In 1966, a Swarthmore College student named Paul Williams launched the world's first serious rock 'n' roll magazine. Crawdaddy preceded both Rolling Stone and Creem, providing a fertile training ground for several legendary rock journalists-including Jon Landau, Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer and Peter Knobler-and proving that readers were hungry for rock music to get the intelligent analysis it deserved. You can find the archives of the earliest issues of Crawdaddy exclusively at Paste, where we seek to continue the tradition Williams started all those years ago. And you can purchase back issues of Crawdaddy here.
Crawdaddy
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The Curmudgeon: Paul Williams and the Birth of Rock Criticism
By Geoffrey Himes
April 16, 2013
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Paul Williams on the Founding of America's First Rock Magazine
By Paul Williams
March 29, 2013
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And So It Began: Remembering the First Issue
By Paul Williams
August 1, 2011
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And Janis Joplin
By Samuel R. Delany
September 1, 1968
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Sly and the Family Stone
By David Henderson
September 1, 1968
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The Way We Are Today: Earth Opera and Joni Mitchell
By Paul Williams
June 1, 1968
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Tom Rush - The Circle Game
By David G. Hartwell
June 1, 1968
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Oh Caroline: The Doors in Concert
By Kris Weintraub
June 1, 1968
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What Goes On: Record Business '68
By Paul Williams
March 1, 1968
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Jimi Hendrix and Live Things
By Michael Rosenbaum
March 1, 1968
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Otis Redding
By Jon Landau
November 1, 1967
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Hank Ballard Revisited
By Jim Payne
November 1, 1967
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Jimi Hendrix & Pythagoras the Cave Painter
By Richard Meltzer
September 1, 1967
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What Goes On: The Doors
By Paul Williams
September 1, 1967
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The State of the Beatles
By Don McNeill
September 1, 1967
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What Goes On: Stevie Winwood, The Beatles
By Paul Williams
July 1, 1967
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Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man Review
By Jim Payne
June 1, 1967
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The Golden Road: A Report on San Francisco
By Paul Williams
June 1, 1967
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The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday
By Sandy Pearlman
June 1, 1967
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The Who - Happy Jack
By Jon Landau
June 1, 1967
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Blues Breakers and Fresh Cream
By Jon Landau
June 1, 1967
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Rothschild Speaks: Interview with the Doors' Producer
By Paul Williams
June 1, 1967
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What Goes On: Procol Harum, Otis Redding, Carl Wilson
By Paul Williams
June 1, 1967
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Rock is Rock: A Discussion of a Doors Song
By Paul Williams
May 1, 1967
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The Stones, the Beatles, and Spyder Turner’s Raunch Epistemology
By Richard Meltzer
May 1, 1967
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Junior Wells - It's My Life, Baby!
By Tony Glover
May 1, 1967
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The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
By Jon Landau
May 1, 1967
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The Aesthetics of Rock
By Richard Meltzer
February 1, 1967
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What Goes On: The Beatles Break Up
By Paul Williams
February 1, 1967
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The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul
By Edmund O. Ward
February 1, 1967
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Live! The Four Tops and The Rolling Stones
By Sandy Pearlman
February 1, 1967
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Buffalo Springfield
By Paul Williams
February 1, 1967
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Today! Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt
By Peter Guralnick
December 1, 1966
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The Remains
By Jon Landau
December 1, 1966
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Patterns and Sounds: The Uses of Raga in Rock
By Sandy Pearlman
December 1, 1966
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What Goes On: The Moody Blues, The Troggs, Mississppi John Hurt
By Paul Williams
December 1, 1966
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East-West: The Butterfield Blues Band
By Jon Landau
October 20, 1966
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San Francisco Bay Rock
By Gene Sculatti
October 20, 1966
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Blues ’66, Part Two: John Lee Hooker and the Butterfield Blues Band
By Paul Williams
October 20, 1966
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Tim Hardin - 1
By Dick Waterman
September 1, 1966
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Blues ’66, Part One
By Paul Williams
September 1, 1966
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The Animals - Animalization
By Jon Landau
September 1, 1966
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The Young Rascals
By Jon Landau
September 1, 1966
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The Byrds - Fifth Dimension
By Jon Landau
September 1, 1966
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What Goes On: Rock in Mongolia
By Paul Williams
September 1, 1966
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The New Sounds: The Mamas and the Papas, The Blues Project, Love
By Paul Williams
July 1, 1966
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Some Reflections on Rock Guitar in the Sixties
By Michael Kac
July 1, 1966
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Understanding Dylan
By Paul Williams
July 1, 1966
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Along Comes Maybe: Taking Rock 'n' Roll Seriously
By Paul Williams
July 1, 1966
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What Goes On: Mick Jagger, Eric Burdon, The Zombies
By Paul Williams
June 1, 1966
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The Beatles' "Nowhere Man" & The Everly Brothers' "Lovey Kravezit"
By Chris Brown
March 1, 1966
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“Daydream” - The Lovin’ Spoonful
By Paul Williams
March 1, 1966
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Your Own True Name: Songwriting in the ’60s
By Richard Farina
March 1, 1966
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Folk, Rock, & Other Four-Letter Words
By Paul Williams
March 1, 1966
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Slim Harpo - “Baby Scratch My Back”
By Paul Williams
February 1, 1966
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Listen People: Readable Rock 'n' Roll Criticism
By Paul Williams
February 1, 1966
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Three Short Reviews: Carolyn Hester, Judy Collins, The Byrds
By Paul Williams
January 30, 1966
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Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence
By Paul Williams
January 30, 1966
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Get Off of My Cloud!
By Paul Williams
January 30, 1966