Press & broadcasting / Music
Dave Marsh
1950–2026 · rock critic, editor, author, radio host
Pontiac-born rock critic who left Wayne State in 1969 to help build Creem, Detroit's irreverent rock magazine, before becoming a Rolling Stone editor and Springsteen biographer.
- Born
Pontiac, Michigan- Died
Norwalk, Connecticut
aged 76- Birth name
- David Rodney Marsh
- Detroit years
- 1950–1973
- Field
- Press & broadcasting, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Marsh grew up in Pontiac, the auto town north of Detroit, in a working-class family, graduated from Waterford Kettering High School and enrolled at Wayne State University. The Detroit rock explosion of the late 1960s pulled him out of school: in 1969 he dropped out to write for the new Creem magazine, working out of its Cass Corridor office and becoming one of its first editors while still a teenager. At Creem he championed the MC5, the Stooges and Detroit's hard-rocking scene and helped popularize the term punk rock. He left in 1973 for Newsday and then Rolling Stone, wrote best-selling books on Bruce Springsteen and The Who, co-founded the newsletter Rock & Rap Confidential and served for decades on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominating committee.
Highlights
- Early editor of Creem magazine (1969–1973)
- Rolling Stone editor; author of Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story (1979)
- Co-editor of The Rolling Stone Record Guide
- Long-time member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominating committee
- Studied at Wayne State University until 1969
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1969–1971
Creem magazine's first office
Closed
Creem's original Cass Corridor office; after an armed robbery the magazine moved to a farm in Walled Lake and later to Birmingham.
Studied here · 1967–1969
Wayne State University
He studied here before dropping out to write for Creem.