Steve Morse, iconic rock & roll journalist, has died

Veteran rock critic Steve Morse, who covered the Boston area rock scene for more than forty years, has passed away.
A Brown University graduate back in 1970, who went on to teach school in Barrington, Morse was considered the gold standard of rock music reviewers, covering music for the Boston Globe for decades, writing about everyone from Janis Joplin to Bruce Springsteen, U2 to Bob Marley. It’s estimated that at the height of his career he went to more than 300 shows annually with almost as many bylines.
One of the icons of that legendary era was Peter Wolf, soulful front man for the J. Geils Band, whose live show was nothing less than a rock & roll baptism. He said this about Morse: “Steve had been covering the waterfront for so long that he became an important part of the music community at a time when what the critic wrote had meaning and influence for the public.” Morse was the go-to source for the Beantown music world long before mobile phones, the digital tidal wave, and the self-proclaimed music bloggers, many of whom are transfixed by celebrity rather than art. He had a serious grasp of American musical evolution, from spirituals to church music followed by jazz, soul, and present-day rock & roll.
Morse was a musical juggernaut. He spent many nights hanging with rock mega-stars such as Keith Richards and Bob Marley, long after the show ended and the stage lights dimmed. His work always painted the raw and truthful side of a musical era. It helped transform American culture. It’s almost impossible to articulate the influence those rock & roll heydays had on today’s popular culture.
He is fondly remembered by Aerosmith’s guitarist, Joe Perry, saying “Steve was always fair and called it the way he heard it.” Adding, “His passing symbolizes another sign that an amazing era of golden years of the Boston music scene is coming to an end,” as told to longtime Globe reporter Jim Sullivan, now covering music at WBUR, in Boston.
Morse’s funeral service was held in suburban Boston for immediate family and friends.
There is an opportunity to pay tribute to Steve Morse later this winter – The New England Music Hall of Fame is holding its 2025 induction ceremony at the Vault, 791 Purchase St, in New Bedford on February 15 at 5pm. It will include a tribute to Morse, a food drive for PACE, a RI-based social service agency helping seniors, and for the LGBTQ+ NETWORK, serving southeastern Mass.