"This year, I have made just over $1,000 from writing."

May 5, 2021 12:43 PM

Ed Ward was an early records reviewer for Rolling Stone and the Rock Historian for Fresh Air with Terry Gross until they refused to have him as a guest to promote The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1.. Against the orders of boss Jann Wenner, he launched the career of legendary critic Lester Bangs. After moving to Austin and working for the Austin American-Statesman, he was instrumental in the founding of South By Southwest. Ed died over the weekend at the age of 72.

"The Table That Ed Ward Built"

"It [the book] was sabotaged,” he reported. “Fresh Air refused to have me on after 30 years of talking about this particular subject on the air for very little money for them. It killed the book and killed my career. This year, I have made just over $1,000 from writing.

All I can hope is that I get to do this third volume. I did the first volume, then Chuck Berry and all these other people died. Various things came up, like the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, but my phone just lay there. Nobody wanted to talk to me about any of it.

So, that’s it.”

Fresh Air is emailing friends of Ward's, seeking details of his death for a "tribute."

Rolling Stone obituary

posted by cyndigo (33 comments total)

.
posted by Splunge at 12:48 PM on May 5, 2021

The Virtual Memories Show podcast assembled their two interviews with Ward about the History of Rock & Roll books into a single 2+ hour tribute episode.

I think Ed was vastly overstating Terry Gross' cultural pull, especially with real rock+roll people, so I hope he didn't go to his grave bitter about that.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:58 PM on May 5, 2021 [3 favorites]

> I think Ed was vastly overstating Terry Gross' cultural pull, especially with real rock+roll people

Most authors would kill to be on "Fresh Air" because of the influence it has on book sales, so denying him that opportunity definitely impeded potential sales, which in turn puts him on the back foot when negotiating contracts for further volumes. That reduced legitimacy through publicity can in turn mean the difference between being known or unknown when contacting some rock star's manager or publicist.
posted by at by at 1:17 PM on May 5, 2021 [10 favorites]

I didn't know that I could be mad at Fresh Air.
posted by General Malaise at 1:53 PM on May 5, 2021 [8 favorites]

(please don't add other bad things Fresh Air has done)
posted by General Malaise at 1:53 PM on May 5, 2021 [7 favorites]

Is there more context to the Fresh Air thing?
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:18 PM on May 5, 2021

(please don't add other bad things Fresh Air has done)

I hate to inform you that Terry Gross is a heartless criminal (SLYT).
posted by Big Al 8000 at 2:21 PM on May 5, 2021 [12 favorites]

Finally, in his obituary, NPR deigns to mention Ward's books.
posted by cyndigo at 3:36 PM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

In a very strange twist of fate, I was Ed's landlord. He was very much banking on his ability to do a book promo on Fresh Air, after having worked with them for so long, and I think Ed's publishers assumed it as well. Ed was a critic, not a self-promoter, and while he knew nearly everyone, he was not made for the modern era of book publishing. I considered it a kind of public service to have Ed there, with his interesting definition of on-time when it came to the rent, especially knowing how awful journalism and publishing are these days. It was nice having a cultural institution living in the house we started our family in, and I'm sad he's gone.
posted by objectfox at 4:17 PM on May 5, 2021 [87 favorites]

.
posted by Lyme Drop at 4:18 PM on May 5, 2021

.
posted by riruro at 4:24 PM on May 5, 2021

.
posted by evilDoug at 4:41 PM on May 5, 2021

I hope he didn't go to his grave bitter about that.

Sounds like that incident tanked his book career pretty much, so he had grounds for bitterness, from my reading of it.

Also the way he died sounds terribly sad. RIP.
posted by 41swans at 4:51 PM on May 5, 2021

I enjoyed this piece on Willie Nelson, with surprise guest appearance, linked from the "Table That Ed Ward Built" article.
posted by thelonius at 5:21 PM on May 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I only know Ward from his appearances on Fresh Air and what a shame to hear that his career there was soured by them not giving him any sort of courtesy. His bits on the show were excellent, highly nerdy detailed history that somehow avoided all the glam and myth-making of the rock and roll scene while still respecting that was part of it. I particularly like his highlighting of more obscure acts. He seemed to take special pleasure in sharing musicians that were excellent but never quite made it and might be new listening for his audience.

Here's NPR's archive of Ed Ward bits, I imagine most from Fresh Air.

Shame on the Austin American-Statesman for having no archival material of him or his alternate ego Petaluma Pete online. You're a fucking newspaper, folks, your archives are your entire braintrust.
posted by Nelson at 5:51 PM on May 5, 2021 [6 favorites]

the Rock Historian for Fresh Air with Terry Gross until they refused to have him as a guest to promote The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 1..

Any clue as to why?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:55 PM on May 5, 2021

I had only known Ed through a shared online community, but he went out of his way to show me the cultural hotspots of Berlin and introduce me to people when I visited, and I tried to return the favor when he visited Tokyo. RIP Ed.
posted by Umami Dearest at 7:33 PM on May 5, 2021 [6 favorites]

Never heard of the guy, but with a resume like that I think it's plain that he got screwed by each of the industries he devoted his life to. I think we can all forego dunking on Fresh Air with the stipulation that it would be easy, but there's no doubt in my mind that his take was reasonable. Appearing on FA would have follow-on effects to get him on other shows and to get on the ladder of exposure, exposure to people guaranteed to be interested in what he was saying. I mean come on, the history of rock and roll from a Rolling Stone pedigree.

.
posted by rhizome at 8:51 PM on May 5, 2021

Something doesn't add up about this.

If there was a pay to play arrangement on Fresh Air where publishers came up with a fee to have their book featured, that might explain it and would probably be a scandal if it became known.

But failing that, what's left aside from the personal?
posted by jamjam at 9:55 PM on May 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

.
posted by detachd at 4:05 AM on May 6, 2021

.
posted by Gelatin at 4:18 AM on May 6, 2021

Something doesn't add up about this. If there was a pay to play arrangement on Fresh Air where publishers came up with a fee to have their book featured, that might explain it and would probably be a scandal if it became known. But failing that, what's left aside from the personal?

I think that there probably is a lot more to the story than what we've been told so far. There's a weird vibe here to the effect of "Fresh Air ruined this guy's career", and I know that the program and Terry Gross have come under a lot of criticism on the blue, but doesn't anyone else think that it's weird that someone with the career that Ward had--discovering Lester Bangs, co-founding SXSW--seemed to have literally no other venues to promote his book?
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:43 AM on May 6, 2021 [10 favorites]

Any clue as to why?

No idea, but I remember listening to FA when Ward contributed and at that time I was very very aware their TV guy David Bianculli had written a book about the Smothers Brothers.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:47 AM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh I knew him casually in my Austin musician years. A great writer who mattered.

.
posted by spitbull at 6:59 AM on May 6, 2021

'most people would kill to do X'

Can we not perpetuate this trope please? (previously)
posted by Cardinal Fang at 7:03 AM on May 6, 2021

But failing that, what's left aside from the personal?

Maybe just pettiness? Someone thought that he thought he was moving on to bigger things than Fresh Air, and didn't like that?
posted by thelonius at 7:57 AM on May 6, 2021

.

also to add, from the NPR obit:
In a 2016 interview with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Ward was asked if he had any regrets about his career or life. He replied, after a life spent tracing the past: "A little late for that, don't you think?"

Not sure if that came with bitterness or acceptance about the whole thing. n'thing "I didn't know I could be mad at Fresh Air but here we are."
posted by adekllny at 8:10 AM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

"seemed to have literally no other venues to promote his book?"

Agree that there seems to be more to the story, but in the publishing world, getting on NPR at ALL, much less Fresh Air, is basically as good as it gets. Like, rockets you into an entirely different situation, sales wise.
posted by fillsthepews at 11:22 AM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 7:02 AM on May 7, 2021

Agree that there seems to be more to the story, but in the publishing world, getting on NPR at ALL, much less Fresh Air, is basically as good as it gets. Like, rockets you into an entirely different situation, sales wise.

I've worked in bookstores for years, and if something is on Fresh Air-- or any other part of NPR, but especially Fresh Air-- I know to go in and order a bunch more, because the customers will be streaming in. If I miss an episode, it's a pain in the ass. So much father above any other media, I can't tell you. It must be awful to expect to be on that show, and not have it materialize.
posted by BibiRose at 8:06 AM on May 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ed Ward wrote several articles about the European music scene for the old Berlin Independant Days magazine in the 1990s that changed the way I write about music. Ed's blogs were among the best writing about American expat life in Europe you could find - there is a lot to read in both Berlin Bites and City on a Hill (life in France) . He lived for a while in Berlin on an English language newspaper in the early 2000s, but eventually came to the realization that "Berlin, it seems, is a place which doesn't seem to hold people: even a large percentage of the Germans I've known over the years have moved on, unable to achieve what they wanted to do in the negative atmosphere the place exudes. Berlin is broke. Berlin is huge. Berlin is ugly. Individuals can try to spend a part of their energy in resisting that, or they can move on. I made my choice."

Ed grubbed up whatever freelance writing gigs he could to survive, often collecting returnable cans and bottles to make the rent. When Berlin changed too much for his tastes he scrimped and saved and made the move to France. He never quite found his place there: too much red tape and no supportive circle of friends. Ed was getting older and facing a slew of health problems. (He lost his sense of taste and smell, which was tragic for a prolific food writer.) And so back to Texas... He was something of an ornery old coot if you caught him on a bad day. And Texas is a great place for ornery old coots.
posted by zaelic at 3:56 AM on May 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

Thank you for the personal touches, zaelic, and particularly the links to some of his writing. Blogs! Who knew?

I wonder what he thought of Berlin in the late 2010s. Still huge and ugly, but no longer broke. Quite the opposite now. He was ahead of the trend, moving there.

I noticed none of the obituaries or other coverage mention anything at all about his personal life. Which leads me to assume he was never married nor had children, since those events are pro forma included in obituaries. Which makes me wonder.. was he gay? Not that it matters much but I always like to add to the tribe in my head.
posted by Nelson at 8:01 AM on May 11, 2021

Nelson, in the blog post that zaelic quotes from above, Ward notes, "I couldn't see myself getting older there, and given that one of my not-so-unconscious goals in moving in the first place was to find female companionship, I'd long since given up on finding a German woman who wasn't consumed with self-loathing or incipient mental illness. Not to say that they don't exist, but the only one I found wasn't a romantic prospect, although it was encouraging after all those years to discover there were occasional nonconformists." In an earlier post on turning 60, "Actually, I was anticipating the kind of denial I'm feeling at the age thing, the realization that the likelihood of finding a partner is receding, and that the likelihood of fathering children has disappeared still haven't settled in. Perhaps that means that the former, anyway, is still possible, although I now know for a fact that Berlin wasn't a good place to look, which is one of the regrets of getting older, because it can't be undone."
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:02 AM on May 12, 2021 [3 favorites]