William Ruhlmann
History
Early Life
William James Ruhlmann (also known as William Ruhlmann) was born in Newark, NJ on May 13, 1955, the second child of William Edwin Ruhlmann, a Bell System executive, and Margaret Neagle Ruhlmann, a librarian and newspaper columnist. He was raised in Rutherford, NJ and Burlington, NC. During his high school years, he attended North Carolina Governor’s School, a summer residential program for gifted and talented students, and completed courses at Elon University. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, he studied under poet and playwright Kenneth Koch and had work published in the Columbia Review. Ruhlmann graduated with a degree in English in 1977. He worked as a writer and editor at the Research Institute of America (1977-1979) and the Chase Manhattan Bank (1979-1989).
Early Career as Music Journalist
In 1983, Ruhlmann started contributing freelance articles on popular music to The New York City Tribune, beginning an association that lasted until the newspaper’s demise in 1991 and that found him writing a weekly column, contributing film and book reviews, interviewing musicians, actors, and directors, and (1989-1991) serving as chief theater critic. He also wrote for numerous other publications, including The Beat, CMJ New Music Report, Discoveries, The Fast Folk Musical Magazine, Global Rhythm, Goldmine, JazzTimes, Premiere, Relix, Tower Pulse, and The World & I. Ruhlmann also served as Associate Editor of Relix magazine (1987-1991). Goldmine anthologized much of his work in volumes such as The Frank Zappa Companion (1997), The Classic Rock Digest (1998), The Joni Mitchell Companion (2000) and The Beatles Digest (2000).
All Music Guide (AllMusic, AMG)
In 1991, Ruhlmann became one of the original contributors to the All Music Guide, initially published in book form, later a popular Internet database (AllMusic.com), an association that continued for more than 20 years. He was a Co-editor of the All Music Guide to Rock (1997). Initially working with founders Michael and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, he contributed to the first 1200-page reference book in 1992 and went on to provide countless reviews and biographical essays as AllMusic developed into a go-to online musical database of the 1990s and early 2000s, continuing under the ownership of TiVo/Rovi. At the time of his death, Wikipedia included 3,045 citations to Ruhlmann’s work, most of which came from the AllMusic database.
Other Publications
In 1990, Ruhlmann began writing a series of illustrated biographies of musicians that included The History of the Grateful Dead (1990), The Doors (1991), Led Zeppelin (1992), The Rolling Stones (1993), Pink Floyd (1993), John Lennon (1993), and Barbra Streisand (1995). When The History of the Grateful Dead proved popular, he wrote a second book under an assumed name at the behest of his publisher: The Story of the Grateful Dead (credited to Adrian Hall). The Doors was issued in French as Les Doors.
Also in 1990, Ruhlmann began writing liner notes to compilation albums and boxed sets with The Legend of Paul Revere by Paul Revere & the Raiders (Columbia Records). The boxed sets to which he contributed include Group Portrait by Chicago (1991), White Sox, Pink Lipstick … and Stupid Cupid: Connie Francis in the 1950s (1993), and The Song Is You: Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra (1994). His other liner notes include albums by the Andrews Sisters, Louis Armstrong, Art Blakey, Crazy Horse, Donovan, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Stephane Grappelli, Billie Holiday, Hot Tuna, Dave Mason, Barry McGuire, Carmen McRae, Oscar Peterson, Poco, the Sons of Champlin, Spirit, Sarah Vaughan, Andy Williams, Hank Williams, Jr., and Johnny Winter.
At the time of his death, Ruhlmann was working on a memoir.
References
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