Paul
Williams: THE BIO-PIC--Part 1
(originally posted March 8, 2010)
1. Film begins with footage of the first atomic bomb. Parents meet
and fall in love at Los Alamos both employed by the Manhattan Project under
Oppenheimer. Robert Williams a young physicist, is invited to come watch the
detonation of the worlds first atomic bomb. Women are not allowed near the test
site but Paul’s mother Janet and a girlfriend sneak away and drive down to
White Sands where they watch the explosion, from a safe distance, hidden behind
boulders.
Janet Williams and her best friend Heidi Sitte. Janet is here holding young Paul. Both Janet and Heidi's husbands were physicists that worked together in Colorado, after Bob Williams Manhattan Project years.
Kurt Sitte and Bob Williams (Paul's father) in the 1940s. Kurt was a Czech Jew who had escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. He was later arrested by the Israelies for spying for the Czech (communist) government. After Kurt was arrested Heidi and Paul's father left their spouses for one another, only to have Heidi die young of liver cancer. Some family members think Heidi was Bob Williams 'only true love'.
2. Paul was brought up in Cambridge but lived a short year of his childhood
in Princeton where his dad taught Physics….at age 5 Paul was left to “babysit”
his 2 younger brothers and decided to walk them several streets from home to a
library. His youngest brother changed his mind midway while crossing a busy
intersection and refused to budge. A friend of the family happened by and
scooped up and saved the 3 young children. Janet, Pauls mother said “Paul was
so mature at that age, he seemed fully capable of caring for his brothers”.
3. Paul teaches himself to read at age three while looking at old 78 RPM
records. His father said he was tired of reading the names to him and Paul
taught himself the names. By age 4, it is said, Paul would read the New York
Times while being driven to nursery school.
4. Paul, age 5, writes a note to his mother one day “ Dear Mom, I have gone
to Clinton’s house, but don’t be surprised if I’m home, because Clinton may not
be home”. She sends it to the New Yorker where he has his first piece of
writing published in the Talk of the Town column under the title “Logician”.
5. According to family legend, by third grade it is discovered that Paul
has an exceptional mind and is given an IQ test, the score is 180. His parents
move him to a private grammar school in Cambridge. He has trouble fitting in at
school no matter where he goes and once admitted that kids called him “spaz”
because his hand would fly up for every question.
Paul around the time his father left the family for Heidi Sitte. He felt the weight of having to be the responsible one now, even though he fought with his mother bitterly on most issues. He told me of her suicide attempt, with pills, after his father left.
6. In sixth grade Paul starts a newspaper, The Sunlight Herald.
7. At 15 he attends his first Science Fiction convention, soon after he
starts a Science Fiction Fanzine called “Within”.
8. Age 16, Paul graduates from Browne and Nichols and decides to go to
Swarthmore College. According to his mother he’d been offered a full
scholarship from Stanford, where his father and grandfather had both graduated,
but he turned
it down… “I didn’t want to be lured into the whole bay area music scene, I
was afraid I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my school work.”
9. Paul becomes a DJ for the Swarthmore radio station. Paul has an
argument, a disagreement in philosophy class with his professor, the man gets
so riled up he threatens to kick Paul out of the class. Then Paul begins his
first issue of CRAWDADDY Magazine from his dorm, two fellow college students
contribute to the first issue. The name CRAWDADDY! came from Paul’s
admiration of the UK music club where the Rolling Stones got their start.
10. After the first mimeographed copy of CRAWDADDY! is printed, Paul gives
away as many copies as he can by hand, he receives a phone call at his dorm
from Paul Simon who thanks him for his wonderful writing on the single
“Homeward Bound” and praises him for writing intelligently about rock and roll.
11. One day while walking into his dorm a student yells out “Hey Williams!
You got a phone call from Bob Dylan”. Dylan had read the latest issue of
CRAWDADDY! and liking it invited Paul to come and hang out back stage at a show
on the Blonde on Blonde tour. He also offers Paul an interview.
12. While attending Swarthmore Paul heard that his friend Richard Farina
had died (Paul met him at a club in Philly where he was gigging and asked
Richard for permission to reprint some of his writing in CRAWDADDY!, they hit
it off) … there was to be a funeral for him in Carmel, CA. Hoping to catch a
free ride on a cargo plane Paul is stopped in the airport and confronted by a
Philadelphia police officer who calls him a hippy. A few hours later
Paul is in jail and the next day in court for assaulting a cop. Paul told me
the whole thing got thrown out when they realized that as he said “my glasses
assaulted the cops fist.”
13. Unable to concentrate on his school work at Swarthmore…he moves back in
with his mother in Belmont, MA where he starts his fourth issue of CRAWDADDY!,
issue five would include writings by Jon Laundau a clerk at the local record
store, Briggs And Briggs. Landau becomes someone that Paul would consult
on music and current record releases. At some point Paul’s grandfather decides
CRAWDADDY! is a good investment and pumps a little money into the paper,
encouraging his grandson to start a business like he had, he’d manufactured a
device called “the sniffer” which sniffed out gas leaks.
Paul gave free copies of his first few issues of CRAWDADDY! out to music fans
at the Newport Folk Festival. Here he is watching with zeal, Howlin' Wolf, with Grace Slick
looking over his way. He wasn't on stage here, just a fan standing around the stage, trying to catch an upclose of a great performance.
14. Issue number 4 had Bob Dylan on the cover with a now widely reprinted
article called “Understanding Dylan”. Paul ambitiously takes handfuls of copies
of CRAWDADDY! to sell at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival where Jack Holtzman of
Elektra Records bought a complete set. Elektra was to begin advertising in
CRAWDADDY! with the next issue. There is a well known picture of Howlin’ Wolf
performing at the festival that year, the photo includes a clear image of Paul
behind him. He is also seen in the film “Festival” dancing with a young black
woman during Wolf’s set.
(photos of Janet and Bob Williams courtesy of David Williams)
