Kick Out the Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing

by Dave Marsh

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.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Essays, History

332 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2023

Reviews

[Craig Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul transformed the way I heard and thought about and lived with music. The anthology Favorite Son presented the best of his hundreds of journalistic pieces from the first half of his career. There's not a page that doesn't have something important to transmit about the relationship between music, politics, and the lives we live every day. Kick Out the Jam is a worthy successor to both of those books, allowing us to think and listen through the last three plus decades.

In an essay on John Hammond, one of the great listeners and producers of the 20th century, Marsh describes Hammond's sensibility in terms that reflect his own perfectly. "he determined what he loved and what he loathed on a more substantial basis than race or personal style. He was wide open, because he was rarely, if ever, concerned with defending turf. Instead, he listened and, because he wasn't a snob, he heard what others could not (or at least recognized it well before they understood what it was they were hearing.)

In a more recent eulogy for Pete Seeger, he credits the great folk singer activist with "showing me the road that had to be traveled, if I really wanted to live. He did this the same way that James Baldwin and Elvis Presley and John Coltrane did it: by example, and with the same generosity and the same sense that the world was packed with a load of insurmountable cruelty and that, nevertheless, the truth was that something better had managed to survive within i. Which meant, for each of us, a choice and a chance."

Again, that's Dave Marsh, a friend and a mentor and a light in the darkness of our dishonest and brutal time.

I haven't even talked about how often reading the book I found myself returning to undervalued music I love--Patty Griffin, Alexander Escovedo--and discovering music I hadn't known--Charanga Cakewalk to cite just one example. His essays on Kurt Cobain's suicide and Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball cast new light on stories that have been told and mistold so often they've lost their punch. Marsh recovers the power.

The fashion in music criticism has moved on to celebrity glitz and, in academic circles, theoretical obfuscation. Marsh has no patience with either. Kick Out the Jams provides us with dispatches from a world we should be working to create.

[Spiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scintillating collection of reviews, screeds, appreciations, eulogies, and diatribes, in a distinctive style. It’s been a long time since I read any of Marsh’s writings, it will be less time until I read him again.

[EVAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Kick Out the Jams," a compendium of rock critic Dave Marsh's pieces from 1982/3-today, is both a trip through the past 40 years of music and an autobiography written in real time.

We see the music industry change from the radio/major label monolith of the 1980s to the arrival of file stealing sites like Napster to the current streaming era in which artists have returned to the pre-label era of earning a living by performing live.. I came to Marsh through his biographies of Springsteen (for whom he's been something of an amanuensis for decades) and the Who, and even though many of the pieces in this collection are short, he still does an admirable job of putting music into a sociopolitical context. His obituary of Pete Seeger is as much about environmentalism and the perfidy of neo-liberal politicians as it is a conventional obit. I have to imagine that's how Pete Seeger would have wanted it. You also get pieces like his obit of General Johnson, a singer/songwriter/producer whose name you might not know but whose music was at the center of 60s and 70s soul and R&B.

The book is also the story of Marsh, from his early 30s to his stepdaughter's death to a man in his 70s, reckoning with mortality and the world around him. You see his anger at the inequities in our society become more focused over time. Ultimately, in his columns, you see a man whose opinions have crystallized over time, from a man focused on music to a man realizing his place in, and obligations to, society.

This honest review was given in exchange for an ARC from #Net Galley.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn’t what I expected it to be. Going into it, I thought the book was going to chronicle the popular music throughout the mid 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I thought it would talk about what the music of that particular time would mean to the people who listened to it at that time.
This book is more about what music resonated with Dave Marsh. Instead of talking about what the music of, say, the 90s meant to the people living in the 90s (although there was a little bit about that), this book would reminiscence about music from earlier generations (60s, 70s, etc) and what a particular artist or genre Marsh wanted to write about at that point.
I couldn’t relate to much of what Marsh was writing about because he and I listen to very different music. Even though I wasn’t into this book and it often dragged on and on from my point of view, I still gave it 3 stars because I figured I went into it misunderstanding the intent of it. I’m sure this book will resonate with other people though.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kick Out the Jams collects many of Dave Marsh's writing from 1982 until 2017, including reviews, commentaries, and tributes.

While certainly not comprehensive enough to be an actual history of music over this period, it is broad enough to offer a very good historical outline. What probably will separate some readers based largely on age is the fact these are reprints of the original pieces. I make this comment because for some younger readers this might not offer enough context, since for them some of it is, indeed, history. The pieces that overlap with the time they paid attention to music may speak to them far more. For me, being ancient-ish, I was already 24 when the earliest essay was written, so this is like a trip down memory lane for me.

The great thing about Marsh is that he has always given his opinions rather than pretend there is such a thing as objective journalism. He doesn't necessarily give his opinions as definitive facts, at least not usually with seriousness, so he does acknowledge different perspectives, but his work lends itself to both exuberant agreement and vigorous disagreement. Either way, you generally come away with a better appreciation of the artist, work, or importance than you started with. And I enjoy that aspect.

Highly recommended for both a glimpse back at what music journalism once, in some places, was and a nostalgic trip for many of us. Some pieces will make you chuckle, some will bring a tear to your eye. In other words, it will touch you.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kick Out the Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries From 35 Years of Music Writing by Dave Marsh edited by Daniel Wolff and Danny Alexander (Simon & Schuster 2023) (781.64) (3970).

Rock and roll scribe Dave Marsh, longtime contributor to Rolling Stone Magazine, has published a collection of his columns. I was not familiar with the author’s work, but I love rock and roll journalism, so I eagerly cracked this one open.

Now I know why I had never heard of Dave Marsh. After reading this collection of widely-disparate columns, I realized that the reason why Dave Marsh had run below my radar for all these many years was his hugely-inflated (and misplaced) sense of self importance.

The Dave Marsh who shows up in this book is a pedantic, fussy, grouchy dude. He’s not a lovable curmudgeon; he’s just the kind of grumpy guy I go out of my way to avoid. This collection is almost uniformly neither interesting, noteworthy, nor informative. He obviously considers himself a “serious” music critic as evidenced by the book’s “Introduction to the 1990’s” section:

“There was something in the music, and it was perfectly clear by then that if I didn’t write about it, nobody was. Nobody else was going to try to write about any of the class stuff.” Dave Marsh, Kick Out the Jams, p.41).

After reading this volume, I feel as though I have been lectured to - or scolded. Dave Marsh’s writing is not for me.

My rating: 7/10, finished 7/23/24 (3970).

[Cromaine Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Marsh is deliciously Detroit. He is gritty, honest, and down to earth. He buffers this grittiness with humor and vulnerability by occasionally weaving in accounts from his personal life. This humble approach translates to a readable and informative book. He does an incredible job of contextualizing music history and he dazzles and disarms. His prophetic observations are becoming accepted as truth. He was brave enough to ask the right questions at a time when everyone else just let the details slip on by.

Recommended by Adult Services Librarian Rachel

[John Schorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quality stuff from one of the great blowhard critics of all time. On a par with folks like Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau, Marsh is at his best when he gets his dander up and lets it rip on censorship or people like Bono and Al Gore. Conversely, there are wonderful tributes to Pete Seeger and Patty Griffin. This is the kind of book that you save for rainy days, when you have nothing critical to read and you just want to cackle over a few choice words cutting down some deserving subject.

[Steph]

This was an interesting compilation of Dave Marsh’s music articles from the years 1982 - 2017. There are some more obscure artists or lessor known albums he includes, but also some big name ones that most will recognize. It’s one I would recommend to anyone interested in the history and cultural impact of music. Thanks @simonaudio and @libro.fm for the ALC!

[Adam Bricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like Bruce Springsteen, this is the book for you. If, however, you're like myself and never found him appealing, and certainly not entitled to be called "The Boss", it can be wearisome. The rest of the book has enough blues, folk, punkish stuff and enough other musically impactful historical events to the semi-balance the read.

[The Geeky Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Jed Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I appreciate strong critique that helps us see a different perspective. Too much of Marsh’s work is arrogant and snide without offering new insights.

[RONG · Rating 4 out of 5]

这本书的关联是Ben, Danny, 和我自己。lol

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact it took me three months to finish reflects my level of engagement with the book. I did like the chapter bashing Bono though (even though I like him.)

[EVAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kick Out the Jams," a compendium of rock critic Dave Marsh's pieces from 1982/3-today, is both a trip through the past 40 years of music and an autobiography written in real time.

We see the music industry change from the radio/major label monolith of the 1980s to the arrival of file stealing sites like Napster to the current streaming era in which artists have returned to the pre-label era of earning a living by performing live.. I came to Marsh through his biographies of Springsteen (for whom he's been something of an amanuensis for decades) and the Who, and even though many of the pieces in this collection are short, he still does an admirable job of putting music into a sociopolitical context. His obituary of Pete Seeger is as much about environmentalism and the perfidy of neo-liberal politicians as it is a conventional obit. I have to imagine that's how Pete Seeger would have wanted it. You also get pieces like his obit of General Johnson, a singer/songwriter/producer whose name you might not know but whose music was at the center of 60s and 70s soul and R&B.

The book is also the story of Marsh, from his early 30s to his stepdaughter's death to a man in his 70s, reckoning with mortality and the world around him. You see his anger at the inequities in our society become more focused over time. Ultimately, in his columns, you see a man whose opinions have crystallized over time, from a man focused on music to a man realizing his place in, and obligations to, society.

This honest review was given in exchange for an ARC from #Net Galley.