Back to School Days

The first genuine attempt at creating a forum for a dialog between rock writer and rock fan was Paul Williams’ Crawdaddy. The photocopied pages of that magazine carried analysis and interpretation of the importance of rock n roll in articles that were insightful, ridiculous, passionate, literate, embarrassing, brilliant and moronic, often within the span of the same paragraph. Crawdaddy proved there was an interest in such things as serious criticism of contemporary music, a condition that allowed a young Barry Kramer to create what to this day is the only magazine that could lay legitimate claim of “America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine.” That, of course, was Creem.

Some missteps in this piece about the early years of rock criticism, but what the hell, it’s a quick and interesting read, and it contains a few priceless photos.