Paul Williams Needs Our Help
In 1996, the legendary former editor of Crawdaddy! magazine called "The Complex Sessions: Neil Young & Crazy Horse", directed by Jonathan Demme, Neil Young's - and Rock n' Roll's - finest moment.
Williams went on to wrote a definitive biography (until McDonough's Shakey) Neil Young: Love to Burn : Thirty Years of Speaking Out, 1966-1996.
Now comes word that Williams is seriously ill.
In 1966 Paul Williams published his first issues of Crawdaddy! magazine, the first serious publication devoted to rock & amp; roll news and criticism. In 1995, Williams suffered a brain injury in a bicycle accident near his California home. Today, the man who used to devour records and churn out copy requires managed care. Williams’ accident brought on early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and the pioneering writer has no insurance to cover the costs of his treatment.
To raise funds, Williams and his friends and family have launched a new Website, PaulWilliams.com, which is collecting donations and provides a striking retrospective of his life and career (he sang with John and Yoko on “Give Peace a Chance”). “He was like a friend leaning on your shoulder, saying ‘You should check this out,’ ” R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck tells Rolling Stone. “And he always had smart reasons.”
Thanks P(or F)! We just made our donation.
4 Comments:
Very nice, Thrasher. I'm sure the family will appreciate it and everyone might enjoy a trip in the rock n' roll time machine at paulwilliams.com
Thanks for the link. Donation made.
This is very sad news....10 years ago, after having stumbled by accident on "Love to burn" in a Sydney international airport bookstore ( the last place where you would expect to find a small gem like that ...) and thoroughly enjoyed the reading, I had managed to find an e-mail contact for Paul and sent him a note to congatulate him on his book , and also to ask him where I could find a scan of the book cover , since I wanted to post it on the french e-group "Les Gens Ordinaires" that I belong to. He kindly replied , even having the courtesy to write the first paragraph in french ! This is what he wrote :
Cher Philippe,
j'etait tres heureux a lire votre lettre de Nouveau Caledonie...
Pardon mon Francais mauvais, je veux essaier repondre en Francais parce que je n'ai aucune chance de parler ou ecrire en ce langue que j'aime depuis ecole, depuis 34 ans...
In any case, I'm delighted you found and enjoyed Love to Burn and I will at some point try to find a 1970 "Winterlong" (good tip, thanks!)...
I don't have a JPG of the book cover (and I still haven't been able to send JPGs successfully, due to my ignorance of the fine points of this compuserve email software). Maybe you could find a picture of the book at the publisher's website: www.musicsales.co.uk or you could email"publicist" at that site and request a JPG from them...
And I would love a copy of whatever you post to Les Gens Ordinaire(a copy en Francais is fine, it will give me another chance to reawaken my dormant brain cells)...
The intention of my book was to document the kind of very personal
response that we listeners and fans have to Neil's extraordinary
performances, and maybe to entertain readers like you who might wonder what somebody else would say about Ordinary People or Love and Only Love... I haven't had many letters from readers of this book (as compared to many
from readers of my Dylan books), so it's good to get the feedback.
Don't be denied....
Paul
For what it's worth... Paul Williams is also the author of a slim, spiritual tract titled "Das Energi" which is rather Eastern in its perspective.
To read it takes an hour - to absorb it takes significantly longer.
I first read this book in my teens (mid 70's) and it continues to be a personal reference point as I go about conducting my imperfect day to day affairs.
That Paul wrote this in his late teens or early twenties amazes me.
BTW - "Fork" is a hoot and Dylan's "Together Through Life" is pretty tasty too!!
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