20th Cenury'st Greatest Hits

Rock journalists are known for building their careers on ""best of"" and ""worst of"" listsDshaky critical structures that fit nicely in magazine columns and readers' shrinking attention spans. Thankfully, Paul Williams (Outlaw Blues; Das Energi), founder of rock journalism in the 1960s and of the seminal Crawdaddy magazine, adds some substance and spontaneity to the much-loved and loathed form. A self-described ""tease,"" his breezy top-40 list is not a buyer's guide at all, but ""a catalogue for some kinda future (multimedia) museum show""Dhigh and low objets d'art that move Williams on a deeply personal and unpretentious level. He opens enthusiastically with The Beatles' little-known ""Things We Said Today,"" not because it's his all-time-favorite Fab Four tune or a shoo-in for the century's best but because he responds to it on a highly emotional level: ""Art,"" he observes, ""exists not so much in the moment when it is created as in the moment when it is received."" Classic albums and songs account for about a dozen entries, but Williams also riffs like a young, ardor-spreading college professor on novels (James Joyce's Ulysses), short stories (Theodore Sturgeon's ""Mr. Costello, Hero""), poems (Allen Ginsberg's ""Howl""), paintings (Pablo Picasso's ""Girl Before a Mirror"") and films (Bob Dylan's Renaldo & Clara), often cross-referencing seemingly disparate works. Reading each rambling, chatty entry in its entirety is challenging, because Williams compels readers to start brainstorming their own lists and revisiting the various forms of art that have struck a vital nerve in them most deeply. It is Williams's goal to motivate his readers to pause and reflect, and he achieves it. Though he is the father of rock journalism, Williams's name alone will not pique the attention of music geeks the world over. But the historical context in which he places his subjects will appeal to those interested in pop culture. (Oct.)