Paul Williams (the Crawdaddy one) RIP

[rn57]

Cindy Lee Berryhill, the wife of Paul Williams, has just confirmed on Facebook what had been going around Twitter, etc since this morning - that he died last night, peacefully.  PW, until the effects of a head injury silenced him some years back, was one of the BB's foremost champions among rock critics - a profession he pretty much created by founding Crawdaddy magazine. He wrote early and often about the importance of Pet Sounds and Smile. He will be missed.

(Also notable for recognizing the importance of Philip K. Dick - he was PKD's literary executor for many years.)

[Nicko1234]

That's sad news. His book (there may be more than one) contains a lot of interesting writing about the group.

[The Heartical Don]

Sad news indeed, may he rest in peace.

I have his How Deep Is The Ocean and I purchased the GV Box, although I was by no means affluent then, more or less because he wrote: get this box, even if you have to eat peanut butter sandwiches for a month! I will never forget this particular, and particularly funny, incitement to go get that set...

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

So sorry to hear about this. I used to read How Deep is the Ocean in between classes at college and I have fond memories of that. Cindy Lee Berryhill often used to post on the old Wheeler board and Shut Down, and is a very kind hearted person...my heart goes out to her.

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

Sad news indeed.  "how deep is the ocean" is one of the very best books on the boys out there. Great writer. Great champion of our band.

[ontor pertawst]

What a great fella and a terrific, engaging writer with enthusiasm that burst off the page and got you excited about whatever excited him...

 He used to humor my PKD-based pestering in the 90s and we exchanged lots of fun letters about Phil's Exegesis. I wish I had the sense to drop a Brian Wilson reference back then, I would've loved discussing the Beach Boys with him! Sad that I never got the chance, but it's a good time to pick up that copy of How Deep is the Ocean and fall for his box set review all over again.

[Steve Mayo]

quick check in...

seek out paul's book from ~1969 called "outlaw blues" for details about smile. great reading back in the day...

checking out...

[Mikie]

I was just going to post that, Steve. That little paperback book "Outlaw Blues" along with the '71 Tom Nolan article in Rolling Stone were the ones that really turned me onto The Beach Boys in the early 70's. Then Tim White's Crawdaddy article in '76......

Paul Williams was there, in Brian's house, during the Smile period and saw what was going on first hand. Williams was a great writer and I enjoyed his book "How Deep Is The Ocean" (essential reading). The "Outlaw Blues" article, originally published in 1968, talks about the Smile, Smiley Smile, and Wild Honey periods of 1967 and are incorporated in the "How Deep Is The Ocean" book. "Outlaw Blues" was really written from a fan's perspective and was essentially extracted from an interview with him.

He is in a better place now.  RIP and thanks for the articles and reviews and books about Brian & The Boys, Paul!

[SMiLE Brian]

RIP

[jonathan anderle]

Godspeed Paul, and thank you.

[rn57]

http://www.boo-hooray.com/paul-williams/

Last Sunday at the Boo-Hooray gallery in New York, there was a special one-day exhibit of Paul Williams/Crawdaddy memorabilia, featuring a performance by Cindy Lee and Lenny Kaye, who got his start as a writer at Crawdaddy in its earliest days.  The webpage has some vintage photos of Paul. There's one of him in his Crawdaddy office, probably from late '66 or early '67, and one of him with Philip K. Dick.

[Vega-Table Man]

RIP.

His Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young books were all really enjoyable reads for me. I think I may need to revisit his Beach Boys one, at least...

[Heysaboda]

Cindy Lee Berryhill, the wife of Paul Williams, has just confirmed on Facebook what had been going around Twitter, etc since this morning - that he died last night, peacefully.  PW, until the effects of a head injury silenced him some years back, was one of the BB's foremost champions among rock critics - a profession he pretty much created by founding Crawdaddy magazine. He wrote early and often about the importance of Pet Sounds and Smile. He will be missed.

My God, I am very sorry to hear this.  I met Paul at the Dylan El Rey concert in 1997.  It was a pleasure to meet him as I own all his books.  A great guy.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Oh no! My favourite BB author. So sad to hear this.

[rn57]

I had wondered who'd be the first to put up a picture of "the other" Paul Williams in one Paul's obits, and Contact Music has obliged:

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/crawdaddy-founder-paul-williams-dead-at-64_3579704

Which gives me the feeling that the Rainbow Connection man is going to have to go on Twitter before long to explain that the title of the documentary feature about him, Still Alive, still applies.

[LeeDempsey]

Paul was a great guy.  I was honored to have been able to meet him in person and hang out with him and Cindy Lee, before his injury.

It's probably well-known to most of the older rock fans here, but Paul was present at John & Yoko's Montreal "Bed In," and can be seen in the film of the recording of "Give Peace a Chance."  It was about 1997 when I hung out with Paul and Cindy, so almost 30 years later, but I remember that he still shook his head to the music just like he did in that film.

I remember him telling me the story of Brian inviting him to come over and try out his brand new home videotape setup.  He talked about how you could point the camera directly at a light source and over-saturate the tape, to the point that the current going through the recording heads would cause the tape to start smoking.  Of course Brian thought that was so cool, so he kept doing it!

RIP Paul.

Lee

[rn57]

http://news.yahoo.com/pioneering-rock-journalist-paul-williams-dies-64-235441370.html

Another article about Paul's passing illustrated with a photo of the singing, songwriting Paul.  But the latter is being a good sport about it - this evening he Tweeted his condolences to Paul's family and friends.

[MBE]

A nice fellow, he will be missed.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

http://news.yahoo.com/pioneering-rock-journalist-paul-williams-dies-64-235441370.html

Another article about Paul's passing illustrated with a photo of the singing, songwriting Paul.  But the latter is being a good sport about it - this evening he Tweeted his condolences to Paul's family and friends.

that was a classy thing to do.

[Alan Smith]

Sad news, indeed.  Paul's writing, and especially his pieces in How Deep, was everyman's writing; heartfelt, sincere and like talking with your closest friend about something cool and shared and sacred.

RIP, Paul.

[punkinhead]

Wow! That is strange, I was just writing about him on my Facebook and reading his stuff on open sky magazine, the first issue I believe.

[Don Malcolm]

One of the best, and most idiosyncratic, rock critics ever, possessed of a much deeper strain of humanism than virtually all of his fellow practitioners then and now. He was nice enough to reprint one of my early manifestos about Dennis' music in one of his latter-day Crawdaddy issues, and I know that he saw the bigger picture with respect to the group despite the fact that his written output about the BBs focused strongly on Brian.

A shame that his enthusiasm was cut short...the time since his accident has been a good one for "classic" rock and its reassimilation into the current scene, and he would have been all over that had he been able to continue practicing his craft.

[Custom Machine]

A very good article on Paul from UT San Diego, with this BB/BW reference: "The first joint he smoked was offered to him by head Beach Boy Brian Wilson."

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/29/tp-founder-of-crawdaddy-music-magazine/

[rn57]

One of the best, and most idiosyncratic, rock critics ever, possessed of a much deeper strain of humanism than virtually all of his fellow practitioners then and now. He was nice enough to reprint one of my early manifestos about Dennis' music in one of his latter-day Crawdaddy issues, and I know that he saw the bigger picture with respect to the group despite the fact that his written output about the BBs focused strongly on Brian.

A shame that his enthusiasm was cut short...the time since his accident has been a good one for "classic" rock and its reassimilation into the current scene, and he would have been all over that had he been able to continue practicing his craft.

I'll tell you one thing - I would have liked to see what Paul would have had to say about C50 and TWGMTR, were he still in his prime last year.  Not to mention what Volume 4 of his Dylan series would have been like - taking on Time Out Of Mind through Tempest, and all the live versions thereof.  I figure his analyses of the Theme Time Radio Hour or whatever that show's called would have been especially stimulating.

One thing I would like to see down the road is Cindy Lee Berryhill, with or without a collaborator, maybe trying her hand at a biography. Only three rock critics have ever been the subject of one - Lester Bangs, Lilian Roxon and Paul Nelson. And the books about them all tell stories of talent largely unfulfilled. Even Nelson, who lived to almost 70, simply withdrew from circulation just at the point where his writing career really should have gone into high gear.   But Paul Williams,  right up until he could no longer write, steadily realized his talent. 

[Smilin Ed H]

RIP

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/paul-williams-rip.html