Virtual Memories Show 350: Ed Ward
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“I don’t like nostalgia. I consider it destructive to a rational understanding of history.”
From the Sex Pistols’ last show to the backseat of Elvis’ gold Cadillac, Ed Ward has had a front-row seat to the history of rock & roll. He returns to the show to talk about The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock
“I was there and I know how the story of rock & roll ends.”
“Music is no longer central to youth culture.”
“Disco was rhythm & blues by other means.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Ed Ward was the rock-and-roll historian on Fresh Air for more than thirty years, reaching fourteen million listeners. Currently he is the cohost of the Let It Roll podcast. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and countless music magazines. He is the author of The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at the Fairfield Inn near Penn Station in NYC on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 Microphones
, joins the show to talk about Chanel’s impact on women’s fashion and French national identity, how she managed not to get tried for collaboration after the war, the one figure from our age who compares to Chanel, what it’s like teaching the accordion-and-beret crowd, and more! 
– Walter Isaacson
– Ta-Nehisi Coates
– Scott Herring
– Jonathan Strauss
(Princeton University Press, winner of the Kayden Award for outstanding manuscript in the humanities), 
(Princeton), and, as co-editor, 
(University of Nebraska Press, winner of the 2011 award for book design from the American Alliance of Museums). Her new book is 
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. He is also a composer and jazz clarinetist, and he has nine CDs out under his own name, including 
, named one of the top ten CDs by Jazziz Magazine in 1995. He lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.
. The conversation with Clive Bennett was recorded at his office in Whippany, NJ on the same equipment. The intro and outdo were recorded in my home office on a 
, and what he learned in the course of researching the present danger of nuclear conflict. (It’s a pretty harrowing — and very important — topic, folks.) From there, we discuss Ron’s body of work, his literary influences, Nixon’s final lie, what he thinks of Harold Bloom, his opinions about contemporary literary journalism, and more.
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, a collection of his essays and journalism from The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Esquire, The New Yorker, The New York Observer, and other publications. I highly recommend all of them; in fact, I have extra copies of The Secret Parts of Fortune at home and in my office, just in case I feel like reading one of what Errol Morris calls “metaphysical detective stories.” You can find Ron’s current work at 
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into Audacity. All editing and processing was done in Garage Band. Photo courtesy of the receptionist at the Inn on 23rd, whose name I didn’t catch.