Peter Knobler
Peter Knobler (born 1946) is an American writer living in New York City. He has collaborated on fifteen books, ten of them best sellers and was the editor-in-chief of "Crawdaddy" magazine from 1972 to 1979. Writing. Knobler specializes in collaboration, having written best-selling books with James Carville and Mary Matalin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, William Bratton, Texan Governor Ann Richards, Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Daniel Petrocelli, Tommy Hilfiger, and Sumner Redstone, among others. He worked with David Dinkins on the former New York City mayor's memoirs. His second book with Bill Bratton, "The Profession : A Memoir of Community, Race, and the Arc of American Policing," was published by Penguin Press in June 2021 and was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. His magazine work has appeared in "The Daily Beast", "Sports Illustrated", "More", "Rolling Stone", and "The New York Times" sports and Guest Essay pages, and been collected in "The Bob Dylan Companion", "Racing in the Streets: The Bruce Springsteen Reader", and "The Subway Series Reader". His piece "Dancing in the Dark," about Alzheimer's disease, klezmer music, and his mother, was published by the "New England Review". His autobiographical piece examining  implicit bias, "Walking While White," was published by the Fortnightly Review, as was his first piece of published fiction, the short story "The Right Side of the Diamond". Knobler has co-written songs with Chris Hillman, Steve Miller, Freedy Johnston, and the E Street Band's Garry Tallent. His songs have been recorded on Hillman's solo albums, by McGuinn, Clark & Hillman, and the Desert Rose Band. The Hillman-Knobler song "Running the Roadblocks" reached the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart. The title song of the Oak Ridge Boys' "Step on Out" album was a Hillman-Knobler composition. Knobler received  a 2008-2009 Sports Emmy Award nomination for his work on the program "Baseball's Golden Age". He has written championship films for the National Basketball Association and the United States Tennis Association. Section::::"Crawdaddy". Knobler first wrote for "Crawdaddy!" under its original editor Paul Williams in 1968. ("Crawdaddy!" briefly suspended publication in 1969, then returned in 1970, with its title unpunctuated, as a monthly with national mass market distribution, first as a quarterfold newsprint tabloid, then as a standard-sized magazine.) He became editor-in-chief in 1972. Under Knobler the magazine included contributions from Joseph Heller, John Lennon, Tim  O'Brien, Michael Herr, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, P.J. O'Rourke and Cameron Crowe, plus a roster of columnists including at times William S. Burroughs, Paul Krassner, The Firesign Theater, and sometimes Paul Williams himself. While on the run from the law, Abbie Hoffman was "Crawdaddy"'s travel editor. "Crawdaddy" was a generational magazine known for its profiles particularly of musicians, but also actors, athletes and other celebrities prominent in 1970s popular culture. Knobler's profiles included Bruce Springsteen, Sly Stone, Mel Brooks, Muddy Waters, Linda Ronstadt, Sylvester Stallone, Loudon Wainwright III, the Souther Hillman Furay Band, and Stephen Stills. Under Knobler , "Crawdaddy"'s editors often assigned artists to write about other artists; Al Kooper profiled Steve Martin, Martin Mull interviewed Woody Allen, William S. Burroughs talked magic and mysticism with Jimmy Page. The record reviews section, driven by editors John Swenson and Noe Goldwasser, had an iconoclastic reputationwell-known and respected by the music industry for its fierce independence. "Crawdaddy"'s features section regularly covered scenes from New Orleans funk to Austin, Texas' cosmic cowboys to Scientology, est and disco. Its renowned sense of humor produced the Crawdoodah Gazette, The Whole Earth Conspiracy Catalogue and "The Assassination Please Almanac". Knobler and  Greg Mitchell collected a wide range of the magazine's articles in the book "Very Seventies: A Cultural History of the 1970s from the pages of Crawdaddy", published in 1995. Bruce Springsteen. In December 1972, after seeing the performer play at Sing Sing prison and Kenny's Castaways, Knobler wrote the first interview and profile of Bruce Springsteen, with special assistance from Greg Mitchell. "He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone,'" Knobler wrote. Knobler's "Crawdaddy" discovered Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion . Springsteen and the E Street Band acknowledged by giving a private performance at the "Crawdaddy" 10th Anniversary Party in New York City in June 1976. Knobler profiled Springsteen in "Crawdaddy" in 1973, 1975, and 1978. Biography. Knobler was born and raised in New York City. He took part in 1965 in the Selma to Montgomery march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Knobler graduated in 1968 with a degree in English literature from Middlebury College. He sang bass in that school's a cappella group, the Dissipated Eight. Knobler has written for the college's alumni magazine. He attended the  Columbia University School of the Arts, Creative Writing Division. He briefly managed the career of saxophonist and E Street Band member Clarence Clemons in the 1980s. Knobler is the father of Dan Knobler, producer, songwriter and guitarist in the bands Captain Coconut and Flearoy and co-founder of the audio/visual production company and creative collective Mason Jar Music. Dan Knobler's studio, Goosehead Palace, is located in Nashville, TN.