RIP Paul Williams creator of Crawdaddy and author of Bob Dylan: Performing Artist

Upon my return to the UK after an Easter break in the sunshine, I learned of the death of Paul Williams at the age of 64.

Probably best known as the founder of 'Crawdaddy' magazine in the mid 1960's, Williams provided an outlet for promising young music writers such as Jon Landau and Pete Guralnick. As it was a US publication, it was something that passed me by, living as I did in the UK. Consequently I first became aware of the work of Paul Williams the writer when I picked up a book entitled 'Bob Dylan - Performing Artist'. The book in question covered the period 1960 to 1973 and became the first of a trilogy of books about Dylan as, well yes you guessed it, a performing artist. This meant that the book was not a biography of Dylan but focused on his performances of songs whether in the studio (released and unreleased) or live (mainly officially unreleased).

What struck me about the book and particularly about Williams' style of writing, was that he wrote about the way the music made him feel. This was not something I had encountered before and I found the style unique and totally compelling. He wrote with such enthusiasm that the reader (me) was driven to seek out that performance. If it was a well known version of a song I had heard many times, I found myself listening to it in a different way and consequently finding new, undiscovered pleasures. In most instances however, his description would be of a live performance that I had never previously heard (those being the days when bootleg recordings were much harder to acquire) and I found myself compelled to obtain a copy of the recording that Williams referred to. It was a quest that was worth the effort as I discovered some absolute gems, thanks entirely to Paul Williams.

In 1995, Williams suffered a serious brain injury when he was involved in a cycling accident. This led to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease and his health had steadily declined until his death.

His creation of a 'serious' rock magazine revealed him as a visionary and his unique approach to his writing showed that he had a real talent and enormous enthusiasm that was infectious. His work will be missed.