Rating: 
Summary: Great stuff.
Review: A labor of love from one of America's best rock critics. It's also one of the better works of cultural criticism in the last 10 years, but it's the rare "serious" historian who has enough wit and wisdom to cite it. (A big history of the U.S. from 1945 to '73 by a Brown University historian came out recently, and rock music is barely mentioned. How laughable. How typical.) Anyway, this book should be on the shelf of anyone who likes rock and likes to read. My big beef (naturally you'll have some in a book like this) is, if "Layla" qualifies despite its length, why isn't "Hey Jude" in here?
Rating: 
Summary: nice to read marsh in a good mood
Review: After zillions of angry essays about whatever's got him mad this week, it's fun to see Marsh write about something he loves. I heartily recommend. My only complaint -- how come "In the Midnight Hour" isn't one of the top 20?
Rating:
Summary: The Heart of Rock and Soul
Review: Before this book was published I didn't know much about doowop or Fortune Records.
This book really opened my ears to "black music". For which I am really thankful. Together with a friend I collected all songs and made a nice tape-collection out of it. Most of all the search for these songs brought a lot of great adventures.
An online version of this book can be found at http://www.lexjansen.com/marsh.
Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The Heart of Rock and Soul
Review: Before this book was published I didn't know much about doowop or Fortune Records.
This book really opened my ears to "black music". For which I am really thankful. Together with a friend I collected all songs and made a nice tape-collection out of it. Most of all the search for these songs brought a lot of great adventures.
An online version of this book can be found at http://www.lexjansen.com/marsh.
Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The one book you'll always go back to
Review: Buy this book! If you treasure the development of pop and rock music back to it's roots, you need to read this. Even though the selection is, naturally, American orientated, the British input to music development is there. You don't have to agree with the choices - but there lies the interest and the arguments - these are Dave Marsh's opinions, however he is very informed, and has lived in the best era for music. Even if your favourite song isn't there (mine happens to be), it should make review why you like the music that you like.
Rating:
Summary: concerning the lack of 60's folk music
Review: Concerning folk music of the early to late sixties Mr. Marsh states: ......in musical style and class orientation it was very much a reaction against the dominance of rock and roll and r & b in the fifties. He also states: "Folk pop of the sort that hit the charts tailored itself to appeal primarily to white middle class collegiates, particularly ones who found the music of contemporary blacks and working-class whites too vulgar." It's amazing to me how people who just don't like folk music in the first place, makes such statements.
For me though, there was an earthiness, a sincerity to the folk music of that time. Mr. Marsh may not have liked the music but he shouldn't blame it on some sort of conspiracy against R&B and Rock and Roll.
Rating:
Summary: I dug this Book
Review: Dave Marsh is a Good Writer too me.be it I agree with Him or not I respect the perspective He comes with because you can tell by His writing He truly cares about Which Artists&Acts He is talking about.He is a very detailed Writer&has fun doing His job.I've followed His work for Years.this is a tight Book with different takes&things involved within it.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on the subject of Rock I have rever read!
Review: Dave Marsh makes the reader wish for an old hi-fi and an armful of "45's. The writing takes the reader back to sometimes wonderful, sometimes painful (sometimes wonderfully painful) memories that are all a part of the music we listened to growing up. The intensity comes as much from remembering what was going on when a particular song was on the radio as it does from the memory of the songs themselves.Buy two, and send one to a good friend from back in the day. You will spend many happy hours arguing about whether "You've Lost That Lovin Feelin" evokes more memories that "Stay in My Corner"; and why "MacArthur's Park" made the list, but "Hey Jude" did not (or was that vice versa?)
Rating:
Summary: The funest, most thoughtful music book around
Review: Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul is a book so amazingly fun, you might not realize just how great it is. Marsh provides a tremendous amount of information about the records he writes about, and the whole idea of the book is so interesting and daring (for instance: that one might know what the 758th greatest single of all time is) that it's facinating to read. Like all the best critisism it makes you want to listen to the work it discusses right away. You'lll find yourself humming songs you'd forgoten and thinking about and enjoying familiar music as you may have not done for a while. It actulally hightens the experience of listening to the songs on the list (and plenty that aren't on it). Just a stunning book.
Rating:
Summary: Trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll
Review: Dave Marsh, the author, is right; however much it looks like one, this isn't a best-of list. It tries to tell a single story (no pun intended), that of pop music in the latter half of the 20th century. According to the introduction, the book intends to change the conversation about this music. Most critics seem to believe that rock and soul emerged all of a sudden in the 1950's as a marriage of R&B and country music, and evolved in gigantic leaps forward about every 15-20 years, between which nothing much happened. This book, on the other hand, asserts that the music developed slowly, from a huge range of styles, and continued to progress in a more or less unbroken line from that point onward. That story would make a good book all by itself. Trouble is, The Heart of Rock and Soul is too ambitious - it has a few other stories to tell, too. It wants to teach that modern pop music is not exclusively about rebellion but also about reconciliation; it wants to show that rock and soul is for adults as well as kids; it wants to demonstrate that this music is not just one thing, but many, and that it has survived for that reason. All of this is a pretty tall order, and as good a writer as Dave Marsh is, it's too much for him, especially being cast in list form. (Although, truthfully, I can't think of any other format that would serve better.) Then there's the fact that despite the author's protestations to the contrary, these essays are pretty conservative. They like the old virtues, such as rhythm and feeling, so they get confused easily when it comes to progressive rock, and the understanding of funk and rap in them is pretty elementary. (Not that my understanding of those styles is much better, but then I didn't write a book.) So as an academic study, The Heart of Rock and Soul falls short. Where it succeeds brilliantly is in the individual essays. Marsh is very good at combining singles into thematic groups; for instance, he points out that the singer of "My Generation" could easily grow up into the singer of "Born in the USA", and it makes sense. He's unafraid of getting emotional; the grown-up-too-soon girls he remembers when he hears "Soldier Boy" will have you looking at your anonymous neighbors in a whole new light. He uses pop tunes like "Running on Empty" and "Roll Me Away" to reassure us that growing up is not the same as selling out. He explains his reasons for almost ignoring the Coasters, and you grieve for America's lost innocence (it's a cheesy phrase, but you really do). He even finds the reason why that piece of schlock "We Are the World" actually brings a lump to the throat, a discovery which is by itself worth the price of admission - I'd been wondering about that for years. Best of all is when he gets personal. "Sometimes I feel that Smokey Robinson raised me from a pup." "There are greater tragedies [than the Band's story], but that one's sad enough for me." "My mother taught me to buy singles. Actually, she thought she was teaching me the opposite but you know kids." I've felt things like that, and so have you - like the best pop music, Dave Marsh is most universal when he's most individual. His essay on how he overcame racism by listening to "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" could break your heart. A near-miss at convincing the mind, and a resounding success at reaching the heart, this book is. I don't know about you, but I like it better this way. Benshlomo says, Tear down the walls around your soul and some people, at least, will believe you.
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