John Kelly: Write about what you love – saying thanks to Peter Guralnick

The original Sun Studios recording facility run by Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee I owe a very great debt to the American writer Peter Guralnick. Every time we speak I make a real point of saying so, and of saying thanks. Over the years his writing has sent me of on all manner of musical adventures, and even pilgrimages to sites like the birthplace of Elvis, the grave of Bill Monroe, and to an enormous wooden throne on which sat the Bishop – Dr Solomon Burke. Among Pete’s books are Sweet Soul Music, Lost Highway, Feel Like Going Home, Searching for Robert Johnson and his definitive two volume biography of Elvis – Last Train the Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley and the follow-up Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. His most recent book The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Illustrated Story of Sun Records and the 70 Recordings That Changed the World (with Colin Escott ) is a big and beautiful affair packed with photographs, and containing the world’s greatest discography in its entirety. The famous Sun Studios insignia shines on the cover, a crowing rooster surrounded by sunbeams and bordered by musical notes, and there’s a foreword by his old friend, the late Jerry Lee Lewis. Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and Elvis Presley (Pic: Getty) Some years ago I travelled to Memphis to interview the man who founded Sun Records, Sam Phillips. I sat in the chair that “Elvis used to sit in” and […]

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