Edmund Ward (November 2, 1948 – May 3, 2021) was an American writer and radio commentator, the "rock-and-roll historian" for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's program ''

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated t ...

'' from 1987 to 2017 and one of the original founders of

Austin's Austins was a department store in the Diamond area of Derry in Northern Ireland. The store was established in 1830 and, until 2016, remained standing as the world's oldest independent department store. The building measures and is five storie ...

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

music festival. Ward grew up in Eastchester, New York. He attended

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was i ...

and began his music-writing career in 1965. He was on the staff of ''

Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine w ...

'' (1967), ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' (1970), and ''

Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential cri ...

'' (1971–1977) magazines and of the ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

'' and ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'' (where he was honored as part of their annual "Restaurant Poll", lending his name to their "Ed Ward Memorial Sandwich" award). Ward wrote several books on the history of rock-and-roll and has contributed content, with

Rashod Ollison Rashod is a given name. Notable people with the given name include: *Rashod Bateman Rashod Bateman (born November 29, 1999) is an American football wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college ...

, for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

website for the documentary series '' Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest''.Official PBS website
Accessed 9 March 2007 In addition to his music history lessons on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' he contributed to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', and various music magazines. Ward was the original co-host of th
"Let It Roll" podcast
and appeared on 24 episodes of the series. Ward lived in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

between 1993 and 2008, when he moved to Montpellier, France. In 2013 he repatriated and was living in Austin, Texas, at the time of his death.

Works

* ''Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll'' (1983), with

Geoffrey Stokes Geoffrey Stokes (May 3, 1940 – September 12, 1995) was an American journalist and author. Stokes is best known for ''Star-Making Machinery: The Odyssey of an Album'', his 1976 book about the creation of a Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airme ...

and Ken Tucker * ''Michael Bloomfield: The Rise and Fall of an American Guitar Hero'' (1983) * ''The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1: 1920-1963'' (2016) * ''The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977'' (2019)

References

External links

Ed Ward's blog

1948 births 2021 deaths American expatriates in Germany American music historians American male non-fiction writers Antioch College alumni Austin American-Statesman people Historians from New York (state) NPR personalities People from Eastchester, New York Rolling Stone people {{US-journalist-1940s-stub 20th-century American journalists American male journalists