Obituary
Pioneering Creem and Rolling Stone journalist wrote essential biographies on the Who and Bruce Springsteen
Dave Marsh, a pioneering rock critic and biographer who served as an early editor of Creem, wrote for Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and Newsday, and penned over 25 books, including Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who, and The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, died Aug. 14 of unknown causes at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was 76.
His longtime co-host Jim Rotolo announced the news on social media. “Some sad news today, E Street Nation. Bruce Springsteen biographer, SiriusXM host, and my friend Dave Marsh passed away late yesterday at his home in Connecticut,” Rotolo wrote. “Dave wrote several books about Bruce as part of a remarkable body of work spanning some 25 titles … he was also one of the creators of E Street Radio and hosted Kick Out the Jams on SiriusXM for 19 years. Rest easy, Dave. Thank you for everything, my friend. You will be missed.”
Marsh was a very early advocate of Springsteen. He not only raved about him in the pages of Creem before the rest of the critical establishment caught on, but he escorted his longtime friend Jon Landau to his first Springsteen concert in 1974, and encouraged him to write his famous “I Saw Rock and Roll Future” column in Boston’s Real Paper. Marsh wrote Rolling Stone’s first Springsteen cover story in 1978, and the first significant biography, Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, in 1979.
