PAUL WILLIAMS
Paul S. Williams (May 19, 1948 – March 27, 2013), born in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism Crawdaddy! in January 1966. He was also the author of more than 25 books, of which the best-known are Outlaw Blues, Das Energi, and Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, the acclaimed three-part series. Williams was a leading authority on the works of musicians Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Neil Young, and science fiction writers Philip K. Dick (serving as the executor of his literary estate) and Theodore Sturgeon. (More from Wikipedia)
The Amboy Dukes' raw treatment of Big Joe Williams' "Baby, Please Don't Go" from the band's first album on Mainstream Records was included on the original Nuggets compilation album and already features Ted Nugent's signature guitar licks. Additionally, and incredibly, "Baby, Please Don't Go" was originally the "A" side of the early single by Van Morrison's band Them that includes the immortal "Gloria" on the flip. In his book Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles, rock historian Paul Williams has said of this record (as quoted in Wikipedia): "Into the heart of the beast . . . here is something so good, so pure, that if no other hint of it but this record existed, there would still be such a thing as rock and roll. . . . Van Morrison's voice a fierce beacon in the darkness, the lighthouse at the end of the world. Resulting in one of the most perfect rock anthems known to humankind."
(April 2011)
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But I was surprised when so many "Crawdaddy" entities came up in the initial Google searches for this post on the Crawdaddys. A rock music magazine called Crawdaddy! was founded by the important music historian Paul Williams in 1966 (and a different man from the songwriter Paul Williams who is also a sometime actor). About this publication, Wikipedia says: "Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as 'the first magazine to take rock and roll seriously'."
(January 2015/2)
