Tweet Rudi Blesh on Joplin and Ragtime

This is episode 2 of "All You Need Is Love" (1977), a documentary series on popular music directed by Tony Palmer.

This episode focuses on ragtime, and is written and narrated by Rudi Blesh, co-author with Harriet Janis of the first major book on the music, "They All Played Ragtime" (1950). Blesh later wrote the great biography "Keaton" (1966).

The hectic back-and-forth directorial style seemed impressive to me in the 70s, now it's more irritating. But I thought some here might enjoy seeing Blesh the pop culture historian "in the flesh", and perhaps finding about a bit more about ragtime and Joplin.

I know this is slightly off-topic, but I think it's worth mentioning that Blesh's 1950 book, THEY ALL PLAYED RAGTIME, is now available on the Amazon Kindle e-reader for the bargain price of $9.00.

The book has been out of print for quite a while, so this is a good thing! SETH

Couldn't be more on topic, Seth. A wonderful overview of the music and its main creators, I also recommend it strongly.

And for those who still prefer their books on paper, used copies from abebooks or amazon are pretty reasonably priced as well.