Rock historian Ed Ward died in Austin this week, according to his former colleague at the Austin American-Stateman Michael Corcoran. The author of The History of Rock & Roll Volumes 1 & 2 spanning from 1920 to 1977 was a writer for various publications, including Paste magazine.
Born in 1948, Ward began his music-writing career while attending Antioch College in 1965. He was a staff writer at all three of the early rock magazines—Crawdaddy!, Rolling Stone and Creem—and a freelancer for just about every publication from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal. He was also a key figure in the Austin music scene as a writer for The Austin Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman, where he inspired the “Dump Ed!” campaign from those readers who didn’t quite share his views.