I looked in the biographical portion of Kevin Avery's Everything Is An Afterthought. Avery writes that Mark Nelson, Paul's son, spoke at his father's New York memorial service, collected his cremains when they were released by the medical examiner, and attended their burial in the Nelson family plot in Warren, Minnesota.
He also describes how when Mark and Michael Seidenberg went with the police to Paul's apartment after his death, Mark found his "red toddler shoes" next to a copy of Tom Nolan's biography of Ross Macdonald.
I wish I had some copies of the Sandy Review. I don't think Paul Nelson had any copies either. I was a friend of his in his last years and knew that he sold much of his stuff to pay for his mother's cancer treatments. Miss him very much.
Man, I remember Paul so well from the Evergreen days; lived around the corner and spent afternoons hanging out with Bob Quine at Carmine St. Guitars Paul was pretty quiet and nice — it’s painful and beautiful all the history people hold right there in front of you and you might just never know — we talked about film. Carmine St…. Here comes Tuli… there were so many characters walking around who had these amazing histories. I wish i remembered the name of the guitar player who used to sit on Bedford St., grey shoulder length hair — he was supposed to have been one of the best but lost his mind and didn’t play anymore. So he sat on a bench by the bodega on the corner of Carmine and Bedford, in front of the building where Mike Quashie (the OG limbo king) lived (and still had Jimi’s old stars and stripes trunk that Hendrix left in his apartment)…. I sat with my guitar next to the grey haired guitar player who didn’t play anymore and he just kept on saying “it’s all about the touch, you barely have to touch the strings…”
Mr Marcus, not to be all weird or anything, but I got a goosebump when you showed up in my feed. Long time admirer. Glad to see you here sir. Enjoyed the piece.
Paul Nelson, sadly, turned into a lost soul who used to hang around the Musician office in the early '90s. He was working, either then or afterwards, as a clerk in a video store. Bill Flanagan, who was aware of Nelson's legacy, tried to help him and threw some work his way. I don't remember if Nelson finished the pieces or not. I was told that when Nelson died, his son refused to claim the body. That may be apocryphal.
I sought out Paul at Evergreen Video in the Village. He clearly did not want to talk. He had left well before he died. He is very much captured as the Perkins Tooth character in Jonathan Lethem’s novel ‘Chronic City.’ In 2011 Fantagraphics published Kevin Avery’s ‘Everything Is An Afterthought:
The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson.’ I thought a lot of Paul’s best writing, such as his Dylan detective story for the original ‘Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ edited by Jim Miller, wasn’t there.
If that's true (stories get told), it's heartbreaking. I remember Nelson coming around the offices of Musician magazine, where I worked, a sort of slumped-over character. What a mournful end to a productive, influential life.
We watched a lot of crappy movies together and I thought he had some sort of depression and or was on some medication. What a great thinker and writer. Good friend. Think of him often.
I looked in the biographical portion of Kevin Avery's Everything Is An Afterthought. Avery writes that Mark Nelson, Paul's son, spoke at his father's New York memorial service, collected his cremains when they were released by the medical examiner, and attended their burial in the Nelson family plot in Warren, Minnesota.
He also describes how when Mark and Michael Seidenberg went with the police to Paul's apartment after his death, Mark found his "red toddler shoes" next to a copy of Tom Nolan's biography of Ross Macdonald.
I wish I had some copies of the Sandy Review. I don't think Paul Nelson had any copies either. I was a friend of his in his last years and knew that he sold much of his stuff to pay for his mother's cancer treatments. Miss him very much.
Man, I remember Paul so well from the Evergreen days; lived around the corner and spent afternoons hanging out with Bob Quine at Carmine St. Guitars Paul was pretty quiet and nice — it’s painful and beautiful all the history people hold right there in front of you and you might just never know — we talked about film. Carmine St…. Here comes Tuli… there were so many characters walking around who had these amazing histories. I wish i remembered the name of the guitar player who used to sit on Bedford St., grey shoulder length hair — he was supposed to have been one of the best but lost his mind and didn’t play anymore. So he sat on a bench by the bodega on the corner of Carmine and Bedford, in front of the building where Mike Quashie (the OG limbo king) lived (and still had Jimi’s old stars and stripes trunk that Hendrix left in his apartment)…. I sat with my guitar next to the grey haired guitar player who didn’t play anymore and he just kept on saying “it’s all about the touch, you barely have to touch the strings…”
Can we not agree that it would be incalculably tragic if the lifeless bodies of our current American fascists were displayed as Benito Mussolini’s was in the spring of 1945? https://johnmendelssohn.substack.com/p/another-little-anthem-of-resistance?r=7yu5q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I’d settle for the ‘Lifeless bodies’ part.
Many thanks for subscribing, Greil.
Thanks heaps for posting this.
There are a few (not exactly great but readable) PDFs at archive.org -- https://archive.org/details/little-sandy-reviews-for-upload-2/page/n5/mode/2up
Mr Marcus, not to be all weird or anything, but I got a goosebump when you showed up in my feed. Long time admirer. Glad to see you here sir. Enjoyed the piece.
the photographer Atget died from starvation also, he thought he had no money, never opened his mail which contained money........
Paul Nelson, sadly, turned into a lost soul who used to hang around the Musician office in the early '90s. He was working, either then or afterwards, as a clerk in a video store. Bill Flanagan, who was aware of Nelson's legacy, tried to help him and threw some work his way. I don't remember if Nelson finished the pieces or not. I was told that when Nelson died, his son refused to claim the body. That may be apocryphal.
I sought out Paul at Evergreen Video in the Village. He clearly did not want to talk. He had left well before he died. He is very much captured as the Perkins Tooth character in Jonathan Lethem’s novel ‘Chronic City.’ In 2011 Fantagraphics published Kevin Avery’s ‘Everything Is An Afterthought:
The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson.’ I thought a lot of Paul’s best writing, such as his Dylan detective story for the original ‘Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ edited by Jim Miller, wasn’t there.
I was told by Michael Seidenberg, that Paul had his son's bronzed baby shoes on his night stand when he died.
If that's true (stories get told), it's heartbreaking. I remember Nelson coming around the offices of Musician magazine, where I worked, a sort of slumped-over character. What a mournful end to a productive, influential life.
We watched a lot of crappy movies together and I thought he had some sort of depression and or was on some medication. What a great thinker and writer. Good friend. Think of him often.