Pioneering rock writer Paul Williams dies at 64

Paul Williams, a pioneering rock music journalist whose Crawdaddy! Magazine is considered the first U.S. publication to write seriously about rock `n roll, has died in California. He was 64.

Paul Williams, a pioneering rock music journalist whose Crawdaddy! Magazine is considered the first U.S. publication to write seriously about rock `n roll, has died in California. He was 64.

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U-T San Diego says Williams died on Wednesday in an Encinitas care facility.

His wife, Cindy Lee Berryhill, tells the Los Angeles Times that Williams died of complications of dementia triggered by head injuries from a 1995 bicycle accident.

Williams was a teenager when he began publishing Crawdaddy! in 1966. It appeared 18 months before Rolling Stone.

Williams also wrote more than 30 books and helped introduce readers to the work of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. He was Dick's literary executor.