August 20, 2024
Last year, when the hardcover, eBook, and audio editions of Dave Marsh's excellent anthology Kick Out The Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing were published, Letters To You published an extensive feature on Marsh, his writing and commentary's importance to fans of Bruce Springsteen's music, as well as of course to those interested in popular music as a whole, and its various roles in reflecting and shaping societal changes. You can click here to read our September 2023 feature.
With the arrival this year of the trade-paperback edition of Kick Out The Jams, which officially becomes available today, we at Letters To You are pleased to present to our readers a special new podcast. Earlier this month, editor/publisher Shawn Poole was joined by contributing writers Greg Drew and Lisa Iannucci in recording an extensive and interesting conversation with Kick Out The Jams co-editors Daniel Wolff and Danny Alexander.
For over an hour, we discussed in depth with Alexander and Wolff the latest Marsh anthology, focusing mainly on eight pieces in the anthology with strong connections to the work of Bruce Springsteen:
“Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock ‘n’ Roll”
“Dance With the Devil”
“John Hammond: Remembering The Conscience of American Music”
“The Death of Rock”
“They Can’t Kill Rock and Roll But They’re Trying”
“I Shall Be Free: The Blacklisting of the Dixie Chicks”
“Greetings From New Orleans, LA”
“To Set Our Souls Free”
Not surprisingly, at times the conversation also veered off E Street a bit, diving deep into not just Springsteen but some of the many other artists and issues that Dave Marsh has explored in more than five decades of music-based criticism, journalism, and activism. You can hear it all on either our SoundCloud or YouTube platforms, both of which are linked below:
And if you haven't done so yet, click here to order your copy of Kick Out The Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing, now available in hardcover, eBook, audio, and trade-paperback editions. We think you'll be very glad that you did. As our friend and fellow fan of both Springsteen and Marsh, Dr. Lauren Onkey, wrote in her excellent introduction to the anthology, "There’s a maturity in these pieces, a desire not to escape through the music but to use it to embrace life’s pain and complexities. It’s adult in the best sense of that word. What shines through is the belief that rock and soul and rap and pop and folk are an opportunity for possibility, for hope. Not because they offer a free ride, but because the music—and the communal experience of making and listening to the music—gives us a chance to change ourselves and our communities...In addition to turning you on to a lot of great music, I hope this collection pushes you to act. Our lives depend on it."