Dave Marsh, the pioneering rock critic from Pontiac, Michigan who helped launch Creem magazine, wrote for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice and authored more than 25 books, died Friday August 14 at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut at the age of 76 after a years-long battle with a degenerative brain disease. Bruce Springsteen paid tribute on Instagram.
"My great friend Dave, with his straight out of Detroit attitude, was a true Rock 'n' Roll lifer," Springsteen wrote. "He was soulful, intelligent, heartfelt, opinionated, bruising and often fantastically argumentative." He said the loss had left the E Street Band heartbroken.
The tribute carries its full weight when you understand what Marsh meant to Springsteen's career. Before the critical establishment caught on, Marsh was writing rapturously about Springsteen in Creem in the early 1970s.
In 1974 he brought his friend Jon Landau to a Springsteen concert, and encouraged Landau to write his famous "I Saw Rock and Roll Future" review, the column that changed the trajectory of Springsteen's career.
Marsh wrote Rolling Stone's first Springsteen cover story in 1978. In 1979 he published Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, the first major Springsteen biography. His wife Barbara Carr would later become Springsteen's co-manager for decades.
He also wrote Before I Get Old, the essential Who biography. He hosted Kick Out the Jams on SiriusXM E Street Radio for 19 years. He was 76 years old.