"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.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC copy of Kick Out the James by Dave Marsh.

This was my real Dave Marsh experience so to speak. I had heard about him, but never read what he wrote and boy was this an adventure. Dave's essays range from excitement and love of an album or a moment, to the complete opposite side and you can feel his anger (even if you do not agree with what he says). To be fair, there was a lot I disagreed on, but his essays are really informative and make you think.