Former Rolling Stone writer Jon Landau paid tribute to his longtime friend and colleague Dave Marsh following his death at 76.
Marsh served as an early editor of Creem, wrote for Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and Newsday, and wrote over 25 books, including Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story and Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who. The rock critic and biographer died on Aug. 14 of unknown causes at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut.
In his tribute, Landau remembered how at 19, Marsh was “stirring things up” in 1969 at the newly founded Creem Magazine in Detroit, where he helped establish a “punk alternative to Rolling Stone’s early hegemony in the emerging world of rock mags.”
Then at 22, Marsh went on to work for “that very same despised Rolling Stone.” Landau and Marsh “hit it off” and whenever they bumped into each other at events, would immediately “begin arguing about music, politics, and writing.” Landau noted, “We continued doing that through thick and thin for most of the next fifty years.”
Landau remembered Marsh as a “generous friend” who was “born with the DNA of a confrontationalist” and also a “caring heart, a love for people, and a desire to do good whenever and wherever he could.”
He shared that after he left his post editing Rolling Stone’s record section, Marsh was his successor and would enage in regular hand-to-hand combat with the magazine’s co-founder Jann Wenner. “They usually fought each other to a draw,” Landau said.
Eventually, Marsh “found his truest metier when he wrote the first biography of Bruce,” the seminal Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story.” 50 years later, it continues to be “the essential work on Bruce’s early years.”
While Marsh would go on to pen more than 20 books, help create E Street Radio and host Kick Out the Jams on SiriusXM for nearly two decades, “the organization closest to his heart was always the Kristen Ann Carr Fund.” Carr, the daughter of his wife Barbara Carr, died from cancer in 1991 at the age of 21. Marsh and Barbara established the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, and for the next 30-plus years, would organize benefit shows, often featuring performances by Springsteen.
“Countless doctors were trained, in no small measure, due to Dave’s efforts; Dave’s efforts through KAC aided countless suffering patients,” Landau wrote. “His efforts here were a pure expression of his humanity.”
“We’re all born with a certain potential. Some of us barely realize that potential, some only partially, and a handful realize that potential 100%,” he continued. “To me, my friend Dave was someone who approached 100% of his potential. He gave his life everything he had. He touched almost everyone he met; he left us all better for his presence; he was a true friend in need, in good times and bad.”
Before ending his tribute, Landau wrote, “I will miss him for the rest of my life.”
