Ed Ward

One capital of soul in the 1960s? Muscle Shoals, Ala., a fly-speck on the map which spawned some of the era's greatest recordings, via productions in Rick Hall's Fame Studios. Rock historian Ed Ward has their story.

The band didn't have many big hits, but it helped define the music of its generation. With the release of The Smiths' complete works, rock historian Ed Ward looks back and tries to figure out what made the group so important.

It's hard to believe today, but in the mid-1950s, Los Angeles didn't mean much in terms of popular music. But the coming of rock 'n' roll meant an infusion of tiny record labels -- and one was Dore, run by a happy-go-lucky guy named Lew Bedell. Ed Ward tells its short, crazy story here.

Before the Civil Rights movement, segregated American cities helped give birth to the Chitlin' Circuit, a touring revue that provided employment for hundreds of black musicians. Rock historian Ed Ward profiles two recent books which illuminate the conditions these musicians endured.

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.

Boogie-woogie was a piano style that began in the early 20th century and later became a huge fad. Rock historian Ed Ward explains how the genre re-emerged as an important precursor to rock 'n' roll.

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.

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.

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.

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.