Music critic Nat Hentoff called Guralnick a “…national treasure ” Bob Dylan said Guralnick's book, Last Train to Memphis “…cancels out all others.” He then began writing books about the history of rock'n'roll, blues, country music, and soul music. Guralnick graduated from Boston University in 1971 with a master's degree in creative writing.

He specializes in the history of early rock and roll and has written books on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke. Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. It was a good, honest move, and one of the best things I ever done - and I didn't do nothing.Boston University College of Arts and Sciences I know I was hired to play piano, but I wish you'd let her play that thing, and I could get on organ and electric.' And that's the way it was. I said, 'Now, look, I'm not trying to cop out or nothing. She was showing us this song she had brought down there with her, she hit that magic chord when Wexler was going up the little steps to the control room, and I just stopped.

She was gonna stand up in front of the microphone and sing. Spooner Oldham, the weedy keyboard player who is most known for never playing the same licks twice and who is ordinarily the most reticent of men, speaks in similar superlatives. If I'd had a camera, I'd have a great film of that session, because I can still see it in my mind's eye, just how it was - Spooner on the organ, Moman playing guitar, Aretha at the piano - it was beautiful, better than any session I've ever seen, and I seen a bunch of 'em.' That's the prettiest session picture I can ever remember. We'd just been dumb-dumb playing, but this was the real thing. It was, 'Let's get down to serious business.' That first chord she hit was nothing we'd been demoing, and nothing none of them cats in Memphis had been, either. You could tell by the way she hit the piano the gig was up. I said, 'Man, this woman gonna knock you out.' They're all going, 'Big deal!' When she come in there and sit down at the piano and hit that first chord, everybody was just like little bees just buzzing around the queen.

You getting someone who can sing.' Even the Memphis guys didn't really know who in the hell she was. I said, 'Who you got?' He said, 'Aretha Franklin.' I said, 'Boy, you better get your damn shoes on. “Rick contacted me about the session, but he didn't know who in hell was coming in.

Peter guralnick last train to memphis