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For the novices among us, who are you?
"The father of a six-month-old boy named Alexander Berryhill-Williams. Oh,
and the founder of the first rock magazine, Crawdaddy! in February 1966."
Before Crawdaddy!, you published a science fiction 'zine. This must have helped
you in many ways. But when it came to content, there weren't any rock
magazines you could really learn from. Today journalists have to deliver
articles that have to conform to certain rules. In a sense, when you started
out, you made your own rules. Did you have a firm view on what the style of
Crawdaddy! would be or was it more of a spontaneous growth?
"Spontaneous growth. My only idea about style was that it be a place where
young people could talk honestly and "seriously" to each other about all
this great new music we were hearing and getting excited about. To an
extent, Crawdaddy!'s style was influenced and shaped by the writers who
happened to come along: Richard Meltzer and Sandy Pearlman. And Jon Landau."
Personally, I believe receiving freebies influences a writer's judgement. Did
you contact labels for promos? Or did you only review the records you
bought?
"I started by asking record companies for promotional records, but for the
most part we just reviewed the artists we liked and often we did buy the
records ourselves. I agree with you, the writer should avoid feeling
indebted to anyone except the music itself (and the readers, for their
interest and attention)."
How difficult was it to set up interviews?
"It varied. I didn't realize my teenage ambition was to interview the Rolling
Stones, but I did get to interview Howlin' Wolf, which was probably more of
a thrill. My best interviews were with Paul Rothchild, the Doors' producer,
and David Anderle, president of Brian Wilson's Brother Records."
Where were the first issues sold?
"In bookstores and a few record stores and on newsstands in Boston and New
York City. And soon, everywhere that underground newspapers were sold..."
How did you distribute the magazine?
"At first I went to the stores myself, but as the magazine grew we got some
local distributors and then a national magazine distributor... The timing
was good; the world turned out to be ready for a rock and roll magazine."
Now image is extremely important. Certainly in the '80s it seemed as though
style was more important than content. How relevant was the layout of the
magazine?
"David Flooke's layout was very inventive and quite hip, and that helped us
feel connected to the underground newspapers and the psychedelic
counterculture in general."
Contrary to what many think, Crawdaddy! was the first rock magazine. I know
journalists want to be noticed — otherwise they wouldn't write — so I wonder
if it doesn't irk you that people like Dave Marsh and Greil Marcus are more
known?
"No. Each of us is known for what we do and what we've done, by those who
relate to our particular styles and interests..."
Do you think it is because they are more conscious about the image they
project?
"Maybe.... But we'd all be quick to say it's content that counts.
I think it was Richard Meltzer who dissuaded budding rock critics from
taking journalism courses in university. Where did you learn to write?
"By writing. By publishing a science fiction fanzine as a young teenager, as
you mentioned before. By finding myself at age 18 with this fast-growing
rock magazine and needing to fill its pages, and by being excited by the
soapbox I'd been given..."
What were some of your literary influences?
"Thomas Pynchon. Richard Farina. Kurt Vonnegut. Philip K. Dick. Richard
Meltzer."
What would you advise people who want to take up rock writing or publish
their own fanzine?
" 'Follow the music,' as my friend Jac Holzman said. Write about what you
sincerely love and are awakened by, and write to and for others whom you
know would have the same experience if they heard the same stuff. Try to
save the world."
During the '70s you stopped writing about rock. Was it a gradual process?
"At age 20 I left Crawdaddy! and running a business in New York and moved to
a cabin in the woods and then a commune on a wilderness island. I didn't
write about music for a while because my attention was elsewhere. In 1973 I
moved back to NYC and among other things found myself writing record reviews
and other music stuff for the Soho Weekly News. In 1979, I wrote Dylan--What
Happened?, the first of my several books about Bob Dylan."
Did you still listen to music, or did you drop out completely?
"I always listened to music except for the wilderness commune year when
there was no electricity."
You relaunched Crawdaddy! in 1993. It could have turned into a magazine
lauding the past; instead, it is still about expressing what the writer
loves most — be it Stuart Adamson, Napster, or Neil Young. What made you
decide to start Crawdaddy! again?
"I fell in love with R.E.M.'s new album Automatic for the People, and wanted
a place where I could talk about everything I heard in it and feel like
somebody was listening. I started the magazine with the idea that I would
write long essays in each issue about what I was listening to and that this
would become a book, the sequel to my first book Outlaw Blues, which was
made up of my 1960s Crawdaddy! writings. This sequel has just been published
by Forge Books, it's called Back to the Miracle Factory, and is my essays
from the 1990s Crawdaddies."
Since I mentioned Neil Young, how do you feel about his new record, Are You
Passionate?
"I haven't bought my copy yet, but I'm looking forward to it..."
I know you are an opponent of ads in Crawdaddy! Excluding ads in Crawdaddy!
means you reach less people because you have limited finances. How are you
current views on it?
"Better finances would certainly be welcome. But I don't want to be thinking
about how to get ads or how to play the game, whatever it is this year."
Crawdaddy! is now also online. The internet seems to be the most democratic
medium; because it is so cheap, everyone can publish an online magazine. The
new hype is weblogs, which is one or more people expressing their thoughts on
music (or other subjects). These mostly lack an editor who checks the
content. How do you feel about this and the internet in general?
"I love the Internet and am enthusiastic about people giving themselves
permission to express and broadcast their own ideas, to declare themselves
the experts on what they care about. That's certainly what we did in the
early days of Crawdaddy!"
Rock journalism has experienced a lot of changes. Nowadays, certainly in
commercial magazines, the writing seems to be less about expressing personal
opinion. Some even say it is merely advertising in disguise. How do you feel
about the current trends in journalism?
"I don't read the stuff, so I'm not qualified to say."
A collection of the best stuff from the early years of Crawdaddy!, along
with a sort of memoir about putting out the zine from 1966–68, will be
published in May, 2002, by Hal Leonard Corp. It's called The Crawdaddy! Book.
A very nice review of Back To The Miracle Factory recently ran in Esquire.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/paul-williams/paul-williams/1547/
Meer Paul Williams op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/paul-williams
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