Thursday, July 13, 2006

Paul Nelson, RIP

Paul Nelson recently passed away. Some quick bio stuff:

1) A fellow northern boy - from Warren, Minnesota.

2) Friends with Dylan at University of Minnesota, later defended him in print in a NYC folk magazine to the dorks of the folk movement who protested Dylan's going electric.

3) A founding father of rock criticism.

4) Mercury Records A&R dude - turned Rod Stewart onto those obscure and then-unreleased Dylan tunes on Stewart's great early albums. Signed the New York Dolls.

5) Co-author, along with Lester Bangs, of a hilarious Rod Stewart biography. Nelson was suffering from writer's block, so Bangs wrote almost all of the book. But there is an early chapter where the two writers discuss Stewart. It's great stuff.

Links to tributes to Nelson are at Rockcritics Daily.