Book Review: “Kick Out the Jams” by Dave Marsh
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
I don’t know who originally said it — the following quote has been attributed to everyone, I think, from Elvis Costello to Frank Zappa — but there’s a truism in the idea that “writing about music is a little like dancing about architecture.” It’s an act of futility — an attempt to chase after the impossible. Music is a very abstract thing, so how do you put that abstractness down on a piece of paper? Well, I did it for about five years, writing for the popular webzine PopMatters about music. People have always told me that I was perfect for the gig because I’m a walking encyclopedia of pop culture. Then there’s Dave Marsh. He’s more than an encyclopedia; he’s a full bookshelf. The guy has written about music since 1969, first for Creem magazine and then for Rolling Stone. And it’s evident in his second collection of musings called Kick Out the Jams (following 1985’s Fortunate Son) covering the period from 1982 to 2017 that the guy can namedrop some extremely obscure musicians. I don’t know how he’s managed to have a career seeing that it is very hard, if not impossible, to make money writing about the arts. (My PopMatters work was voluntary, and I don’t make a cent from these book reviews on Medium.) However, succeed he has, and Kick Out the Jams shows readers why he’s an important voice in the annals of music criticism.
What the essays, newspaper or magazine articles, and music reviews collected in this volume show is that Marsh hasn’t met an album that he doesn’t like: all the reviews are generally pretty fawning. He spends pages upon pages defending and narrating the concept of Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball — an album that if memory serves got some mediocre reviews from other publications than the one Marsh was writing for when it came out — but only lightly admonishes Ani DiFranco for merely going after Republicans in a song about gun control, “To the Teeth,” which is as close to snark that he gets in his reviews. The other thing that this collection illustrates is that Marsh is concerned about the political implications of music and the attendant music industry, and can be quite intellectual about it. Marsh spends a great deal of the book focusing on the Deep South and the strands of music that emanated from there, whether it be classic rock, jazz, or gospel and soul. One of the more memorable essays of the book is the first: a think-piece on how the New Deal of the 1930s paved the way for the likes of Elvis Presley.
That also points to another feature of this collection, which is either an asset or a liability depending on your point of view: Marsh spends a lot of time talking about tentpole rock acts or unheard-of Black musicians and focuses pretty squarely on music from Britain and the United States. Most of the politics of the book are situated in the U.S. of A., so if you’re a Canadian like me, you’re bound to get a little lost due to some of the historical references to American politics. (To be fair, there’s a review included here of a Chinese musician who sings in his native language and whom I’ve never heard of and have already forgotten the name of — but that’s about it as far as foreign cultural representation goes.) Where Marsh puts up his dukes tends to be in the think pieces — and it sometimes comes off as immature and not befitting of a writer his age. For instance, Marsh winds up having a bone to pick about Bono’s philanthropy (which Marsh considers to be a disguise for a new form of colonialism). The write-up winds up being childish and feels as though it would have come from the pen of the fictitious Spider Jerusalem.
Elsewhere though, Marsh can squeeze in a sentence or two that might make you LOL. For instance, he describes — and I hope I remembered this right from my reading — Madonna as a performer who acts as a “lightning rod for assholes.” Overall, Marsh comes across as erudite and knowledgeable about what he writes about, even if the topics are now a little bit dated. We get a couple of articles predicting the death of rock and roll as far back as 20 years ago, which may have just finally happened as there aren’t any big-name rock acts coming up through the ranks that I’m aware of. We also get a couple of articles about how file sharing isn’t as bad as the RIAA makes it out to be, but nothing about the current culture of streaming music. Reading this book is a little like ignoring the present. I suppose it’s a good history lesson, but surely some of these articles could have been culled and left on the cutting room floor that was past the date of expiry. Having said that, Kick Out the Jams is immensely readable and fun. Chances are, after you’ve finished reading one of Marsh’s articles, you’ll immediately want another hit, another piece to gobble down. This is an incredibly addictive read. The thing that I think I appreciate about Marsh is that he calls bullshit as he sees it: he appears to be neither Republican nor Democrat, neither Left nor Right. Each side gets equally lambasted. All in all, that makes Kick Out the Jams an intriguing document about a guy who has managed to make a career out of writing about music. I have to say that I envy the guy. I hope that one day I can be important enough to have my works collected into a book or two, as Marsh has. Still, it’s good to know that someone, somewhere, might have been able to hew a career out of dancing about architecture.
Dave Marsh’s Kick Out the Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing will be published by Simon & Schuster on August 15, 2023.
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