable works

-Feel Like Going Home: Charlie Patton and the Birth of the Blues
-Lost Highway: Music and Myth in Country Music
-Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blue from the Heart of Memphis
-Searching for Robert Johnson
-Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing

Reception of Guralnick’s work

Peter Guralnick’s work on sweet soul music has been both praised and criticised by music critics. Some have said that his work is essential to understanding the genre, while others have said it is too romanticised.

Critical response

Peter Guralnick’s two-volume biography of Elvis Presley has been described as “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll story ever told” and “the best biography of any kind that I’ve ever read.” It has also been praised for its insights into race relations in the South during the 1950s and 1960s.

In a review for The New York Times, Jon Pareles wrote that Guralnick “has an extraordinary feel for the music itself, as well as for the sweaty, smoky clubs where it was born.” Pareles went on to say that “Guralnick captures the sound of early rock ‘n’ roll as no writer before him has done.”

Likewise, in a review for The Washington Post, Geoffrey Himes wrote that Guralnick’s account of Presley’s early career is “nothing short of astonishing…a work of empathy, insight and scholarship.” Himes went on to say that Guralnick’s work is “essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not only Elvis but also the roots of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Commercial success

Sweet Soul Music: Peter Guralnick’s History of R&B and Soul was both a commercial and critical success upon its release in 1986. The book spent eight weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, peaking at #4, and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau wrote that Guralnick had “resurrected an era”, and that Sweet Soul Music “may be the best popular music history ever written”. In The New York Times, Jon Pareles praised the book as “a model of musical reporting”, calling it “enthralling” and “exhaustive”.