Rock writer rediscovered at library
Print Edition
Tucked away in a little perused section of the Shanghai Library (1555 Huaihai Rd M.) sits a book with a nondescript cover, “The Map or Rediscovering Rock and Roll (A Journey).” It’s by Paul Williams.
Although many may not be familiar with Williams, his influence is more readily felt.
Williams was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1948 and founded the first publication dedicated to “intelligent writing about pop music” with Crawdaddy! in 1966.
It was the first time that rock music was taken seriously as an emerging art form. He did it as a college student, and there are many tales of rock ’n’ roll superstars calling his dormitory to personally thank him for his insightful writing.
These details and others of Williams’ life up to the book’s 1988 release are sprinkled throughout, but mostly to set up the story at hand. The focus on this book is Williams’ attempt to immerse himself again in rock culture after a few years when he mostly focused elsewhere.
Digital future
He finds himself questioning whether rock ’n’ roll can really affect someone quickly approaching 40 years old, and if the new wave of rock is up to caliber of the past. Along the way there are meditations on many subjects related to music, media in the 1980s and life in general. His thoughts on what at the time was the future of music technology seem remarkably prescient.
“In the future, perhaps,” writes Williams, “everything will be digital, and we’ll be able to order videos of individual songs, which will be instantly transferred over phone lines to our combination personal computer/music disc/video disc player (and billed to our credit accounts at the same time).”
He continues, “There will be a broadcast service, so we can be exposed to new product in the first place. But they’ll figure out some way that you can’t copy it for replay without being charged for it.”
Remember, this is decades before iTunes, MP3s and YouTube. Sadly, Williams is, much like this book in Shanghai, mostly forgotten today. He died on March 27 after a long struggle with brain damage caused by a bike accident more than 15 years ago. This is his only work available at the Shanghai Library, and it is difficult to find there due to typos in its entry in the online library catalog.
But like Williams rediscovering rock ’n’ roll in “The Map,” now might be a good time to bring back the writings of Paul Williams.
(Brian Offenther is a Shanghai-based DJ/freelancer.)
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