Library Rock's Backpages

Dave Marsh

Dave Marsh

Dave Marsh has written more than a dozen books about rock and popular music, as well as editing several others. He co-founded Creem, the legendary Motor City rock and roll magazine that helped launch heavy metal, glam and punk, among other styles, and spent five years as an associate and contributing editor of Rolling Stone, where he was chief music critic, columnist and feature writer. In 1969, the nineteen-year-old Marsh dropped out of Detroit's Wayne State University to edit Creem. He departed in 1973 to become Newsday's pop music critic, music editor of The Real Paper, and then joined Rolling Stone as an associate editor. He and several others started Rock and Roll Confidential - later Rock and Rap Confidential - in 1983.

Marsh's first book, Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story (Doubleday) was published in 1979. His other books include Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who, The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, and Louie Louie: The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock'n'Roll Song.

Rock and Rap Confidential

224 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Joe Cocker, The Grease Band: Joe Cocker!

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1969

OF ALL the rock stars, past or present, you could meet, Joe Cocker probably ranks with the two or three least interesting conversationalists. Not that ...

Tim Leary: Riding The Crest

Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1969

NOW THAT Timothy Leary has chosen to run for governor in California, while at the same time recording and performing with rock groups (as he ...

Love: Out Here (Blue Thumb BTS 9000)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, December 1969

LOVE, LIKE the Byrds, has by now gone through enough personnel changes so that only leader Arthur Lee (identified on the album as Arthurly) is ...

The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: Olympia Stadium, Detroit MI

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, December 1969

YES, INDEED-dop-diddly-do the Rollfucking Stones — high energy superjamsters who played in my own home town at our very own ice hockey rink November 24th ...

The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (London NPS4)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1970

THERE'S NOTHING mysterious about the new Stones album and that's as it should be. Like the Stones themselves, it's all right there, readily accessible to ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Live/Dead (Warner Bros. WS1830)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, 15 March 1970

THIS ALBUM is the first indication that the Dead are finally ready to make the move long expected of them, a breakthrough in the grey ...

Joe Cocker, Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear, Leon Russell: The Joe Cocker Show... Mad Dogs And Englishmen

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1970

THE DISCOVERY OF CANINA, A MOST SPECIAL PET (AND, COINCIDENTALLY, LEON RUSSELL, A MOST SPECIAL MUSICIAN) ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: The Incredible Story Of Iggy & The Stooges

Special Feature by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1970

THIS IS A story about the Stooges. I've taken some time to check it out and it seems that there's really only one way to ...

Graham Bond, Jack Bruce, Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Tony Williams: John McLaughlin: The Truth Comes Out

Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1970

IT IS amazing that John McLaughlin has not become more renowned than he already is. He's the most thoroughly progressive genius of that instrument ever. ...

Savoy Brown: Lookin' In, Lookin' Out

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Circus, October 1970

IF THE BRITISH blues scene seems circular, both in terms of the way it has progressed over the last few years and in terms of ...

The Stooges: The Incredible Story

Special Feature by Dave Marsh, ZigZag, December 1970

THERE'S A SAD possibility that people are on the verge of discovering, exploiting and generally going on about the Detroit Sound (like they did with ...

Miles Davis: Jack Johnson (Columbia S30455)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, 1971

MILES' NEW popularity is a puzzle to me. While his previous three records — the almost-perfect In a Silent Way, and the renowned (if, in ...

The Rationals: The Rationals (Crewe CR-1334)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971

ALL THAT killer, bizarre, get-down music that constantly pumps out of the Motor City had to come from somewhere, right? Here's where. The Rational are ...

Alice Coltrane: Ptah The El Daoud (Impulse AS9196)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

I MIGHT WELL purchase this album before any other recorded in the past year. Alice Coltrane has developed and matured her music into a statement ...

Chairmen Of The Board: Chairman of the Board: In Session (Invictus)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

THIS IS REPUTEDLY a live set, recorded in Harlem at the Apollo but I doubt that. But regardless of that little caveat emptor, the Chairmen ...

Cleaver Freaks, Leary Busted

Report by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

ALGIERS, Algeria (UPS) — Timothy Leary has once again spent some time in jail — and this time his jailer was none less than Eldridge ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band: John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)/ Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

BOTH OF THESE records are remarkable in some aspect, a sort of East-West five years after Butterfield and Allan Watts. Certainly, until this point, John ...

Elton John: Looney Tunes: The Myth of the Vicious Circle

Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

ROCK AND roll began in a twilight zone, a pure thing swirling in out of a pretty pristine void. That it grew from blues and ...

Sam Cooke: This Is Sam Cooke

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

SAM COOKE HAS always seemed, to me at least, the most underrated (or simply ignored – you don't really rate these people) of all the ...

The Animals, Canned Heat, The Guess Who: The Animals, Canned Heat and Guess Who albums

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

The Animals With Eric Burdon: In The Beginning (Wand) Canned Heat: Live At Topanga Corral (Wand) Guess Who: Shakin' All Over (Scepter) ...

The Doors: Thirteen

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

THE UNFORTUNATE situation epitomized here is that of the record company which has to resort to the "greatest hits" ruse when a band doesn't meet ...

The Kinks: Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygroround — Part One

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

WELL, ALL RIGHT. It took two months but I think I begin to understand the meaning of this album, which is that the Kinks understand, ...

Spencer Davis Group: The Return of Spencer Davis

Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971

SPENCER DAVIS suffers from a peculiar affliction – his name is tied inextricably to that of Stevie Winwood, it's almost certain that, first time around ...

The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan and the Hawks Live At Albert Hall, 1966

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, June 1971

IT IS THE MOST supremely elegant piece of rock'n'roll music I've ever heard. ...

Chairmen Of The Board, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Junior Walker & the All Stars: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, the Chairmen of the Board, Martha & the Vandellas: Olympia Stadium, Detroit MI

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, September 1971

The Motown Variations ...

MC5 Back On Shakin' Street

Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971

Their mamas all warned 'emnot to come into townBut they got it in their blood,now they gotta get down– 'Shakin' Street', The MC5 ...

The Who: Who's Next

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971

WHO'S NEXT IS TO the Who what the White Album must've been to the Beatles. After Tommy, which was a concept-rock summit, not, as commonly ...

Van Morrison: His Band And Street Choir

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971

THERE'S A SECRET to every Van Morrison album, and even this one, which too many of us wrote off too long ago, has it. The ...

John McLaughlin: My Goal's Beyond (Douglas 9)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1971

THIS RECORD isn't as good as John McLaughlin's first record Devotion. It's pretty damn depressing. ...

Pink Floyd: Relics

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1971

I WAS IN Los Angeles this spring, when a friend dropped in to say, "Hey there's a new Pink Floyd album and it's all old ...

The Beach Boys: Surf's Up (Brother/Reprise)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, January 1972

I HAVE, AT one time or another, been a Beach Boys fan. I was even more a punk then than I am now, though, and ...

Bob Dylan: How Does it Feel?

Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972

PICKS OF THE WEEK: BOB DYLAN, 'GEORGE JACKSON' (Ram's Horn, BMI). Bringing it all back home, the ever-relevant Dylan, who watched the river flow for ...

Crabby Appleton, The Wackers: Crabby Appleton: Rotten To The Core; The Wackers: Wackering Heights (both Elektra)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972

AT FIRST GLANCE these two don't seem to have much in common, aside from the fact that they're both on the same label. While that's ...

The Who: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972

THERE ISN'T MUCH to say. They're really let us down this time. I don't know if anyone else resents it, but I do. Why reissue ...

Commander Cody, John Lennon, Joy of Cooking, Stevie Wonder, Yoko Ono: John Sinclair: Free John & Yoko

Report by uncredited writer, Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1972

The new Plastic Ono Band comes to Ann Arbor to Free John Sinclair – Starring David Peel, Archie Shepp, Ed Sanders, Stevie Wonder, Commander Cody, ...

Laura Lee: Women's Love Rights (Hot Wax)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1972

LAURA MAY claim she's "startin' a new movement today" but to tell you the truth she's just following in the Holland Dozier Holland tradition of ...

Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

The Kid is gonna Booglarize ya ...

Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

MANFRED MANN'S strength, perhaps his only one, is as an interpreter. His jazzlike motions with Chapter Three – the group that was broken up so ...

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: From The Beginning…

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

SMOKEY IS LEAVING the Miracles. This may mean more to those of us in Detroit, who've watched the Miracles almost, but never quite, make the ...

The Faces: A Nod Is As Good As A Wink

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink is the first signal that the Faces have matured as a band. Their infatuation with variations on ...

The Jackson 5: Greatest Hits

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

MOTOWN HAS ALWAYS been known for its little ones more than its big ones, and the Jackson Five are no exception. This is undoubtedly their ...

The Persuasions: Street Corner Symphony

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

THE PERSUASIONS ceased to be a pleasant, though strange, acappella curiosity with their last album, We Came to Play. That album took a more pop ...

Betty Wright: I Love The Way You Love (Alston)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972

SOMETIME LAST spring, a single appeared called 'I Love the Way You Love'. One of the people I live with bought it; she said, "This ...

Bob Seger: Doncha Ever Listen To The Radio…

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972

How To Remain Obscure Through Better Rock 'n' Roll ...

Denise LaSalle: Denise La Salle: Trapped By A Thing Called Love

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972

IF THIS ISN'T THE best soul album this year, someone is going to have to come up with something really amazing. Denise La Salle is ...

Jimi Hendrix: Hendrix In The West

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972

I DON'T KNOW if there, is even anything to add to Jimi's legend. You can build it up or tear it down but it remains ...

T. Rex: Can The Electric Warriors Conquer America?

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972

YOU CAN SEE Marc Bolan almost anywhere and walk away with the same impression. You'll think he looks cherubic, not a little elfin, and that ...

Jackson Browne: Jackson Browne

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, June 1972

MYTHICALLY, JACKSON BROWNE emerged from an article in Cheetah (the magazine of rock, when Crawdaddy! was the 'zine of roll) in late '67 or early ...

Dr. John's Gumbo

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972

GUMBO IS DR. JOHN'S fifth album, but it seems like his first. For once, the record and the recording both feel right, as though they ...

Humble Pie: Smokin' (A&M)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972

THERE'S SOMETHING intriguing in the idea that Humble Pie are so thoroughly enjoyable yet refuse so adamantly to yield to any kind of critical insight. ...

Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972

YOU CAN TELL this one is special from the beginning. The strings come in, but all of a sudden, there's an insistent, pounding drum driving ...

Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972

JETHRO TULL's admirers are wont to believe that the lads are an inventive, entertaining, eminently witty, oft profound rock group, with a propensity for satire ...

Elephant's Memory, John Lennon: John Lennon: Sometime In New York City (Apple); Elephant's Memory: Elephant's Memory (Apple)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972

I'M LISTENING TO a tape of The New John and Yoko lp. If you thought, as I did, that Sometime in New York City was ...

The Faces: The Daring Young Man And The Flying Chimpanzees

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972

THE LAST WEEK of April, the American Retreaders Association shared the Executive Inn, Louisville, Ky., with a collection of dwarves, freaks, dope dealers, high wire ...

David Bowie: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (RCA)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, September 1972

DAVID BOWIE may become a star this year, or he may not. This may or may not make a difference in your life. But, for ...

Them, Van Morrison: Van Morrison: St.Dominic's Preview (Warner Bros.); Them: Them Featuring Van Morrison (Parrot)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1972

AFTER TUPELO HONEY Van Morrison must have been faced with a choice. He could continue with his domestic tranquility myth, which was as artistically false ...

Luther Allison

Profile by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1972

"LUTHER ALLISON come into the picture about the middle of 1957. I needed a bass player and I met Luther Allison walkin' on Ogden Avenue ...

The Band: Rock Of Ages

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1972

ON A GREAT NIGHT, the Band grab and mesmerize, so that neither your eyes nor your thoughts can be on anything else. It helps that ...

Billie Holiday, Diana Ross: Lady Sings The Blues (Motown/Paramount Pictures)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, December 1972

I had to be darkened down so the show could go on in dynamic-assed Detroit. It's like they say, there's no damn business like show business. ...

Brinsley Schwarz: Nervous On The Road

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, December 1972

NERVOUS ON THE Road continues in typical Brinsley fashion. It's full of jumping good time rock songs, a little rockabilly, a shade of the Band ...

The Rolling Stones: Looney Toons: The Rolling Stones — Seems Like A Freeze-Out

Comment by Dave Marsh, Creem, January 1973

IT SEEMS TO be December, and here we are with a full issue about the Rolling Stones, talking about such seemingly dated minutae as their ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power (Columbia)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1973

Iggy in Exile: Love in the Fire Zone ...

John Sinclair: Guitar Army (Douglas)

Book Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1973

TO MOST people, John Sinclair looks like just another mutant dinosaur relic of the First Golden Age of Psychedelic Apocalypse. But that's not any more ...

Gary Glitter: Garbage Rock Comes of Age

Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973

WHEN THE CURTAIN comes up, the band are all ready there, pumping out a fuzzy, semi-atonal, rhythmically confused version of left-field '50's music. They are ...

Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye: Marvin Gaye: Trouble Man (Motown); Diana Ross (And Others): Lady Sings the Blues (Motown)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973

SOCIOLOGISTS LIKE TO talk about black people mimicking whites, and I suppose that it is inherent in the presumptions most of us make about black ...

Curtis Mayfield, Diana Ross: Black Music

Comment by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, May 1973

SOMETIME LAST fall, John Percy Boyd, Mark Bethune and Michael Brown, a trio of black college students in Detroit, decided to put an end to ...

Bob Seger: Back in '72 (Palladium / Warners)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1973

BOB SEGER'S 'Rosalie' is so strong it could break you in half. But it is the only song here that is close to what I ...

Bruce Springsteen: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (Columbia)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1973

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN has enough gall to actually commit suicide on stage of his own volition. Unlike Alice Cooper and David Bowie, who only yak about ...

Rita Coolidge, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson: Duel to the Death: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1973

I DON'T KNOW whether Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid will be a great rock'n'roll western or merely a machismo wetdream. Three days on the ...

The Faces: Ooh La La

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1973

SOMETIME ROD STEWART or the Faces (or both) should make a record that is enjoyable without being enervating. The effect of each of their records ...

The Wailers: Bruce Springsteen, The Wailers: Max's Kansas City, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 19 July 1973

Rock and reggae ...

Mott The Hoople, New York Dolls: Despite the Complications, The Dolls Will Yet Be a Superstar

Profile by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 12 August 1973

EVEN THOUGH Mott the Hoople is among the most British of rock bands, and the New York Dolls is one of the most American, they ...

Blue Öyster Cult, Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, The Dynomiters, The Harlots of 42nd St., KISS, Elliott Murphy, New York Dolls, Teenage Lust & the Lustettes: All That Glitters Is Not Rock

Report by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 19 August 1973

Being a Partial Compendium of Some of the More (Or Less) Outstanding New York Unknowns ...

Sly & The Family Stone: Fresh (Epic)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, September 1973

Sly Today: Caring, Confident, Contradictions ...

John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono: Going it alone

Interview by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 28 October 1973

SHE IS — the late Bruce Lee aside — the most famous Oriental entertainer in the western hemisphere, half of the most notorious show-biz couple ...

New York Dolls: They Weren't Dolls at the Waldorf Concert

Report by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 4 November 1973

PROMOTER HOWARD Stein wanted to add some glamor and sophistication to the rock scene, so he put on rock's first show at the Waldorf Astoria ...

Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (Tamla)

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, December 1973

I WASN'T very impressed when Stevie played the songs from Innervisions live at the Newport Jazz Festival in July. When, later that month, his publicists blindfolded members ...

Mahavishnu Orchestra: The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 28 December 1973

The same mountain, again ...

Elliott Murphy: Last of the Rock & Roll Stars?

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, January 1974

UNLIKE THE everyday American pop star, Elliott Murphy doesn't need to demand attention when he enters a room; he just walks in, and he's got ...

Otis Redding

Essay by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, January 1974

LET'S GET one thing straight. Otis Redding's posthumous rise to the Kingship of soul is highly suspect. He earned the accolade a little too easily ...

The Who: Quadrophenia Reconsidered

Comment by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1974

PHILADELPHIA ON Tuesday night is nobody's good time. Nonetheless, because the Who were not coming to New York on their fall tour, it was worth ...

Vinyl Shortage: Curse of the Vanishing Dynaflex

Report by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1974

"Before the vinyl shortage is over, kid, they may have to make your Jethro Tull albums out of earwax." ...

Maggie Bell: Queen of the Night (Atlantic SD 7293)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974

The Ghost and Maggie Bell ...

New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974

Lotta Goin' Nowhere Goin' On ...

The Velvet Underground: 1969 Velvet Underground Live (Mercury SRM 2 7504)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 July 1974

MANY OF Lou Reed's fans continue to believe that his significant achievements came as leader of the Velvet Underground rather than on his recent solo ...

Edgar Winter: The Edgar Winter Group: Shock Treatment (Epic PE 32461)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 July 1974

EDGAR WINTER was the most unlikely rock star of 1973. For five years we had been led to believe that it was his brother Johnny ...

Hollywood Special: Elements Of Style

Report by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1974

I Was Afraid They'd All Be California Girls ...

Joni Mitchell: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, August 1974

Big time now ...

The Band: Selling Talent Short for Cheap Cheers

Comment by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 15 September 1974

THE BAND, out on its own again after two albums and a tour with mentor Bob Dylan, didn't have an ordinary dressing room for a ...

David Bowie, Luther Vandross: David Bowie: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 31 October 1974

Bowie's soul doesn't glitter ...

David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, Jobriath, Bette Midler, New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Twisted Sister: Glitter Rock's Lingering Shadow

Report by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 3 November 1974

I like sex, because sex is not dangerous. Violence is dangerous, that's why I leave my violence on stage. But we've never been into glitter. ...

Rory Gallagher, If, Rush: Rory Gallagher, Rush, If: Beacon Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 6 November 1974

Rock in a gilded cage ...

Loudon Wainwright III: Singing His Way Into M*A*S*H

Interview by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 17 November 1974

CAPT. CALVIN Spaulding entered the Korean war recently as one of the crazed crew of doctors who staff CBS TV's M*A*S*H. But even the most ...

Bruce Springsteen: Shouldn't He Be Famous?

Comment by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, December 1974

IT WAS DIFFICULT to tell just when the stage caved in. It seemed to happen during 'Rosalita', the last song before the encore. But maybe ...

Bachman-Turner Overdrive, David Barretto, Bob Seger: Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bob Seger, David Barretto: NFE Ballroom, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 9 December 1974

Let it rock ...

Charlie Rich: Felt Forum, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 17 December 1974

Not as Rich any more ...

The Rolling Stones Need More Than Another Pretty Face

Report by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 22 December 1974

IMMEDIATELY AFTER Mick Taylor left (I hesitate' to say "quit") the Rolling Stones last week, speculation about his successor began. The gossip all but ignored ...

Gladys Knight: I Feel a Song

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 2 January 1975

TWO YEARS AGO, while working for another magazine, I rejected a rambling interview between black poet Nikki Giovanni and singer Gladys Knight. The interview wasn't ...

Roxy Music: Decadent, But What Is That?

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 23 February 1975

THE BRITISH rock band had been up all night, doing to their midwestern hotel what British rock bands are famous for doing. In the morning, ...

Curtis Mayfield: Got to Find a Way (Curtom CRS 8604)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 February 1975

CURTIS MAYFIELD'S dilemma remains the same with each album. Each of his albums since Superfly has seemed uninspired, static, overreaching, an attempt to make a ...

Patti Smith: Very special sound

Profile by Dave Marsh, Newsday, April 1975

THE BEST new rock music in the area is taking place this weekend (Thursday to Sunday) and next (April 17-20) at a scruffy Bowery bar ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: Starting Over

Review by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, April 1975

A YEAR AGO, the Raspberries seemed like nothing so much as a prefabricated rock band in the tradition of the Monkees. ...

Alvin Lee: In Flight

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975

BRITISH BLUES has always been a workmanlike form, as much a job as a pleasure. Alvin Lee is smart enough to realize this, and having ...

Patti Smith: A Rocker Determined To Do It All

Interview by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 20 April 1975

PATTI SMITH, the reformed poet, playwright and songwriter, learned to sing sometime last year. Now, her connections of Motown soul sounds and Paris in the ...

Labelle: Harkness Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 7 May 1975

Silver birds ...

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen (Warner Bros.)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 8 May 1975

IN 1971, COMMANDER Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, already a legend in such disparate climes as San Francisco and Detroit, finally reached a recording ...

Bette Midler: Clams on the Half Shell Revue, Minskoff Theatre, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 May 1975

Bette's Off on Broadway ...

Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975

JEFF BECK SEEMS finally to have figured out that his is not going to replace the great '60s group which bore his name and featured ...

Lesley Gore: They Don't Own Her

Report by Dave Marsh, Let It Rock, July 1975

IN 1964, A seventeen-year-old freshman named Lesley Gore put out her first record, 'It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)'. It was ...

Charlie Rich: Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High) (Epic PE 33455)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975

THE PARTNERSHIP of producer Billy Sherrill and singer Charlie Rich, one of the most profitable in recent years, has now run its course. Since the ...

The Rolling Stones: The Stones Roll On: A Scare in Boston; Success in Toronto; A Slip in New York

Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975

NEW YORK — The scariest moment came in Boston, when overzealous fans grabbed the writhing, confetti-spitting dragon that appears at the end of 'Jumpin' Jack ...

The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger: I Can Get It Up, But I Can't Get It Down

Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1975

OF COURSE, Mick Jagger was talking about flying the twin-engine Cessna which had brought him into the Marine Air Terminal in New York's LaGuardia Airport ...

Neil Young: Tonight's The Night

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1975

"I'm sorry. You don't know these people. This means nothing to you." — Neil Young, in the liner notes ...

The Rolling Stones: I Call and Call and Call on Mick

Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 11 September 1975

  THE ROLLING Stones holed up at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for their week in Los Angeles. I arrived on July 8th about 12 hours after ...

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: The Bottom Line, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 September 1975

Bruce Springsteen: A Rock Star Is Born ...

Bruce Springsteen: Little Egypt From Asbury Park

Profile by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1975

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SITS cross-legged on his half-made bed, and surveys the scene. Records are strewn across the room, singles mostly, intermixed with empty Pepsi bottles, ...

Tom Waits: Reno Sweeney's, New York City NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975

AS A PERFORMER, Tom Waits seems closer to Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen than to anyone else currently working in rock; unlike them, however, Waits ...

Sam & Dave: Sam & Dave: Back At' Cha!

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975

IF ANYTHING SYMBOLIZES the decline of the Stax Records era (recently brought to a probable close with the indictment of president Al Bell for bank ...

Gloria Gaynor: Experience (MGM M3G 4997)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 November 1975

DRIVEN BY a three-song montage, Gloria Gaynor's first MGM album was the very model of modern disco production: loud, compact, as hummable as it was ...

Patti Smith: Her Horses Got Wings, They Can Fly

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976

Factory Girl, Coal Stove Visionary, Scion of Rimbaud and the Ronettes, Patti Smith Now Challenges the Assembly Line of Rock & Roll ...

Toots & The Maytals, The Who: The Who, Toots and the Maytals: The Summit, Houston TX

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1 January 1976

The Who: Losing the Spark after a G-G-Generation? ...

Eric Carmen: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 January 1976

ERIC CARMEN looks like his music, the slickness of which is so overwhelming that the ragged edges are jarring until you realize they've been placed ...

Archie Bell and the Drells: Dance Your Troubles Away (TSOP PZ 33844)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 February 1976

Do You Wanna Dance? ...

Grammys '76: Sham, Sham, Sham

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 March 1976

EACH YEAR, the American music industry embarrasses itself by nationally televising a 90-minute display of the irrelevant and the ridiculous, the Grammy Awards. ...

Laura Nyro: Smile (Columbia PC33912)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 May 1976

LAURA NYRO'S first album in four years fails to live up to the promise of her lovely early records. While Smile has a certain charm ...

The Rolling Stones: Black and Blue (Rolling Stones)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 May 1976

Decembers Children Today: Glimmer Twins Star As Stones Roll On ...

John Lennon: Sue You, Sue Me Blues

Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 June 1976

ROCK STARS are easy prey for legal harassment; rather than have their time and money eaten up by fruitless months of litigation, most stars agree ...

Wings: The Spectrum, Philadelphia PA

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 1 July 1976

McCartney: Rock & Roll on a Wing & a Prayer ...

Clarence Reid (aka Blowfly): Sex and the Single

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 August 1976

TEN YEARS ago, the Kingsmen used to launch, full tilt, into their biggest hit, 'Louie Louie', then stop. "Hey, these guys never heard this song ...

Stephen Stills, Neil Young: Stephen Stills & Neil Young: Nassau Coliseum, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 August 1976

Flaws and Applause — Young's Hot, Stills's Not ...

Rick Derringer, Nils Lofgren: Derringer, Nils Lofgren: Schaefer Music Festival, Wollman Rink, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 9 September 1976

Central Park Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo ...

Peter Frampton: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 November 1976

Frampton Packaging Pays Off ...

Jackie Wilson: The Trials of Jackie Wilson

Report by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 November 1976

CHERRY HILL, New Jersey — Since September 1975, Jackie Wilson has lain in a series of southern New Jersey hospitals, intravenously fed and unable to ...

The Critics' Critic

Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976

THERE'S BEEN nothing but grief since Newsweek (or was it the Sunday New York Times!) decided that rock critics invented Bruce Springsteen. Only a moron ...

The Critics' Critic II

Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 13 January 1977

ROCK CRITICISM is now often seen in many quarters as more important than rock itself. Many critics carry this one step further by superimposing their ...

Jackson Browne: The Pretender (Asylum 7E-1079)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 January 1977

Stalking the great Pretender Cycles of uncertainty ...

American Grandstand: Hey Rocky, what's a punk?

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 10 March 1977

AS ROLLING Stone has developed a nonrock readership, columnists from William Buckley to Russell Baker have been confused by some of the more arcane rock ...

American Grandstand: The Reel Paper

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 19 May 1977

JOAN MICKLIN Silver's new movie, Between the Lines, purports to tell the story of the Boston Mainline, an alternative weekly not unlike Boston's relatively real-life ...

Abba: the sound of business

Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1977

TO STIG Anderson, it's a familiar story. "I've seen it all a hundred times," says Abba's business manager, record company president and lyricist. "First, we ...

Lee Dorsey, Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint: Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Mardi Gras MG 1001); New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 1976 (Island 1SLD 9424)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977

IN NEW Orleans it is easier to perceive an American musical tradition than anywhere else; the city is the fount not just of jazz, but ...

The Dictators: Manifest Destiny (Asylum 7E-1109)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977

THREE YEARS ago I dismissed the Dictators' first album by saying that the joke of a bunch of musical-mental incompetents acquiring a record contract had ...

Ry Cooder: Show Time (Warner Bros. BS 3059)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977

IT OUGHT to be surprising that Ry Cooder opens his new album with a rock & roll song, Gary "U.S." Bonds' 'School Is Out'. If ...

The Heptones: Party Time (Island MLPS 9456)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977

LEROY SIBBLES is one of the finest singers reggae has produced, and one of its best songwriters. In consequence, the Heptones' second American album has ...

MC5, New York Dolls, The Sex Pistols: The Sex Pistols: Kick out the jams

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1977

IT CONTRAVENES logic, but there is little doubt in my mind that the most important record of the past year is the Sex Pistols' 'God ...

Cheap Trick: In Color (Epic PE-34884)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977

Cheap Trick's comical treat ...

Elvis Presley: How Great Thou Art

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977

ELVIS IN THE PROMISED LAND ...

Eric Carmen: Boats Against The Current

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977

THIS IS THE SORT of album people accuse Paul McCartney of making: syrupy romanticism without bite or backbeat. It is not as overtly classical as ...

The Jam: In the City (Polydor PD-J-6 110)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1977

WOULDN'T IT be funny if the most influential album of the Sixties turns out to be The Who Sings My Generation? If you don't think ...

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Beauty on a Back Street (RCA AFL1-2300)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977

Hall & Oates put it all together ...

Stephen Davis & Peter Simon: Reggae Bloodlines (Doubleday/Anchor, $6.95)

Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977

Reggae Bloodlines: an essential portrait of Jamaican masters ...

John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen: Behind the Scenes: Iovine in the Right Place

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977

NEW YORK — In 1973, when he was working with producer John Lennon as assistant engineer on Harry Nilsson's Pussycats album, Jimmy Iovine looked up ...

The Ramones, The Sex Pistols: American Grandstand: Punk Inc.

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 December 1977

PETER RUDGE, who manages the Rolling Stones' American tours and likes to speculate about rock & roll almost as much as I do, suggested recently ...

The Band: The Weight: The Band's Anthology

Review by Dave Marsh, The Boston Phoenix, 1978

IT'S NOT HARD to understand the release of Anthology, the second repackaging of Band material in two years. The group made only eight albums (one ...

Fleetwood Mac: Big Mac — Over 8 Million Sold

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1978

THERE IS nothing mysterious about Fleetwood Mac sweeping Rolling Stone's 1977 Readers' Poll. Rumours, the album that topped the charts for six months, has sold ...

Bob Dylan, Joan Baez: Renaldo and Clara (dir: Bob Dylan; Circuit Films 232mins)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1978

Ballad in plain dull ...

Warren Zevon on the Loose in Los Angeles

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 9 March 1978

IN THE OPENING LINES of the title song from Warren Zevon's new album, Excitable Boy, the title character smears Sunday pot roast all over his ...

Harry Chapin: Singing for the World's Supper

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1978

THE MORNING OF February 3rd, singer/ songwriter Harry Chapin flew to Washington D.C. from Ontario. He'd just done a concert and, having slept on the ...

The Rolling Stones: Everybody's talking to Lisa Robinson

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 May 1978

NEW YORK — IT IS conceivable that America's most influential rock byline has never appeared in Rolling Stone. Lisa Robinson's natural turf is self-created and ...

Bob Seger: Not a Stranger Anymore

Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 15 June 1978

BOB SEGER lives in the woods near a highway that once flooded with traffic from Michigan straight through to Florida. The Interstate changed that, leaving ...

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Columbia JC 35318)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 July 1978

The Boss' triumphant return ...

David Johansen, New York Dolls: Up from the valley of the Dolls: David Johansen returns

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 27 July 1978

ONSTAGE IN Philadelphia in late May, David Johansen is dressed in solid white, his hair swept back, looking like the Staten Island greaser saint he ...

Bruce Springsteen Raises Cain

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1978

A true believer witnesses mass conversions, rock & roll vandalism, a rocket upside the head and a visit with God. ...

Keith Moon, The Who: The Who Come To a Fork in the Road

Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978

"THIS POOR hotel," says Pete Townshend, gesturing at his spacious suite in the Navarro Hotel on New York's posh Central Park South. "Mr. Russell, the ...

Keith Moon, The Who: Keith Moon 1947-1978

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 19 October 1978

LONDON, ENGLAND — Keith Moon died before he got old. The Who's spark-plug drummer, who turned thirty-one on August 23rd, was found dead in the bedroom ...

Billy Joel: The Miracle of 52nd Street

Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978

NOBODY EVER mistook Billy Joel for a matinee idol. In a world that worships angular, tall, rangy types like Robert De Niro and John Travolta, ...

Arnold Shaw: Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues (Collier)

Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 December 1978

Birth of Rhythm, Death of the Blues ...

Dire Straits: Bottom Line, New York

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

LIVE, DIRE Straits are precisely what they are on record: a throwback to the kind of unassuming funk that hasn't enjoyed much popularity since Delaney ...

The Jam: All Mod Cons (Polydor)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 May 1979

FOR TWO albums, the Jam made leader Paul Weller's obsession with Pete Townshend and the early Who stand up as an acceptable substitute for personal ...

Punk Attack: 'The Obituary of Rock and Roll'

Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 28 June 1979

Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons: The Boy Looked at Johnny (Pluto Press) ...

Waylon Jennings, Gary Stewart, Don Williams: Gary Stewart: Gary (RCA); The Best of Don Williams, Volume II (MCA); Waylon Jennings: Greatest Hits (RCA)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1979

Been down so long, it looks like down to me ...

John Lennon: American Grandstand: Another Open Letter to John Lennon

Column by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1979

DEAR JOHN: It's been almost two years since I wrote my first open letter to you, imploring you to break your silence, make another record ...

Earth Wind and Fire: Earth Wind & Fire: I Am

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 August 1979

MAURICE WHITE, Earth, Wind and Fire's presiding genius, ranges across popular music like a robber baron, selecting only the tastiest artifacts for his collection. ...

Devo: Duty Now for the Future (Warner Bos.)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 September 1979

Devo destroyed ...

Teddy Pendergrass: Teddy (Philadelphia International)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1979

TEDDY PENDERGRASS transcends the Philadelphia pop-soul confections of his production-machine material so effortlessly that it's a little frightening. He makes lightweight erotic sermonettes like 'Life ...

Cheap Trick: Dream Police

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1979

IN THE BEGINNING, Cheap Trick was lovable because they tried to pull off the toughest trick in the book: making rock that was both bonehead-hard ...

Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Stone: Ten Years Too Soon (Epic); Sly and the Family Stone: Back on the Right Track (Warner Bros.)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 January 1980

It's too late to stop now ...

The Knack: ...But The Little Girls Understand (Capitol)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1980

Leave it to Fieger — Nixing the Knack ...

Bob Seger: Against The Wind

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 15 May 1980

LISTENERS WHO first discovered Bob Seger with Night Moves and Stranger in Town clearly find his new album an even more palatable product, since it ...

The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Sex Pistols: Father-Figure Knows Best: Rock managers from Elvis to Elvis

Overview by Dave Marsh, Trouser Press, June 1980

EVER SINCE Col. Tom Parker, genius entrepreneur of Hadacol, dancing chickens and Eddy Arnold, signed Elvis Presley to an exclusive (on both parts) contract, managers ...

Smokey Robinson: Warm Thoughts (Tamla)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1980

FIRST LOVES die hard, if they ever do. So I'll always remember the first moment I heard Smokey Robinson's voice come over the radio, on ...

Pete Townshend: Empty Glass

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 26 June 1980

AS A FUNDAMENTALLY religious artist, Pete Townshend fashions his music from sermons and confessions. Though it's not an easy thing for intellectuals to admit, this ...

The Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us (International Record Syndicate, Inc.)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 July 1980

WELCOME TO ART-rockabilly, a merger of the sensibilities and guitar styles of Link Wray and Lou Reed. Actually, this concoction — like fried grasshoppers and ...

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, Ted Nugent: Ted Nugent: Scream Dream/Mitch Ryder: Naked but Not Dead

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 7 August 1980

PAINTED IN CONTRASTING shades of urban blight, suburban boredom and rural decay, Michigan is perfect primitive rock & roll territory: a place where nothin' to ...

The Blues Brothers, Aretha Franklin: The Blues Brothers: Original Soundtrack (Atlantic)

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 4 September 1980

WITH THEIR second LP, Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd have moved from the gratuitously racist to the merely patronizing — progress of a ...

Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 18 September 1980

LUCID AND DRIVEN, Peter Gabriel's third solo album sticks in the mind like the haunted heroes of the best film noirs. With the obsessiveness of ...

Jimi Hendrix: The Voodoo Lives On

Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, October 1980

HENDRIX SAW himself as a symbolic figure who contained in his bloodstream elements of all races. The goal of his performances was both racial and ...

Paul Simon: What Do You Do When You're Not A Kid Anymore And You Still Want To Rock & Roll?

Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 30 October 1980

IN ONE-TRICK PONY PAUL SIMON LOOKS AT THE WAY THINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN. ...

John Lennon: Ghoulish Beatlemania

Essay by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 January 1981

WHEN A ROCK star dies in a plane crash or from an overdose of drugs and alcohol, the accident may seem tragic or repulsive, but ...

Bruce Springsteen

Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, February 1981

A YEAR AGO, taking a respite from recording to play two nights of the M.U.S.E. anti-nuke concerts, Bruce Springsteen pared his normal three hour show ...

Donna Summer: The Wanderer (Geffen) ****½

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1981

A rock & roll road map of Donna Summer's soul ...

Barry D. Kramer 1943-1981

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1981

(On January 29 CREEM publisher and founder Barry Kramer died at 37, just as we were going to press. Our business is words, but they ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty: Where Has John Fogerty Gone?

Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, April 1981

As apocalyptic anxiety at nameless dread descend on the body politic, how relevant the work of Creedence Clearwater now seems. ...

Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis: The Million Dollar Quartet

Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981

WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days ...

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty

Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, July 1981

WHEN TOM PETTY burst into his manager's Sunset Blvd offices early this April he was exuberant. No wonder. He'd just finished mixing his fourth and ...

Al Green: The Lord Will Make a Way (Myrrh) **

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 23 July 1981

ONE NIGHT, after listening intensively to the grand and ancient gospel groups (pre-psychobabble Staples Singers, the Soul Stirrers with and without Sam Cooke, Dorothy Love ...

Harry Chapin: 1942-1981

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 3 September 1981

HARRY CHAPIN often described himself as a "third-rate folk singer," and judging from most of the reviews he received in these pages and elsewhere, he ...

Elvis Presley: A Bad Year for Elvis Presley

Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1981

THOUGH ELVIS Presley died in 1977, he made more headlines in 1981 than any living rock star. The initial tremors were felt on July 31st, ...

David Johansen: Live It Up (Blue Sky) ****

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1982

DESPITE A RAFT OF extraordinary songs and some devastating performances, David Johansen has never made a uniformly good record. In fact, listening to Johansen's albums ...

Elvis Presley: Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock 'n' Roll

Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, December 1982

EACH YEAR, on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, Memphis State University hosts a memorial service and seminar in his honor. ...

Marvin Gaye: Midnight Love (Columbia) ****

Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1983

AS A COMEBACK album, Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love is remarkably arrogant: it simply picks up from 1973's Let's Get It On as if only ten ...

Gloria Stavers: October 3rd, 1927-April 1st, 1983

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 12 May 1983

ON THE surface, 16 magazine was no more than a shallow, dizzy fanzine for teenage girls. It was crammed with bubblegum singers, TV idols, "win ...

Muddy Waters 1915-1983 — Let's Say He Was A Gentleman

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Record, July 1983

IT IS ALL but impossible to concisely summarize Muddy Waters' achievements, much less get a handle on mourning him. If Muddy were merely the first ...

Smokey Robinson: Cruisin' with Smokey

Interview by Dave Marsh, Record, August 1983

In an exclusive interview, the master of the romantic vignette-in-song gets into some nuts-and-bolts talk about the creative process and gets down with some vintage ...

James Jamerson: What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?

Comment by Dave Marsh, Record, November 1983

"I walk in shadows, searching for light, Cold and alone, no comfort in sight. Hoping and praying for someone who'll care, Always moving and going ...

Marvin Gaye: No-One Quite Like Him

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Record, July 1984

Blessed with a cool born of control rather than emotional distance or reserve, Marvin Gaye was the artist who best expressed Motown's mix of disparate ...

Marvin Gaye: No One Quite Like Him: The Art and Artistry of Marvin Gaye

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Record, July 1984

I USED TO think Marvin Gaye was the most underrated soul singer of the '60s. Now I'd expand that judgment, not only because of his ...

John Hammond

Memoir by Dave Marsh, Musician, October 1987

REMEMBERING THE CONSCIENCE OF AMERICAN MUSIC ...

Ice Cube, N.W.A: N.W.A.: Wanted For Attitude

Report by Dave Marsh, The Village Voice, 10 October 1989

HOW'S THIS for government intimidation? In early August, a letter arrived on the desk of Priority Records president Brian Turner. Written on Department of Justice ...

MC5: After the Revolution: the Legacy of the MC5

Retrospective and Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, November 1990

SOMEWHERE THERE exists an alternate universe in which the MC5 became the biggest band in history — bigger than the Beatles (their ambition), bigger than ...

Woody Guthrie, Curtis Mayfield, Sinead O'Connor: 'The Star Spangled Banner'

Comment by Dave Marsh, Vox, November 1990

WHEN SINEAD O'CONNOR refused to allow 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be performed at her late August concert at the Garden State Arts Center in ...

Jose Feliciano, Woody Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, Sinéad O'Connor, Sir Mix-a-Lot: 'The Star Spangled Banner'

Comment by Dave Marsh, Vox, November 1990

WHEN SINEAD O'Connor refused to allow 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be performed at her late August concert at the Garden State Arts Center in ...

Neil Young: A Heretic Writes

Comment by Dave Marsh, MOJO, September 1994

"Coming to the conclusion that he was a second-rank artist scared the hell out of even a veteran heretic like myself." Neil Young unpraised by ...

Bill Monroe: "Well, some fellers didn't know much to start with."

Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, October 1994

IT'S NOT every day that I get to talk to somebody who invented a whole style of music. When you developed what became bluegrass, was ...

Tha Dogg Pound: Doggy Food (Death Row/Interscope/Priority)

Review by Dave Marsh, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 December 1995

DOGG POUND DOWN AND DIRTY ...

The Who: Betrayed by Rock'n'Roll

Comment by Dave Marsh, MOJO, July 1996

Fan and friend Dave Marsh celebrates Pete Townshend's most puzzling work, Quadrophenia, written in an era full of possibilities which,"ended badly". Could it be that ...

Pearl Jam: No Code

Review by Dave Marsh, MOJO, September 1996

IT'S NOT HARD to understand why some folks hate Pearl Jam. Isolate just about any element from the band's mix — Eddie Vedder's vocals and ...

Pearl Jam: Art and Economy

Interview by Dave Marsh, Musician, April 1998

ROCK BANDS ARE like families on the Tolstoyan model. The happy ones are exactly the same (perhaps because they're nonexistent?) while the unhappy ones are ...

Steve Earle vs. The Bogeyman

Interview by Dave Marsh, Harp, November 2002

With his latest CD Jerusalem, Steve Earle has written the most political and urgent release of his career. Dave Marsh explores the reasons why. ...

The Dixie Chicks: I Shall Be Free: The Blacklisting of Dixie Chicks

Comment by Dave Marsh, Harp, June 2003

IN CHRIS BUHALIS'S 'Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues', John Ashcroft declares questioning him un-American, to which the singer replies, "It's called a democracy. ...

Loretta Lynn, The White Stripes: Jack White and Loretta Lynn: Deconstructing Jack

Comment by Dave Marsh, Harp, July 2004

AT THAT POINT, after one and a half listenings, I concluded that White had heard all the Loretta Lynn records ever made and liked everything ...

The Beatles: Nice Country, We'll Take It: Beatlemania in America

Retrospective by Dave Marsh, MOJO, September 2004

40 years ago this month, the Beatles' first full tour of the States rewrote the rulebook of rock. Death threats and Dylan, music and meat-throwing: ...

Ray Charles: I Believe to My Soul

Essay by Dave Marsh, Harp, September 2004

One of these days, and it won't be longYou gonna look for me, and I'll be gone ...

Jimmy Smith: Soulsmith

Obituary by Dave Marsh, Harp, May 2005

THE RECORD industry thought it covered its tracks by finally making a huge deal out of Ray Charles, at the first Grammy ceremony after his ...

The Four Tops: The Great Levi Stubbs

Memoir by Dave Marsh, Rock and Rap Confidential, October 2008

WHEN I WAS 15, I met the Four Tops on a downtown Detroit street, where they were doing a photo shoot with the Supremes. ...

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE