Rating: 
Summary: This book changed my life!
Review: Reading this book prompted me to explore the roots (and in some cases, a few branches) of rock and roll. I found, in almost every case, Marsh's opinions to be accurate and eye-opening. Since first reading it, seven years ago, I have been able to acquire nearly every song reviewed, in one form or another, and I must say I have to agree with the author's opinions.
Rating: 
Summary: NO stars
Review: The book is very narrow minded. The book does not have information on great bands. It mostly contains information on some good bands. There are many other great singles that the writer fails to mention. Many Beatles songs are not listed. Led Zepplin's name is not even mentioned, U2 is a band to be forgotten by this writer. Elvis does not have many songs listed here. I am not sure what kind of discrimination is going on here, but I do not believe that the writer has a radio or a CD player. He may have received money from thes bands to show that they have a good single. This book is worth as much as the paper costs to make it. If you find a copy of this it may be good to burn in the fireplace. It will be a good firestarter, just add lighter fluid.
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Summary: The best history of rock up to the nineties ever written.
Review: The really great thing about the book is that, for those of us who live a secret second life with the likes of Bruce and Chuck, Marsh knows all our secrets. Only one complaint--why no "Just Walk Away Renee"?
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Summary: An obsessive-compulsive roadmap to great hits and misses
Review: The tortured mentality it took to list 1,001 singles and explain why they're worth hearing must be admired. Marsh's book got me to seek out some terrific songs I'd never have thought twice (once?) about otherwise, such as George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," Bobby Bland's "Lead Me On," and an eerie little thing called "The Boiler" by Rhoda with the Special A.K.A. Marsh also helped me catch unnoticed details in some songs I'd heard a thousand times: the 'Don't worry' Levi Stubbs wails at the fade of "Reach Out (I'll Be There);" the way the instruments and the background vocals act as a 'community of gossip' adding to Marvin Gaye's anguish in "I Heard It Through The Grapevine;" the bassline (and cry, "free base!") in Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines." Readers seeking validation of their favorite Top Ten hits may find themselves aggravated. To overgeneralize just a bit, Marsh favors the emotionally-direct and unpretentious over the more polished and detached. Aretha Franklin and Martha Reeves outrank Diana Ross throughout the book. Also, such categories as "art rock" (Pink Floyd, Yes, David Bowie) and "adult contemporary" (Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, James Taylor) are ignored almost completely, though Roxy Music and B.J. Thomas (!) each manage to slip one in there. (Most of Marsh's readers could probably do without Barry, Babs, and JT, but they're high on my list of favorites.) Since Van Halen's "Jump" ends up ahead of even the highest Beatles single ("Ticket To Ride") and the beloved Elton John doesn't appear until Number 942 ("The Bitch Is Back"), readers should probably think of this less as an objective list than an invitation to check into some undeservedly-lost gems you won't hear about anywhere else. P.S.: If ANYONE can help me locate "The Payoff Mix" or "No Way Out" PLEASE e-mail me. Life's too short to find all these myself...
Rating:
Summary: The single best book on American music.
Review: There's never been a better book written about American music. Politically insightful and endlessly entertaining, Marsh takes you on a ride from the dawn of the rock and roll era through the rise of punk and rap. Hundreds of good stories about the records and the world they helped shape. But the best thing about the book is that you'll never hear your favorite records the same way after you've read it. It'll teach you to hear.
Rating:
Summary: The great rock primer
Review: To benshlomo's review I would add only this element: At the core of this book is Marsh's belief that singles are more important than albums and, by extension, songs are more important than artists. Read it with a pile of records close by. You'll see that Marsh is arguing for a particular aesthetic viewpoint: an argument that good rock requires both roots and honesty. (There is good music that lacks these, but it isn't rock.) That's why some enormously popular songs don't make the cut, why there is more soul music than one might expect, why the Americans generally fare better than the British. The book is a great way to start an argument, a disucssion, or an education about the aesthetics of rock.
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Summary: The Book that Changed my Life and Record Collection.
Review: Up until reading this I was heading down a journey of completing a Pink Floyd collection and absently recommending long haired guys with guitars to anyone who would listen. After reading it (as soon as it was reviewed by Charles Shaar Murray in Q (***** since you ask)), I had to have it. It is a wonderful map and guide book to the greatest music ever recorded. Like all good music journalism after reading you are desperate to hear all of these singles. Like the guy above I have hunted down these songs over the last decade, and I have learnt so much and discovered so much beauty I cannot recommend this highly enough. The wonderful side effect is that you bump into other stuff along the way. Treat yourself to some blank tapes too, and make the comilation library to live for. Dave Marsh has flaws, but they are not in his ability to write passionately about this music. The stories he tells are diverse enlightening and I guarantee that you will have a better record collection after digesting this.
Rating: 
Summary: Soul beats psychedelic?
Review: When I was in high school, in suburban St. Louis in 1967-71, the key question was, "Are you psychedelic or are you soul?" Although this was not a racial divide in our nearly-all-white school, it was a schism: The soul kids were athletes. The psychedelics were hippies. Soul was into school spirit. Psychedelics were into anti-war marches. Soul listened to AM radio. Psychedelic listened to FM radio. The "soul" kids went to the monthly dances, where the bands always played "Hold On, I'm Comin'" and ended with "Midnight Hour." The psychedelics boycotted the dances, and instead hung out listening to our hero Nick play acoustic guitar ("Cowgirl in the Sand" or "Uncle John's Band.") Dave Marsh is a total partisan for soul in this debate. His history erases Neil Young, the Jefferson Airplane, and other psychedelic icons. Frankly, I am not persuaded. I was bored with soul as early as 1966, when KXOK played "The Cheater" (No. 998 on Marsh's list) ad nauseum. Although I like most of the songs in Marsh's list, if I had to choose between this 50 hours of music and 50 hours of my favorites from the psychedelic era, I would find the latter more interesting and satisfying. On the other hand, the books about psychedelic music tend to be as pompous and vapid as Stephen Stills' monologue on "49 bye-byes" on the live Four Way Street album. Dave Marsh is much more rewarding to read. His story about "The Cheater" is so fascinating that I almost can forgive him for reminding me of that infernal tune.
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Summary: R&B finally gets some of the respect it deserves
Review: When the legendary dj Alan Freed uttered the term Rock and Roll it was R&B he was playing and featuring on his radio show in Cleveland. You can't separate the two- R&B is Rock and Roll-and Rock and Roll is R&B.I really don't think that Freed was trying to make R&B more acceptable to white America by calling it Rock and Roll. I think it was a term he had heard in Wynonie Harris's 1949 #1 R&B smash "All she wants do is rock" and decided to use it. So proper credit is due to the late Wynonie Harris and songwriters McRae/Harris for coining the term "Rock and Roll". The dj was the creative catalyst that helped establish these stars in the 50's because they had control of their programs. Today that control is long gone and so is that creativity ( That's why all stations sound alike, all announcers say the same thing and play the same music over and over ).But in the days when dj's controlled their own shows radio was very exciting to listen to like The Wolfman- he was so exciting to listen to- You just never knew what he was going to do or say next.This lack of creativity has opened the door to unmanned radio stations and now satellite radio. The dj is quickly becoming a relic of the past. The fact is- if it weren't for African Americans there would be no Rock and Roll. Black music has always been the stuff of substance-the deeper soul searching stuff. To me the Beatles were bubblegum compared to The Temptations.The Beatles and Elvis were good artists but both were extremely and entirley overrated. Mick Jagger and John Lennon would've given their right arm if they could sing like Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding or David Ruffin. But yet this very creator of what we know as Rock and Roll never gets the proper recognition it rightfully deserves. Dave Marsh does a darn good job of trying to rectify that problem with this fantastic book.But to respect Black music you've got to have some respect for Black people. Elvis had that respect( my extensive research on Elvis proves this with out any doubt ), Alan Freed did and so did Wolfman and T.J.Lubinsky of the PBS doo wop and R&B shows.I also have that respect and it appears that Dave Marsh does too. Job well done Mr.Marsh.
Rating:
Summary: Great book from a guy who really loves music.
Review: Yeah, this book has a list of songs. But the book isn't about the list. It's about the music. More importantly, it's about the author's opinion's of the music. Dave Marsh is the greatest rock critic who ever lived. He truly loves rock music. And he is an extremely talented writer. He is very well able to communicate his feelings about music to the reader. Dave doesn't just describe the songs. He also describes his own personal feelings for the songs - why it is that he feels the way that he does about the songs. Every one of these songs means something special to him, and each for a different reason. He also explains that the ordering of the songs is not really that important. The song that he picked for #1 isn't necessarily his all time favorite. In fact he doesn't really have an all time favorite. Dave hates Reaganism. I mean, he really, really hates Reaganism. And he seems to have this habit of projecting his feelings about this subject on to other people. I mean, who would ever have guessed that the Police's "Every Breath You Take" is a criticism of the Reagan administration? (Dave, if you really believe in free speech, then please consider voting Libertarian! The Democrats in political office are just as much in favor of government censorship as the Republicans. The PMRC, the V-chip, censorship of the internet, etc.) When I read a lot of the stuff in this book, I often end up saying to myself, "Yeah! That's exactly how I feel." Such as when Dave comments that it's somewhat odd that today's critics of modern music's lyrical content want to return to a more "innocent" era like the 1950s, when, in reality, Little Richard's music from that period was among the crudest, most sexually explicit to ever be recorded. I also agree with Dave that "She Loves You" is one of the Beatles' best songs. Yes, their music did grow more complex as the years went on. But it never got better. I also agree with him that "Love Child" by the Supremes is the best example in rock music of hope, optimism, and upward mobility within the lower class black community. Dave has a true admiration, love, and respect for the major role that blacks have played in the history of rock music. Although I'm not going to go through the book and count, I would guess that approximately half of all the songs in this book are performed by black artists. And that makes a lot of sense. Dave explains why he chose to make a list of songs, and not albums. But still, by looking at the songs, one can see a glimpse of what some of Dave's favorite albums might be. For example, the list includes 4 songs from the Pretenders' album "Learning to Crawl." I think that that may be the most songs from any non-compilation album, but I'm not sure. As far as compilations are concerned, Dave seems to be a big fan of Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" album, the Motown boxed set "Hitsville U.S.A.," and any of the many Otis Redding compilations. Dave has great taste! I don't always agree with Dave's opinions. For example, he likes Elvis Presley's version of "Hound Dog" better than Big Mama Thornton's, whereas I prefer Thornton's version. Even so, I still very much enjoyed reading what he wrote on this topic. Even though I don't agree with Dave's opinion, I still give him credit for having the opinion that he has. Besides, taste in music is just that, an opinion. Dave has such an enthusiasm and love of music, and he is so good at expressing his opinions, that even when I don't agree with him, I still love reading what he writes.
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