archive

December 19, 2011 In the 1960s, it was hard to form a rock band, especially in New York. With connections, though, you could make it — and that's how one of the most mysterious and legendary New York bands, The Left Banke, came to be.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

November 15, 2011 Boogie-woogie was a piano style that began sometime in the early 20th century — and, by the 1930s, became a huge pop-music fad. Rock historian Ed Ward explains how the genre re-emerged in country music after WWII, when it was an important precursor to rock 'n' roll.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

November 1, 2011 SMiLE may be the most famous unreleased album of all time, but it's not really unreleased: Bits and pieces of it wound up on other Beach Boys albums. Now that EMI has assembled a definitive collection of the session tracks, Ed Ward has listened to them — and wonders what the shouting was about.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

August 25, 2011 Al Green wrote "Take Me to the River," but it was his labelmate Syl Johnson who first made it famous. Rock historian Ed Ward traces Johnson's early career, which started in Chicago blues clubs in the 1950s.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

August 18, 2011 Stone is known to millions from the records he made with Sly and the Family Stone. But his early days, and the recordings he produced for his own Stone Flower label, add another dimension to the career of this enigmatic character, rock historian Ed Ward said.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

July 22, 2011 New Orleans went decades without a homegrown label to document its riches. Rock critic Ed Ward says this explains why many 1950s New Orleans classics were released by Ace Records in Jackson, Miss.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

May 16, 2011 Diamond has sold 128 million records and written and recorded 37 Top 40 songs. But in the early 1960s, rock historian Ed Ward says, Diamond was writing songs for other musicians while struggling to get his own career off the ground.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

April 29, 2011 Although Roy Orbison started out as a rockabilly performer on Sun Records, he didn't really find his identity until he signed with a small Nashville label, Monument, in 1959. Rock historian Ed Ward looks at the 17 singles that put him, and the Monument label, on the map.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

April 19, 2011 In 1927 and '28, Ralph Peer, a talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Company, set up recording sessions in a town straddling the Tennessee-Virginia border. The resulting sessions, rock critic Ed Ward says, laid the framework for all of country music.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

March 29, 2011 The Vagrants, one of New York City's most popular bands in the 1960s, recorded only 30 minutes' worth of music. Rock historian Ed Ward explains what happened to the band and why its music is worth hearing today.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

March 21, 2011 It's hard to believe that Nick Lowe's second album, Labour of Lust, was out of of print for over 20 years. But a new reissue by Yep Roc has remedied that situation. Rock historian Ed Ward says that it's good to have the album — featuring the tracks "Without Love" and "Cruel to Be Kind" — back on shelves.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

March 16, 2011 The master of country soul, Percy Sledge crooned some of the genre's greatest hits, like "When a Man Loves a Woman." Rock historian Ed Ward says a new box set featuring all of Sledge's Atlantic recordings is certainly worth a listen.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

February 21, 2011 In 1942, the founders of Capitol Records were in urgent need of a hit. It came from a most unlikely place: a young woman named Ella Mae Morse, whose place in pop-music history has never really been given its due. Rock historian Ed Ward shares her story.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

January 26, 2011 A recent 13-CD box set called Next Stop Is Vietnam: The War on Record 1961-2008 documents the music that dominated the airwaves during the Vietnam War. Rock historian Ed Ward says the compilation could have used some "conscientious curation."

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

January 24, 2011 Goldwax, a label which issued some of the greatest soul records ever made in Memphis, is almost completely unknown. Given the quality of what it released, it had very few hits, but its legend has lived on. Ed Ward reports on the label's impressive run from 1963 to '70.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist