|
|
Paul Williams' Background
from
http://www.bomp.com/BompbooksCrit.html#PW
Paul single-handedly started the rock press in his 1966
zine "Crawdaddy", and later went on to write a great many books, many on Bob
Dylan, but also many containing his poetic, heartfelt musings about his love
affair with rock & roll and life in general, interwoven as these loves are
for all of us. He's also edited the books of Philip K Dick and Theodore
Sturgeon, two of the best SF writers, and continues to publish "Crawdaddy"
as an occasional fanzine. Williams is at heart a fanzine writer, whose books
are nearly all informal, rambling essays on whatever crosses his mind, built
around a loose theme and whatever music moves him most at the
moment--usually Dylan. Not everyone appreciates this, but if you like his
way of writing, you probably find him a refreshing change from the usual
cynical, or pseudo-objective style of music writing.
Email # 1: From Salvador Astucia to Paul Williams, July 9, 2003
Synopsis: Salvador asks Williams if Timothy Leary ran for president in 1968,
and if Williams was the campaign manager.
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 11:59:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Salvador Astucia" <salvador_astucia@yahoo.com>
To: paul@cdaddy.com
Subject: Timothy Leary for president (?)
Dear Mr. Williams,
I'm writing an article on Timothy Leary. Is it true
that he ran for president in 1968 and you were his
campaign manager?
John Lennon said, in his 1980 Playboy interview, that
Leary thought of the title "Come Together" and had
asked Lennon to write a campaign song using that name.
Lennon said he tried and tried to think of something
but could only come up with a short jingle. Leary's
people never asked for the song so eventually Lennon
used the title for another version of Come Together
which appeared on Abbey Road.
Anyway, according to Lennon, Leary ran for president
in 1968. I saw on a Usenet discussion group that you
were his campaign manager. If that's true, can you
give me some details? Did he formally announce he was
running? Are there any books available that describe
the campaign?
Thanks.
Salvador Astucia
From Salvador Astucia Wed Jul 9 11:59:08 2003
Received: from [198.186.43.225] by web14902.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Wed, 09
Jul 2003 11:59:08 PDT
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 11:59:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Salvador Astucia" <salvador_astucia@yahoo.com>
Subject: Timothy Leary for president (?)
To: paul@cdaddy.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Length: 964
Email # 2: From Paul Williams to Salvador Astucia, July 9, 2003
Synopsis: Williams says Leary planned to run for Governor of California in
1969, but it never got off the ground.
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 17:34:22 -0400
From: "Paul S. Williams" <Crawdadpaul@compuserve.com>
To: "Salvador Astucia" <salvador_astucia@yahoo.com>
Subject: Timothy Leary for president (?)
[...omitted original email]
Salvador--
in 1969 Tim planned to run for governor of
California (not president of U.S.) after the Supreme
Court reversed a decision against him in a marijuana
possession case (May 1969). He asked me to be his
campaign manager. In that capacity, I traveled with
him and Rosemary from their home in Berkeley to Cal
Poly in San Luis Obispo where he was giving a talk,
to Hollywood Florida where he was an invited speaker
at a rock festival...to New York City, where Alan
Douglas organized a press conference and Tim announced
his candidacy for Governor of Calif. Tim, Rosemary
and I then went to Montreal to visit John and Yoko at
their bed-in for peace. after our room service dinner
together in their hotel room at the end of the day,
Tim asked John to write him a campaign song, saying
the campaign slogan was "Come together, join the party!"
John played us his new song "Give Peace a Chance" and
the next day we all participated in recording it. As
far as I know, Tim then dropped the plan to run for
governor...I didn't do any 'campaign managing" for
him after that. Leary was a fan of my friend science
fiction writer Philip K. Dick, so I called Phil from
John's hotel room and gave him and Tim a chance to
talk with each other...
I don't know of anything that's been written
about Tim's campaign for Calif governor....it was brief.
all the best,
Paul
From Paul S. Williams Wed Jul 9 14:34:22 2003
X-Apparently-To: salvador_astucia@yahoo.com via 216.136.225.60; 09 Jul 2003
14:34:47 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <crawdadpaul@compuserve.com>
Received: from 149.174.40.133 (EHLO siaag2ac.compuserve.com)
(149.174.40.133) by mta124.mail.sc5.yahoo.com with SMTP; 09 Jul 2003
14:34:46 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from mailgate@localhost) by siaag2ac.compuserve.com
(8.12.9/8.12.7/SUN-2.7) id h69LYihX023585 for salvador_astucia@yahoo.com;
Wed, 9 Jul 2003 17:34:44 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 17:34:22 -0400
From: "Paul S. Williams" <Crawdadpaul@compuserve.com>
Subject: Timothy Leary for president (?)
Sender: "Paul S. Williams" <Crawdadpaul@compuserve.com>
To: "Salvador Astucia" <salvador_astucia@yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <200307091734_MC3-1-4181-C710@compuserve.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Length: 1230 |
|