Guralnick, Peter

Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music & Writing

New York, NY: Little, Brown & Co., 2020. First Printing. Hardcover. “I first met Skip James at Dick Waterman’s apartment in Cambridge in the summer of 1965. I sought him out because, quite simply, his music had overwhelmed me: the blues that he had recorded for Paramount Records in 1931 on piano and guitar, for of whose sides had been reissued on collector’s labels in the early 60s, had struck me as unfathomably strange, beautiful, and profound. Then in June of 1964 the singer himself was rediscovered in a hospital in Tunica, Mississippi, and when he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival some five or six weeks later, his music was just as haunting, just as profound, his pure falsetto floated out over that festival field with all the ethereal power of the records but with a new and eerie reality….I called up Dick and told him that I wanted to interview Skip for an article in Blues Unlimited, an English fanzine,” celebrated music journalist Peter Guaralnick (b. 1943) writes here in “Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing.” The full story is too good to divulge in our curation copy, here, but the interested reader will not be disappointed. Guralnick’s book is comprised of profiles on many of America’s greatest musical artists—Blues masters like Robert Johnson, Skip James, Willie Dixon, and Howlin’ Wolf among them—and Guralnick’s own experience covering their influence, lives, and work. While the work is not limited to a study of the Blues (American Folk, Country & Soul legends are well-represented) the Blues does loom heavy over it all—but how could it not, with a life-&-legacy like Guaralnick’s? At any rate, the fan/student of American music simply cannot be disappointed with a work as well-written & revelatory as Guaralnick’s—a statement with which the prospective future owner of this tome will doubtlessly agree. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket. First Edition, First Printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. Book in very fine condition, virtually as issued with only slightest shelf-wear to fine-edge & corners of front, back covers. Dust-jacket in strong fine condition, with only corresponding slight shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of same; light undulation-like wave-crinkling at specific locales; a few slight, fleck-like exhibits of faint rubbing & two nearly invisible tiny blue pen markings at center of front cover, almost invisible at a glance, else pristine. An extra handling fee will be added for shipping due to the weight of this item. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #5314]

Price: $30.00