Paul Williams (music journalist)

Paul Williams
Born Paul S. Williams
(1948-05-19)May 19, 1948
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died March 27, 2013(2013-03-27) (aged 64)
California, U.S.
Occupation music journalist, writer

Paul S. Williams (May 19, 1948 – March 27, 2013), born in Boston, Massachusetts, was an American music journalist and writer.

Career

Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism Crawdaddy![1] in January 1966[2] 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).[3] The first issue was ten mimeographed pages written entirely by Williams.[4][5] He left the magazine in 1968 and reclaimed the title in 1993, but had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties.

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)[6] and Theodore Sturgeon. His final published books were The 20th Century's Greatest Hits (a "Top 40" list that includes movies, books & other documents)(2000)[7] and the last volume of his critical look at the music of Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan: Mind Out of Time (Performing Artist Vol. 3, 1987-2000) (2004).

In 1981 he edited and published, with David G. Hartwell, the first book edition of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a foreword by Jimmy Carter.

Association with Philip K. Dick

In the spring of 1967 Williams was introduced to the fiction of Philip K. Dick by Trina Robbins, Bhob Stewart and Art Spiegelman.[8] In August 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.[9]

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.[10]

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 Andy Watson and 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 three 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,[11] The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick which was produced in 2001 and The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick another biographical documentary film produced in 2007.[12]

Personal life

Williams was a long time friend and associate of Mel Lyman, and lived and worked at Lyman's intentional community at Fort Hill, Boston for a few months in 1971. According to Rolling Stone's David Felton, Williams told him he had actually had to escape under cover of darkness, as he had been told he was being watched and would not be allowed to leave.[13] According to his official website, he also lived in a wilderness commune at Galley Bay in British Columbia.

In 1972, Williams married Sachiko Kanenobu, Japanese female singer-songwriter; they raised two children.[14]

In the 1980s, he was married to Donna Nassar[15] 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, who became 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.[16] He was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the early onset of which was attributed to a brain injury Williams sustained in a 1995 bicycle accident.[17][18] The medical bills were enormous, and the family asked for donations toward his continued medical care.[19] On December 14, 2009 Paul Williams was accepted for Medi-Cal (Medicaid) coverage.[20]

Death

Williams died on March 27, 2013, at his home in California at age 64 from complications related to a 1995 bicycle accident.[21] Williams, according to a note on his official website, "suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident, leading to early onset of dementia, and a steady decline to the point where he now requires full-time care. The burden on his immediate family has been immense."[22]

Books

Books as editor

References

  1. ↑ Dylan Gives the People What He Wants by Bill Wyman, The New York Times, June 12, 2005.
  2. ↑ http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2008/05/14/and-so-it-began-remembering-the-first-issue/
  3. ↑ All Yesterdays Parties: The Velvet Underground in Print, 1966-1971 by Clinton Heylin, p. xvii.
  4. ↑ http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2008/05/14/and-so-it-began-remembering-the-first-issue/
  5. ↑ http://www.deaddisc.com/books/Crawdaddy.htm
  6. ↑ Paul Williams: The first rock critic, and one of the best
  7. ↑ http://paulwilliams.com/hits.html)
  8. ↑ Williams, Paul, (1986), Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick New York: Arbor House Publishing Company, pp. 14-15, ISBN 0-87795-800-9
  9. ↑ Williams, Paul, (1986), Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick New York: Arbor House Publishing Company, pp. 14-15, ISBN 0-87795-800-9
  10. ↑ "The True Stories of Philip K. Dick", Paul Williams, Rolling Stone, November 6, 1975
  11. ↑ Arena - Philip K Dick: A day in the afterlife
  12. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1461696/
  13. ↑ "I said I was leaving the day before and they said I wouldn't be allowed to. They said they'd be watching me 24 hours a day. So I was super paranoid, super cautious. But that doesn't bother me. I mean, they owed it to me, in a sense, to keep me on the hill. If I grow enough, someday I may come back. I care about Mel Lyman more than anyone outside of myself; someday I may be able to care about him more than me. The people who can, have something really beautiful going." Paul Williams, quoted by David Felton, in "The Lyman Family's Holy Siege of America" (originally appeared in Rolling Stone, Dec. 23, 1971, pp. 40-60).
  14. ↑ Sachiko Kanenobu on last.fm.
  15. ↑ Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, The Middle Years by Paul Williams.
  16. ↑ Beloved Stranger
  17. ↑ David Fricke, "Rockers Reach Out to Pioneering Music Critic: Struck by Alzheimer's, 'Crawdaddy!' founder Paul Williams solicits help", Rolling Stone, April 20, 2009, p. 26.
  18. ↑ Paul Williams Website & Support Fund
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ Beloved Stranger see December 16, 2009
  21. ↑ Paul Williams: The first rock critic, and one of the best
  22. ↑ "Crawdaddy magazine founder Paul Williams dead at 64". LA Times. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  23. ↑ Nominated for 1987 Hugo Award, Best Related Non-Fiction Book.
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