Paul Williams – Extract from #156

In this extract from THOMAS PATTERSON’s epic three-part interview with the mighty PAUL WILLIAMS, the actor swerves being in The Monkees, acts some more, discovers the guitar and accidentally begins writings songs. Order the issue here

Music and movies continued to intermingle and alongside nearly every young male actor and musician in LA, Williams was turned down for a part in The Monkees. (“Every now and then, I’ll run into Stephen Stills and we’re both like, “Thank God we didn’t get it,” because our lives as songwriters would have been very different.”) It was his appearance in the movie The Chase in 1966, however, that would set his musical career slowly in motion.

A slice of Deep South-set Oscar bait starring Robert Redford, Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda, The Chase featured the now 26-year-old Williams as one of a group of teenagers trying to hunt down Redford’s escaped convict Bubber Reeves, alongside a bunch of townsfolk baying for his blood. Inspired by a castmate called Mark Seaton who owned a guitar, Paul bought one of his own and was heard making up a song about Bubber by co-star Robert Duvall. Duvall brought Paul’s song to the attention of director Arthur Penn and you can hear Paul bash out about 10 seconds of the tune at the movie’s violent climax. After the film’s release, Paul continued to fiddle about with his new instrument, songwriting bubbling under the surface. “It helps to be broke,” he says of the impetus to pursue his new craft. “It helps to have no relationship. Because you have no money, you can take nobody out. The songwriting became like journalling for me. I had this little guitar from The Chase, and I began to doodle. It wasn’t a conscious decision.”

Conscious decision or not, Paul must have been doing something right, because in ’67 Williams got a break as a songwriter with indie label White Whale, home to ‘Happy Together’ hit-makers The Turtles, Liz Damon’s Orient Express and The Clique (and which also counted a young Warren Zevon amongst its staff writers). “I don’t know how I wound up at White Whale, but I went in and signed a long-term deal giving them all my publishing except for the writer’s share. I had a girlfriend at the time, and I was like, ‘I’m a writer at White Whale Records, and that’s where The Turtles are.’ And about six weeks later, they called me in and said, ‘We don’t think you have a future in the music business.’ They tore up my contract, which I think was a five year deal for 50 bucks a week.”

Still, if his tenure at the label was short, a handful of his compositions wound up on White Whale B-sides, such as an Endless Summer-style surf number called ‘The Quiet Side Of Love’ recorded by a combo called The Hangtown Fry, and a jolly, almost trad-jazz instrumental ‘The Room’, captured on wax by the none more-’60s sounding The New FBI Band; and if a window had closed at White Whale, a door was soon opened by a friend called Biff Rose, the comedian and musician whose ’68 debut album The Thorn In Mrs Rose’s Side would prove an influence on David Bowie.

Buy issue #156 to read the full article. Parts two and three to follow. Subscribe now in order not to miss out.