RIP Dave Marsh
Remembering the legendary rock critic with a polarizing pen
When I first started reading music magazines in late middle school/early high school, Dave Marsh was one of the bylines I remember reading.
Marsh, who passed away at 75, had a style that was both knowledgeable and no-nonsense, surely rooted in his Detroit upbringing.
From his tenure as editor at such publications as Creem and Rock and Roll Confidential to his contributions to Rolling Stone, Newsday and The Village Voice, Marsh championed the stuff he loved and eviscerated what he didn’t with equal amounts of prose and passion.
He has also written a vast number of acclaimed books,including several on his longtime friend Bruce Springsteen. He has also hosted three Sirius XM Radio shows: Live from E Street Nation, Kick Out the Jams and Live from the Land of Hopes and Dreams.
“Here on E Street, the irreplaceable loss of Dave Marsh has us heartbroken. My great friend Dave, with his straight out of Detroit attitude, was a true Rock ‘n’ Roll lifer,” Bruce Springsteen, whose career owes a great debt to Marsh, wrote on his socials. “He was soulful, intelligent, heartfelt, opinionated, bruising and often fantastically argumentative. Watching Jon Landau and Dave drive each other crazy over some arcane piece of music would make my day. He wrote the first book about me, Born To Run, and Dave always had my back. He deeply believed in what I was trying to accomplish and his lifetime of support meant the world to me. More than anything else, I admired Dave as a man of conscience and commitment. He lived and stuck by his values come hell or high water. Wherever he is, I hope he’s receiving some of the grace, happiness and reward he’s brought into my life. God bless you Dave.”
Marsh wasn’t as friendly with other artists and bands as he was with Springsteen, however. Through the years in his writing, he declared John Bonham was an “insurmountable flaw” in Led Zeppelin, considered Queen to be “the first truly fascist rock band” and tossed off The Grateful Dead as “the worst band in creation.”
He was particularly heelish to Kiss, admitting he was partially responsible for keeping them out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for decades.
“Kiss is not a great band,” he told ABC News in 2009. “Kiss was never a great band. Kiss never will be a great band, and I have done my share to keep them off the ballot.”
After the band’s induction in the Hall in 2014, Marsh said: “I was done with them before I ever turned the first album over to the second side…all that mediocrity was harmless enough until the boastful bassist decided to turn it into a propaganda machine for the only two things he’s ever loved: Gene Simmons and money.”
But for as villainous as Marsh was to people’s favorite bands, the critic also used the power of his pen to do tremendous good as well. Especially in the realm of cancer research in the wake of his 21-year-old daughter Kristen’s 1991 death from sarcoma. He co-founded the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which raised funds to advance sarcoma research, support patients and train young doctors. Springsteen had a hand in several benefit shows for the charity over the years, including a big concert at Madison Square Garden in 1993.
And this past decade has finally seen Marsh receive his flowers through a celebration of his written work in the 2023 anthology Kick Out The Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing (which we covered) as well as a 2001 online discussion series honoring Marsh entitled Land of Hope and Dreams: A Celebration of Dave Marsh’s Work and Vision, featuring appearances from Springsteen, Tom Morello, Pete Townshend, Dion, Jackson Browne and Steven Van Zandt among others.
“RIP Dave ‘The Duke’ Marsh,” Van Zandt wrote on Instagram. “An early believer on E Street, and a very early supporter of the Jukes when we really needed it. He was fearless, relentless, arrogant, everything you’d want in a RocknRoll troublemaker. And by the way, a tremendous writer.”
For myself and many of my colleagues of a certain age, Dave Marsh helped point us in the direction we embarked upon to varying degrees of success.
Thanks Dave.
VIDEO: Dave Marsh in Conversation with Daniel 🐺 Wolff
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May 6, 2020
F*** Dave Marsh. F*** him and his rotting corpse. Anyone with that big, stupid moon face and awful hair was no one to be criticizing anyone. Crap writer, even worse radio host.
I wonder how many knee pads he wore out over the years “servicing” Bruce Springsteen? I’m sure Patti’s glad to have all of her husband back now.
He was a total jerk, and on behalf of the many great artists he insulted over the years I’m glad we’ll never hear from him again. He will not be missed.
He was kind of right though.
Kiss were and still are, s***, total s***, pimply horrible dreck.
RIP Dave Marsh.