What has been published since his death on August 14, 2026. Every item links out to the original; nothing is reproduced here. Marsh had been suffering from a degenerative brain disease for several years, his friend Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor of CounterPunch, told the Associated Press.
Several of these outlets sit behind paywalls. Links go to the publisher so the reporting is credited where it belongs. If an obituary is missing from this list, send it in.
What the people who knew him said, in their own words.
“Here on E Street, the irreplaceable loss of Dave Marsh has us heartbroken. My great friend Dave, with his straight out of Detroit attitude, was a true Rock ’n’ Roll lifer. He was soulful, intelligent, heartfelt, opinionated, bruising and often fantastically argumentative. Watching Jon Landau and Dave drive each other crazy over some arcane piece of music would make my day. He wrote the first book about me, Born To Run, and Dave always had my back. He deeply believed in what I was trying to accomplish and his lifetime of support meant the world to me. More than anything else, I admired Dave as a man of conscience and commitment. He lived and stuck by his values come hell or high water. Wherever he is, I hope he’s receiving some of the grace, happiness and reward he’s brought into my life. God bless you Dave,”
“He was fearless, relentless, arrogant, everything you’d want in a RocknRoll troublemaker. And by the way, a tremendous writer.”
“An amazing mentor and friend, my Creem big brother, editor and sounding board. He could be scathing and in the next minute, your staunchest ally. … A sad fate for someone so whip smart, whose brain was always on overdrive.”
Dave,
I just wanted to build a little tribute to try and capture a little bit of your amazing career. This does a great job, but completely omits all of the lives you’ve touched so deeply.
They are everywhere and the stories of your generosity and personality are far and wide. We never got to discuss AI once it was a real thing and I have a feeling you wouldn’t have loved it, but it did allow me to make this for you and I hope you would have liked the aggregation of the information, if nothing else.
Love you, brother.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara Carr, longtime co-manager of Bruce Springsteen. He was predeceased by his stepdaughters Kristen Ann Carr, who died of sarcoma in 1993 at the age of 21, and Dr. Sasha J. Carr, a clinical psychologist, who died in December 2024.
With Barbara Carr and their daughter Sasha, Marsh spent thirty-three years building the organization founded in memory of his stepdaughter Kristen — raising more than $25 million for sarcoma research and care, endowing a named fellowship every year since 1994, and building the first research center in the world dedicated to the disease.
29 titles, written, co-written or edited across four decades — from the first serious Springsteen biography to a thousand-and-one arguments about singles. Listed newest first.
The first large-scale anthology of his later work — Elvis to Kurt Cobain, Nina Simone to Ani DiFranco. Also available as an audiobook read by Dennis Boutsikaris.
“Legends and legacy.”
Born to Run and Glory Days revised and combined into one volume, with new material.
Part of the For the Record series.
Part of the For the Record series.
Part of the For the Record series.
An entire book about one song, and one of the funniest things he wrote.
The unpublished writings of Woody Guthrie.
“And important facts to know about the censors.”
1,001 singles, ranked and argued for, one at a time. The book people most often call his best.
The second Springsteen bestseller.
On Artists United Against Apartheid.
His first anthology.
Long regarded as one of the definitive books on the band.
The bestseller that made him, and the first serious book-length treatment of Springsteen.
Reviews and ratings of nearly 10,000 albums. A second edition followed in 1983.
Compiled from published bibliographies. Marsh also contributed introductions, liner notes and chapters to many more volumes than are listed here, and several of these titles appeared in multiple editions under different publishers. Corrections welcome.
The magazines, papers and newsletters that carried his byline — and where surviving archives of that writing can still be read.
The Detroit magazine he helped establish after dropping out of Wayne State, and where Lester Bangs mentored him. The phrase “punk rock” first reached print in his column here in 1971.
creem.com ↗Where he wrote Springsteen's first cover story in 1978, and where his record reviews — including some famously merciless ones — reached their largest audience.
rollingstone.com ↗The Boston alternative weekly.
Launched as Rock & Roll Confidential and renamed in the 1990s. A monthly newsletter on culture and politics, hip hop and heavy metal, racism and revolution, and above all censorship — distributed free by email in its later years. The single most sustained piece of work of his life.
rockrap.com ↗His political writing on music, censorship and the record industry. His author archive is open to read.
counterpunch.org ↗The online library of music journalism holds a deep archive of his pieces, and a separate archive of Rock & Rap Confidential. Subscription required.
rocksbackpages.com ↗Nineteen years on SiriusXM, on a channel he helped invent.
His weekly show for nineteen years, named for the MC5 album — the Detroit record that never stopped being his reference point. Records, arguments, history and guests, in whatever proportion the week demanded.
siriusxm.com ↗The call-in show on the Springsteen channel he helped create.
siriusxm.com ↗Marsh was one of the creators of the channel. It broadcast a tribute to him on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at 10 a.m. ET.
siriusxm.com ↗SiriusXM does not publish an open archive of Marsh's shows. If you know of surviving recordings, transcripts or streams of Kick Out the Jams, please send them in — this is the part of his work most at risk of disappearing.
For Aretha Franklin's Queen of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings. Shared with Jerry Wexler, David Ritz, Thulani Davis, Ahmet Ertegun, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin. ↗
Born to Run and Glory Days both became bestsellers — rare for books of music criticism.
A member for some 26 years, and one of its most combative — by his own account he did his share to keep Kiss off the ballot. ↗
A series of tribute conversations honoring his career, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Tom Morello and Jackson Browne among others.
This list is drawn from published sources and is certainly incomplete — much of what Marsh was honored for went unrecorded online. Corrections and additions are welcome.
Biographies, archives, publisher pages and catalogues — where to go next when this page runs out.
The main biographical entry, with bibliography and career detail.
Collected quotations from his writing and broadcasting.
The deepest archive of his journalism anywhere, alongside a separate archive of Rock & Rap Confidential. Subscription required.
His author archive — political writing on music, censorship and the industry. Free to read.
Publisher page for Kick Out the Jams, including the audiobook read by Dennis Boutsikaris.
Publisher author page covering his earlier catalogue.
Reviews of his books as they were published, going back decades.
Reader-facing listing of his titles, including editions and anthologies not catalogued elsewhere.
Library catalogue records, useful for tracking down out-of-print editions.
Wikipedia's entry on the SiriusXM channel he helped create.
The magazine he helped establish, relaunched and with an archive of its back issues.
“Dave Marsh: The best music critic you've never heard of” — a 2023 appraisal published alongside Kick Out the Jams.
This archive is incomplete and always will be. If you know of an obituary, a remembrance, an interview, a piece he wrote or a recording of his radio work that isn't here, send it. Every submission is read before anything appears on the page.
