Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)
Encyclopedia
Paul Williams is an American
music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music
criticism
:Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College
with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans
(he had previously put out some science fiction fanzines). The first issue was ten mimeographed pages written entirely by Williams. He left the magazine in 1968 and reclaimed the title in 1993, but had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties.
He is 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 is 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
. His most recent book is The 20th Century's Greatest Hits (a "Top 40" list that includes movies, books & other documents).
In 1981 he edited and published, with David G. Hartwell
, a book edition of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a foreword by Jimmy Carter
.
, Bhob Stewart
and Art Spiegelman
. In August of 1968 at the 26th World Science Fiction Convention he introduced himself to Dick, beginning a friendship that lasted through the rest of Dick's life.
In 1974 Williams interviewed Dick for Rolling Stone magazine. The resulting article, "The True Stories of Philip K. Dick" which appeared in the November 6, 1975 issue of Rolling Stone magazine covered many theories of the 1971 break-in of Dick's San Rafael home in Northern California, a 1972 suicide attempt in British Columbia
, his subsequent move to Orange County, California
, politics, the relationship of Dick's lengthy amphetamine
use and slight LSD
use to his writing career and many other subjects in addition to Dick's fiction and writing career.
Williams was Dick's literary executor for several years after Dick's death and used that position to get several of the author's previously unpublished neorealist novels into print.
From 1983 to 1992 Williams ran the Philip K. Dick Society along with Keith Bowden in the UK. PKDS had some thousands of members internationally and was a significant influence in publicising Dick's work internationally. It published 30 quarterly Newsletters including some previously unpublished Dick material.
In 1986, Williams published one of the first biographies of Dick, entitled Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick.
Williams is a featured interviewee in two documentaries about Dick: a biographical documentary BBC2 released in 1994 as part of its Arena
arts series called Arena - Philip K Dick: A day in the afterlife and The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick another biographical documentary film produced in 2007.
In the 1980s, he was married to Donna Nassar who provided many illustrations for Crawdaddy!s second incarnation.
In 1992 Williams began a relationship with anti-folk
co-founder and singer Cindy Lee Berryhill
http://www.cindyleeberryhill.com, now his wife. In 2009, Williams lived in Encinitas, California
with Berryhill and their son, Alexander, part of the year but eventually had to enter a nursing home due to dementia
. He is suffering from Alzheimer's disease
, the early onset of which is attributed to a brain injury Williams sustained in a 1995 bicycle accident.
The medical bills have been enormous, and the family is asking for donations toward his continued medical care. On December 14, 2009 Paul Williams was accepted for Medi-Cal
(Medicaid
) coverage.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
criticism
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
:Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
(he had previously put out some science fiction fanzines). The first issue was ten mimeographed pages written entirely by Williams. He left the magazine in 1968 and reclaimed the title in 1993, but had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties.
He is 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 is a leading authority on the works of musicians Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, and Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, and science fiction writers Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
(serving as the executor of his literary estate) and Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
. His most recent book is The 20th Century's Greatest Hits (a "Top 40" list that includes movies, books & other documents).
In 1981 he edited and published, with David G. Hartwell
David G. Hartwell
David Geddes Hartwell is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet , Berkley Putnam , Pocket , and Tor Books David Geddes Hartwell (b. July 10, 1941) is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet (1971–1973), Berkley Putnam...
, a book edition of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a foreword by Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
.
Association with Philip K. Dick
In the spring of 1967 Williams was introduced to the fiction of Philip K. Dick by Trina RobbinsTrina Robbins
Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...
, Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart is an American writer, editor, artist and film maker who has written for a variety of publications over a span of five decades. His articles and reviews have appeared in TV Guide, Publishers Weekly and other publications, along with online contributions to Allmovie, the Collecting...
and Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
. In August of 1968 at the 26th World Science Fiction Convention he introduced himself to Dick, beginning a friendship that lasted through the rest of Dick's life.
In 1974 Williams interviewed Dick for Rolling Stone magazine. The resulting article, "The True Stories of Philip K. Dick" which appeared in the November 6, 1975 issue of Rolling Stone magazine covered many theories of the 1971 break-in of Dick's San Rafael home in Northern California, a 1972 suicide attempt in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, his subsequent move to Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, politics, the relationship of Dick's lengthy amphetamine
Amphetamine
Amphetamine or amfetamine is a psychostimulant drug of the phenethylamine class which produces increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.Brand names of medications that contain, or metabolize into, amphetamine include Adderall, Dexedrine, Dextrostat,...
use and slight LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
use to his writing career and many other subjects in addition to Dick's fiction and writing career.
Williams was Dick's literary executor for several years after Dick's death and used that position to get several of the author's previously unpublished neorealist novels into print.
From 1983 to 1992 Williams ran the Philip K. Dick Society along with Keith Bowden in the UK. PKDS had some thousands of members internationally and was a significant influence in publicising Dick's work internationally. It published 30 quarterly Newsletters including some previously unpublished Dick material.
In 1986, Williams published one of the first biographies of Dick, entitled Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick.
Williams is a featured interviewee in two documentaries about Dick: a biographical documentary BBC2 released in 1994 as part of its Arena
Arena (TV series)
Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. It has run since 1 October 1975, and over five hundred episodes have been made. Arena covers all manner of subjects, from profiles of notable people such as Bob Dylan to the Ford Cortina car...
arts series called Arena - Philip K Dick: A day in the afterlife and The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick another biographical documentary film produced in 2007.
Family
In 1972, Williams married Sachiko Kanenobu, Japanese female singer-songwriter; they raised two children.In the 1980s, he was married to Donna Nassar who provided many illustrations for Crawdaddy!s second incarnation.
In 1992 Williams began a relationship with anti-folk
Anti-folk
Anti-folk is a music genre that takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this anti-folk are difficult to identify, as they vary from one artist to the next...
co-founder and singer Cindy Lee Berryhill
Cindy Lee Berryhill
Cindy Lee Berryhill is a singer-songwriter. Berryhill was born in LA's Silverlake, and grew up in various parts of California. Her debut album, Who's Gonna Save The World came out in October 1987 and was followed by the Lenny Kaye produced, Naked Movie Star in 1989...
http://www.cindyleeberryhill.com, now his wife. In 2009, Williams lived in Encinitas, California
Encinitas, California
Encinitas is a coastal beach city in San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego in North County and about south of Los Angeles. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 59,518, up from 58,014 at the 2000 census. Encinitas is...
with Berryhill and their son, Alexander, part of the year but eventually had to enter a nursing home due to dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
. He is suffering from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, the early onset of which is attributed to a brain injury Williams sustained in a 1995 bicycle accident.
The medical bills have been enormous, and the family is asking for donations toward his continued medical care. On December 14, 2009 Paul Williams was accepted for Medi-Cal
Medi-Cal
The California Medical Assistance Program is the name of the California Medicaid program serving low-income families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in foster care, pregnant women, and certain low-income adults...
(Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
) coverage.
Books
- Outlaw Blues: A Book of Rock Music (1969)
- Time Between (1972)
- Das Energi (1973)
- Pushing Upward (1973)
- Apple Bay (1976)
- Coming (1977)
- Right To Pass (1977)
- Heart of Gold (written 1978, published 1991)
- Bob Dylan: What Happened? (1979)
- Fox and Hare: the story of a Friday evening. Entwhistle Books, Glen Ellen, California. Written by Chester Anderson; "Introduction: the Making of Fox & Hare" by Paul Williams, publisher; illustrations by Charles Stevenson. (1980)
- The Book of Houses (1980)
- Common Sense (1982)
- Waking Up Together (1984)
- Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick, Arbor House, New York, ISBN 0-87795-800-9) (1986)
- Remember Your Essence (1987)
- The Map or Rediscovering Rock and Roll (a journey) (1988)
- Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles (1993)
- Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 1. (1990)
- Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years (1992)
- Energi Inscriptions (1995)
- Bob Dylan: Watching The River Flow (1996)
- Neil Young: Love To Burn London, New York, Paris, Sydney: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-934558-19-1 (1997)
- Brian Wilson & The Beach BoysThe Beach BoysThe Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
– How Deep Is The Ocean? (1997) - The Twentieth Century’s Greatest Hits (2000)
- Bob Dylan: Mind Out of Time (Performing Artist Vol. 3, 1987-2000) (2004)
Books as editor
- The International Bill of Human Rights, Glen EllenGlen Ellen, CaliforniaGlen Ellen is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA. The population was 784 at the 2010 census, down from 992 at the 2000 census. Glen Ellen is the location of Jack London State Historic Park , Sonoma Valley Regional Park, and a former home of Hunter S....
, CA : Entwhistle Books, foreword by Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, ISBN 093455806X (1981) - The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Vol. I-XII