NEW YORK — Paul Williams — a writer and critic who founded the alternative pop music magazine Crawdaddy, died March 27....
Mr. Williams is considered by many to be rock journalism’s founding father....
One of Mr. Williams’s best-known articles was one he wrote for Rolling Stone in 1975 extolling the virtues of Philip K. Dick, whose work was respected in science fiction circles, but was relatively unknown to the general public.
The article helped inspire interest in Dick and eventually sparked a vast new popularity for his work, much of that popularity occurring after Dick’s death, in 1982. Many of the books became bestsellers, and 11 of his novels and stories have become Hollywood films, including ‘‘Blade Runner’’ (1982), ‘‘Total Recall’’ (1990), ‘‘Minority Report’’ (2002), and ‘‘The Adjustment Bureau’’ (2010)....
One of my favorites.
Leaving Crawdaddy two years after creating it was not a hard call for Mr. Williams, said his wife, who described his proto-hippie life during the next few years as ‘‘Zelig-like.’’ He lived on a commune, smoked his first joint with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, became the manager of Timothy Leary’s short-lived 1969 campaign for governor of California, and dropped in on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘‘bed-in’’ in Montreal long enough to sing on their recording of ‘‘Give Peace a Chance.’’
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