15. Paul sez “Jon Landau, certainly one of the best and most influential critics of the rock era, debuted as a rock writer in the fifth issue of CRAWDADDY!, September 1966. Paul now back in Boston was going to Club 47 three nights a week and hunting down rock and roll shows where ever he could,the rest of the week. Flipping for bands like The Animals’ two hour show at Rindge Tech, The Rolling Stones at Boston Garden and Lynn Football Stadium, The Beatles at Suffolk Down “plainly audible, beautiful to look at, and confirmation that we—and I—existed as a special body of people who understood the power and the glory of rock ‘n’ roll.”
16. Between the fifth and sixth issues Paul took a 2,200 miles “mostly business trip”, hitchhiking from Boston to New York, Cleveland to Chicago, and Wisconsin and back. In Chicago on a blues fan’s pilgrimage Paul stopped at Chess Records’ recording studios which resulted in a full page ad in CRAWDADDY! and an assignment to write the liner notes for new albums (each called More Real Folk Blues) for artists like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Sonny Boy Williamson. When Paul gets back to Boston a local magazine distributor has ordered 2,000 copies of the sixth issue, which now has a print run of 2,800 copies (up from 1,500 copies of the previous issue).
17. CRAWDADDY! moves to New York. Paul writes in The Crawdaddy Book (Hal Leonard), “The new office was a big second-floor room overlooking Greenwich Village (I used to spend a lot of time sitting on the ledge of a large open window with headphones on, watching the endless parade of people walking across Sixth Avenue and Third Street). The room had previously been a guitar shop called Fretted Instruments, and the walls were pleasantly lined with natural-looking pine planks installed by the former tenant. All of us (additional staff persons came along soon) did much of our work on a huge table in the center of the office. There was a small back room with no windows (halfway up the stairs from the street) where Tim (Jurgens the assistant editor also from Boston) and I slept.” An article was written in the Village Voice of CRAWDADDY’s arrival, it was just the beginning of a lot of press attention.
Cindy Lee,
ReplyDeleteWhen the recent movie Woodstock came out and I saw the trailers, I thought of Paul and his life. I have not seen that movie yet but ever since you started this blog, I have seen the seeds of this bio-pic sprouting. Spring is in the air and flowers are blooming everywhere. Keep on truckin'. I feel like you are on the right track. Thank you for sharing with us.
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the New Yorker article. Good stuff. Hugs to you and Paul,
Patty