Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
Crawdaddy Feature from February 1979 belongs to the final chapter of one of the most historically important titles in American music and entertainment journalism. Crawdaddy!, founded in 1966, is widely recognized as one of the earliest U.S. magazines devoted to serious rock criticism, and by early 1979 it was attempting to broaden its audience under the shortened Feature branding while still carrying the legacy of the original title. That makes this issue especially interesting to collectors: it documents not only a specific cover subject, but also a transitional moment in the history of magazine publishing itself.
The Lily Tomlin cover gives the issue a second layer of significance. By 1979, Tomlin was already much more than a television comedian. She had broken through nationally on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, earned acclaim for her stage work and comedy recordings, and, in the second half of the 1970s, established herself as a serious film actor through performances in Nashville and The Late Show. A February 1979 profile therefore catches her at a particularly compelling point: well after her first major rise to fame, but just before the next decade would make her an even more familiar mainstream screen presence. For readers exploring the broader run of Crawdaddy magazines, this issue shows how the magazine's editorial world had expanded beyond rock alone into wider entertainment and cultural subjects.
The date matters in broader cultural terms as well. February 1979 falls at the close of a turbulent and inventive 1970s, when magazine journalism was still one of the main places where artists, actors, musicians, and critics met in print. Seen alongside other magazines from 1979, this issue reflects a period when long-form feature writing still carried real authority. That context is part of what gives a Lily Tomlin cover story by Robert Ward its archival appeal today.
About the Publication
Crawdaddy! began in 1966 and is often credited as the first national American magazine devoted to serious rock music criticism. Over time, it developed a reputation for writing that treated popular culture as something worth analyzing rather than merely promoting. By early 1979, the publication was being repositioned under the name Feature in an effort to broaden readership and shift its editorial emphasis beyond its original rock-magazine identity. That evolving format helps explain why a February 1979 issue could center on a figure like Lily Tomlin while still belonging to the historical lineage of Crawdaddy.
Key Highlights Inside
- The provided listing identifies Lily Tomlin as the featured subject of this February 1979 issue, with the main piece credited to Robert Ward.
- The issue belongs to the brief period when Crawdaddy was operating with the broadened Feature identity, reflecting an editorial attempt to reach beyond its original rock-press audience.
- By early 1979, Lily Tomlin was already a major figure in American comedy and film, known for Laugh-In, Nashville, and The Late Show, which makes her a historically strong cover subject for the period.
- The listing confirms the central known interior content: an article on Lily Tomlin by Robert Ward.
- The exact full table of contents is not confirmed from the material provided here, so additional departments, interviews, or reviews should be verified directly from the magazine rather than inferred.
Condition & Rarity
The listing describes a good used example with very minor edge wear, small marks and/or rips, a small tear, an address label on the front, and a plastic protective covering. In collector terms, the front address label is an important distinction because it affects cover presentation and usually places the issue in the subscriber-copy category rather than clean-newsstand territory. That does not eliminate collector interest, but it does matter when comparing examples side by side. Minor edge wear and small tears are typical for a 1979 general-interest or entertainment magazine that was meant to be read rather than preserved from the outset. A later protective sleeve is a positive preservation detail, but the core grading points remain cover eye appeal, binding stability, page completeness, paper tone, and the absence of major moisture damage, heavy splitting, or detached sections. For late-run Crawdaddy/Feature issues, condition often matters alongside historical context because the publication's transitional final era is itself part of the collecting interest.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Issues like February 1979 tend to be most rewarding when seen in the context of the magazine's wider editorial arc. Readers interested in tracing that evolution can browse other Crawdaddy issues to see how the title moved from rock criticism into a broader feature-driven format.
It also helps to place the magazine among other publications from 1979, especially if your interest is in how performers like Lily Tomlin were being covered at the end of the decade. The surrounding print culture often reveals just as much as the single issue.