Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. // Music is an art form consisting of sound and silence expressed through time. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Paul Williams (born May 19, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts) created the rock music magazine Crawdaddy! in 1966 in New York City, and had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties. ... Paul Williams (born May 19, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts) created the rock music magazine Crawdaddy! in 1966 in New York City, and had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,450 students. ...

Preceding both Rolling Stone and Creem, Crawdaddy! is regarded as the U.S. pioneer of rock journalism, and was the training ground for many rock writers just finding the language to describe rock and roll music, which was only then beginning to be written about as seriously as folk and jazz. The zine spawned the career of numerous rock music critics. Early contributing writers included Jon Landau, Sandy Pearlman, and Richard Meltzer. This article is about the magazine. ... CREEM, Americas Only Rock n Roll Magazine, was a monthly rock n roll publication started in 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including: Traditional music: The original meaning of the term folk music was synonymous with the term Traditional music, also often including World Music and Roots music; the term Traditional music was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... A music critic is someone who reviews music (including printed music, performances and recorded music) and publishes writing on them in books or journals (or on the internet). ... Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager, and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen. ... Sandy Pearlman was the original producer, manager and a songwriter for the Blue Öyster Cult. ... Richard Meltzer was one of the earliest rock music critics. ...

Paul Williams, the founder and original editor of Crawdaddy!, left the magazine in 1968, going on to write over 25 books. From 1993-2003 Williams self-published a reincarnation of the magazine. As of 2007, it has been sold to Wolfgang's Vault and resurrected as a webzine that aims to enliven the genre of rock journalism with articles that address the foundational bands of rock 'n' roll, today's newer up-and-coming bands and important issues in the contemporary music industry. 2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wolfgangs Vault is the worlds largest collection of live concert recordings and music memorabilia and home to the archive of legendary promoter Bill Graham (promoter). ... A Webzine is an ezine hosted on the World Wide Web rather than in print. ...

Zine roots

Named after the legendary Crawdaddy Club in England at which the Rolling Stones played their first gig, Crawdaddy! was started on the campus of Swarthmore College in 1966 by Paul Williams. Williams was a science fiction fan with an interest in rock music who at the age of 17 started mimeographing and distributing a collection of criticisms (at first mostly his own) about rock and roll music and musicians. (He had begun publishing a science fiction fanzine, Within, at the age of 14, and later recruited some of his fellow fans to help.[1]Apparatchik #69, November 1, 1996 ) Crawdaddy! quickly moved from its fanzine roots to become one of the first rock music "prozines", with newsstand distribution. This article is about the Crawdaddy music venue in England. ... This article is about the rock band. ... Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,450 students. ... Paul Williams (born May 19, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts) created the rock music magazine Crawdaddy! in 1966 in New York City, and had to end it in 2003 due to financial difficulties. ... Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is the community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest. ... A science fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. ... A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest. ...

You are looking at the first issue of a magazine of rock and roll criticism. Crawdaddy! will feature neither pin-ups nor news-briefs; the specialty of this magazine is intelligent writing about pop music.... -- issue No. 1, February 7, 1966

Mass market magazine

Crawdaddy! briefly suspended publication in 1969, but returned, with its title unpunctuated, in 1970, with national mass market distribution, first as a newsprint tabloid (like Rolling Stone), then as a standard-sized magazine. It continued through the decade, led by editor Peter Knobler (who first wrote for Crawdaddy! in 1968) and senior editor Greg Mitchell, featuring contributions from Joseph Heller, John Lennon, Tim O'Brien, Michael Herr, Dan Aykroyd, P.J. O'Rourke and Cameron Crowe, Martin Mull, plus a roster of columnists including at times William S. Burroughs, Paul Krassner, David G. Hartwell, Abbie Hoffman, the Firesign Theater, and sometimes even Williams himself. Among its scoops: the first major profile of Bruce Springsteen, written in December, 1972^{[citation needed]} by Peter Knobler with special assistance from Greg Mitchell. As the decade progressed, the Crawdaddy staff included Tim White (later editor of Billboard), Mitch Glazer (now a screenwriter), Denis Boyles, John Swenson, and Jon Pareles (currently a chief music writer at The New York Times). Greg Mitchell is the editor of Editor and Publisher, the magazine founded in 1884 that covers the news and newspaper industry. ... Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American satirical novelist and playwright. ... John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), (born John Winston Lennon, known as John Ono Lennon) was an iconic English 20th century rock and roll songwriter and singer, best known as the founding member of The Beatles. ... Tim OBrien can refer to: American author Tim OBrien American bluegrass musician Tim OBrien Irish-born cricketer Sir Timothy (Tim) Carew OBrien (5 November 1861 - 9 December 1948), who played 5 test matches for England and captained England in one test in 1895/6. ... Michael Herr (born in 1940, Syracuse, New York) is a writer and former war correspondent, best known as the author of Dispatches (1977), a memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire magazine (1967-1969) during the Vietnam War. ... Daniel Edward Aykroyd CM (born July 1, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Canadian/American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and musician. ... Patrick Jake ORourke (born November 14, 1947) is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. ... Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an Academy Award winning American writer and film director. ... Martin Mull (born August 18, 1943) is an American actor who has starred in his own TV sitcom and acted in prominent films. ... William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914) - August 2, 1997), more commonly known as William S. Burroughs (pronounced ), was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer. ... Paul Krassner (born April 9, 1932) was editor and frequent contributor to the Freethought magazine The Realist, which, first published in 1958, is a very early example of the countercultural press in the United States. ... David Geddes Hartwell is an editor of science fiction and fantasy. ... Abbott Howard Abbie Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was a self-identified communo-anarchist,[1] social and political activist in the United States, co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies), and later, a fugitive from the law, who lived under an alias following a conviction for dealing... Left to right: Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin, and David Ossman in 2001 The Firesign Theatre is a comedy troupe consisting of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor. ... Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an influential American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... It has been suggested that Billboard be merged into this article or section. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

In 1976, the magazine published the first in-depth article on the life and bizarre death of country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons, anticipating the wealth of information published about him years later. Mitchell went on to write numerous books and is now the editor of Editor and Publisher magazine. Knobler and Mitchell edited the book Very Seventies: A Cultural History of the 1970s from the pages of Crawdaddy, published in 1995. Gram Parsons (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. ... Editor & Publisher (E&P) is a now-monthly journal covering the North American newspaper industry. ...

Rename and closure

Crawdaddy's focus expanded to cover more general aspects of popular culture, particularly politics and movies, and in 1979 the magazine changed its title to Feature. When the music business retrenched, Feature lost much of its advertising revenue, and after three issues at the beginning of 1979, it ceased publication. Knobler went on to collaborate on numerous best-selling books, including the political memoir All's Fair by James Carville and Mary Matalin and the autobiographies of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Governor Ann Richards, police commissioner William Bratton, and Sumner Redstone. James Carville (born October 25, 1944), is a liberal American political consultant, commentator, media personality, and pundit. ... Mary Joe Matalin (born September 19, 1953) is an American political strategist and consultant. ... For the football player, see Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar. ... Dorothy Ann Willis Richards (September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006) was an American politician and teacher from Texas. ... William J. Bratton is currently the police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. ... Sumner Murray Redstone (born Sumner Murray Rothstein on May 27, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts) is Chairman of the Board and controlling shareholder of the Viacom and CBS Corporation media conglomerates. ...

Later relaunches

Paul Williams reclaimed the punctuated title in 1993, publishing 28 issues until financial pressures forced him to end its run in 2003.

In 2006, Williams sold the rights to the Crawdaddy! name, as well as all of his published works in back issues and a handful of his authored books, to Wolfgang's Vault, a small San Francisco-based company. The magazine re-launched as an online publication in May of 2007 at www.crawdaddy.com with editor-in-chief Jocelyn Hoppa orchestrating the resurrection of the magazine, equipped with the added advantage of video and mp3 capability. Wolfgangs Vault is the worlds largest collection of live concert recordings and music memorabilia and home to the archive of legendary promoter Bill Graham (promoter). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio encoding format. ...

The newest incarnation of the magazine, released weekly on the internet, has taken to writing about rock 'n' roll with the same ethics as Williams originally intended (the original Crawdaddy! credo[2]): articulate writing about music that focuses on rock's ability to reflect complex cultural and political aspects of society. The magazine features a wide range of content: re-published original Crawdaddy! articles by Williams, reviews of new albums (Spoon, The White Stripes, Dinosaur Jr, M. Ward, Ryan Adams, Art Brut), discussions about the state of the music industry today, and interviews with notable figures of rock 'n' roll.

External links

• Crawdaddy! home page
• Interview with Paul Williams at rockcritics.com