Most Popular Books by Dave Marsh

The definitive biography of one of the most important songwriters and performers of the last three decades. Dave Marsh has traced Springsteen''s career from its beginning, through careful documentation and critical description of Springsteen''s work.

Before I Get Old is one of the best books ever written about rock’n’roll, discarding much of the mythology that often surrounds a lesser informed appraisal of the Who. It tells the story of six personalities – songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, drummer Keith Moon and singer Roger Daltrey, plus their original managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Here are the band’s origins within the steamy nightlife of London, their meteoric rise to fame, the laughter and the pathos, the craziness of the world they inhabited, the drugs, the destruction, the vandalism, the debts – and, of course, the music. In short, every element that makes up the fascinating, shocking and hilarious story of the Who. Before I Get Old is essential reading, an exhaustive study of an exhausting band who always lived up to their legend.

The Beatles'' Second Album runs only 22 minutes, with just 11 songs--many of which the group didn''t write. Despite all that, the album personifies the Beatles: the world''s greatest rock''n''roll band, according to well-known rock''n''roll critic and author Dave Marsh. With its overload of rock''n''roll, R&B, and early soul influence, including "Roll Over Beethoven," and "Long Tall Sally", The Beatles'' Second Album - the book and the album - offers a great vantage point from which to see the group''s enormous impact on pop music and culture. Marsh breaks new ground by focusing on the Beatles'' US recordings and how they evolved from British releases at a time when the two nations'' approaches to rock''n''roll production were vastly different.

Dave Marsh has been an editor and columnist at Creem and Rolling Stone. His books include Born to Run, Behind Blue Eyes: The Story of the Who, Glory Days, and Louie Louie. This virtual Methusaleh of rock critics currently serves as a music critic at Playboy and as editor of Rock and Rap Confidential.

DIVThe fascinating story of one of the world''s most famous rock ''n'' roll songs /div

When Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story was first published in 1979, the publisher hoped that it would sell 15,000 copies. It would end up selling a miraculous 150,000 copies-becoming the first rock ''n'' roll best seller ever. It was a landmark book, virtually creating the genre of the rock book & going on to be translated into five foreign languages. Born to Run, reprinted now with a new introduction, combines a biography, a fan''s notes, a photo book, an analysis of the biz, & an annotated discography cum touring chronology to make the most encyclopedic exploration into Bruce Springsteen''s life & the rock ''n'' roll world available. Dave Marsh is perhaps the best-known rock critic in the country. He is the founding editor of Creem & has been a contributing editor of Rolling Stone since 1975. His syndicated record reviews have appeared in more than 200 newspapers, & his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Nation, & TV Guide. He is also the author of The Rolling Stone Record Guide, co-author of The Book of Rock Lists, & contributor to The Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.

Selected writings on three decades of popular music from one of the most influential critics of his generation. Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of the work of renowned critic Dave Marsh. Ranging from Elvis Presley to Kurt Cobain, from Nina Simone to Ani DiFranco, from the Beatles to Green Day, the book gives an opinionated, eye-opening overview of 20th-century popular music—offering a portrait not just of an era but of a writer wrestling with the American empire. Every essay bears the distinct Dave Marsh attitude and voice. That passion is evident in a heart-wrenching piece on Cobain’s suicide and legacy; a humorous attack on “Bono’s bullshit;” an indignant look at James Brown and the FBI; deep, revelatory probes into the work of underappreciated artists like Patty Griffin and Alejandro Escovedo; and inspiring insight into what drives Marsh as a writer, namely “a raging passion to explain things in the hope that others would not be trapped and to keep the way clear so that others from the trashy outskirts of barbarous America still had a place to stand—if not in the culture at large, at least in rock and roll.” If you want to explore the recent history of pop music—its politics as well as its performers—Kick Out the Jams is the perfect guidebook.

Bruce Springsteen on Tour is an amazing, three-decade celebration of one of the greatest live performers of all time."--Jacket.

On February 13, 1970, Black Sabbath released its first album and changed the face of music forever. The band seemed to come out of nowhere, with a dark, otherworldly sound dominated by the soul-piercing wail of twenty-two-year-old John "Ozzy" Osbourne. Once its brooding, overpowering music was out, millions of listeners couldn''t get enough, an record and in concert. It was the birth of heavy metal. In Black Sabbath: An Oral History, Mike Stark leads you into the studio and on tour with the quintessential British metal band, a primary influence right up to the present day on hundreds of rock groups, from Metallica to Spinal Tap. Here are firsthand accounts from Black Sabbath''s four founding members -- Bill Ward, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne -- and from other members through the years, including Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, Eric Singer, Tony Martin, Cozy Powell, and Neil Murray. In their own words, they tell you what it''s like to turn up the amps, hit the stage, and power-chord an audience into submission -- and create a brand -- new kind of rock in the process.

In 1964, Douglas Gilbert was hired by Look magazine to photograph a young up-and-coming musician named Bob Dylan. Gilbert snapped over 900 of the most candid shots ever taken of Dylan, less than a year before he became completely inaccessible to the public. The photos, beautifully composed, capture the 23-year-old Dylan in rare private moments hanging out with friends (including Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, and John Sebastian, among others) and family in Woodstock, at concerts, and in New York City''s classic dive bar -- the Kettle of Fish. Look magazine never ran the story and the photos sat unseen for forty years, until now. With an intimate and revealing text by acclaimed Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, Forever Young is an irresistible compendium of nearly 100 of the best images from this fascinating, pivotal time in Bob Dylan''s career.

Introduction by Ray Blount Jnr. ''Rock and Roll'' has now been in the lexicon for nearly fifty years. With any institution come the requisite skewering humour, and naturally rock and roll is now ready for that treatment. Who better to do it than two veterans of the scene, rock chronicler Dave Marsh, author of Before I Get Old The Story of the Who and Kathi Kamen Goldmark, founder of the infamous Rock Bottom Remainders.

The guitar line rises like a Roman candle, it bursts into a joyfully sassy horn riff, and all of a sudden you just cant sit still anymore--because youre a soul man. When Sam Moore and Dave Prater brought the call-and-response sounds of the black church onto the charts in the mid-sixties, they set soul music on fire and energized an entire generation. Teamed with legendary Stax songwriters Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Sam and Dave scored a string of enduring hits that ignored radio format boundaries: Soul Man, Hold On, Im Comin, I Thank You, You Dont Know Like I Know, and more. Sam Moore and For the Record series editor Dave Marsh lead you deep into the world of soul and show you the real-life roots of an unforgettable musical act. Bracingly candid, intensely personal, these are a lifetimes worth of memories from a real survivor who has experienced both pleasure and pain in his groundbreaking career. From the choir to the studio, from the juke joint to the concert stage, here is your closest look ever at the Sam and Dave phenomenon, and what it cost to be part of it. In Sams own words, this is how you become a soul man--and how you stay that way.

The only Bruce Springsteen biography written and published with his full cooperation--with over half told in his own words--by his good friend, rock critic Dave Marsh, author of Born to Run. 32 pages of illustrations.