Late at night on December 8, 1980, I heard on the radio the news that John Lennon had been shot and killed. A collision of shock, fear, anger, disbelief, and numbness hit my brain. I was a Beatles and Lennon fan, a freelance reporter for the Boston Globe, and a rock journalist.
I called Steve Morse, a rock writer on the Globe’s staff at his home in Cambridge, and he said he was in the same situation. We decided to meet at the Globe Theater on Morrissey Boulevard, arrived there around midnight, and co-wrote the saddest and fastest story of our lives. We broke it down, wrote out over 1,000 words, and combined them to create the next day’s edition. It was my first Page One story. There was no joy in it. Steve and I were both drained, frustrated, disappointed and angry. We literally wrote this in tears.
Steve Morse (Alan Dines)Now, almost 44 years later, I’m here again. By yourself. And this time it’s about Steve. He passed away just before midnight on Saturday, October 26th at the age of 76.
Steve emailed me on October 11th saying, “I’m starting to really get into a groove and get really weak.” “But I would like to say, keep up the great writing. We certainly had a great time during the heyday of rock and roll and journalism. We were the lucky guys.”
It felt like a little goodbye. My anxiety increased.
Two days later: “I’m sweating after hearing the news. We have a team meeting on Thursday and we hope to get the results then. Who knows what will happen then.”
The next day, I contacted them by phone and email, but that was my last contact with them.
On October 16th, he posted on Facebook: “The results are in. It’s malignant. They call it stage 4 lung cancer, but it’s metastatic. Blessings to all my friends. I love you.”
He was initially hospitalized at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, but was transferred to a hospice facility in Lincoln last week. He passed away with his fiancée, Jessa Piaya, by his side. His body will be cremated shortly thereafter and his ashes will be scattered at his beloved Wellfleet summer stomping grounds.
At Steve’s request, a private service will be held this week for immediate family only. His sister, Cindy Kalbaugh, told me he didn’t want the service to become a “zoo.” But many of his friends are already putting together ideas for memorials and charities to help his son Nick Morse, 35, a prominent abstract artist who is autistic and nonverbal. . In the years following the Globes, Steve was his son’s de facto manager and champion of the art world. A GoFundMe page has been set up for Nick.
“Words cannot adequately express our sense of loss and deep sadness when he passed away,” Piaiya posted on Steve’s Facebook page, speaking for the family. “A truly wonderful man, Steve touched the lives of everyone he crossed his path.”
Steve is the fourth Globe arts critic to die since the summer, following film critic Bruce McCabe, dance critic Christine Temin and classical music critic Richard Dyer.
“Steve was a well-known figure in the music community,” former J. Geil’s Band singer and solo artist Peter Wolfe emailed me Sunday night. “His years at the Boston Globe provided much-needed support to so many artists, both fledgling artists and established artists looking to find new ways to sustain their careers. .
“His retirement party at Foley’s Bar, hosted by Bono himself, was definitely a night to remember. Steve and I had a glass or two, maybe three, and watched the ocean move. I spent many nights watching. His absence will be a real loss because he believed in music.”
In an email, Cars keyboardist Greg Hawks wrote: “He was an insightful, thoughtful writer and always a champion of Boston’s music community. He was an early supporter of the Cars and reached a wide audience working at the Globe Theater. He was a good man and a great advocate for his son and his art. He will be greatly missed.”
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry was once Steve’s neighbor when he lived with his wife Billie on Broadway in Cambridge. “I met Steve at a local grocery store and we used to gossip,” Perry texted me. “When we were out, he would sometimes text me and let me know what was going on.
“As a music critic, he was always fair and called it like he heard it. To me, he was one of the few leading Boston icons who represented Boston’s unique music scene. His work always reflected that, and his death represents yet another sign that the great golden age of Boston’s music scene is coming to an end.
Steve brought some freelancers to the Grove staff. I was one of them in 1979. Another was jazz/world music writer Fernando González.
“I look back fondly on my time in Boston and the close friends I made there,” Gonzalez wrote in an email to Steve after hearing about his illness. “But I am especially grateful to you for opening the door to the Globe for me, which has given me an unthinkable career (I didn’t even speak English when I came to America a few years ago). And it led to an impossible life. It all started with you. You took me into the world of writing with just one gesture.”
Steve left Globe in 2006, a year after I left. He continued to watch live music, especially in Cambridge, and taught an online rock history class at Berklee College of Music.
Steve, who grew up in Wellesley and was a former high school teacher before his time at the Globe, spent a year and a half putting together the course. He has read countless rock history books over and over, drawing on his own experiences both on the front lines and behind the scenes (including talking about music and weed with Bob Marley), and drawing on his experiences with Bob Weir (of the Grateful Dead) and Hugo. -Obtained exclusive videos from Burnham and others. (Gang of Four), George Clinton (Parliament-Funkadelic), etc.
“I’m curious to see how this all fits together,” Steve told me before classes began in 2012. The history of rock goes back to jump blues. This is a big course that connects the dots: social history, business history, political history, technological innovation, continuity, and rock as culture. ”
Steve and I worked in the same field and we used to joke that he was more of the hippie/hard rock generation and I was more of the punk rock/new wave generation. But there is some overlap, and at various times we’ve both covered Neil Young, U2, Prince, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, The Clash, and The Pretenders. . And he was a big fan of AC/DC and James Taylor.
The last time I saw Steve was at the New England Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony on September 30, 2023 at the Regent Theater in Arlington. When we were inducted into the Hall of Fame, we were debating whether we wanted to go in together, exchange stories on stage, or go in together. Especially.
“Either way is fine, thank you,” Steve emailed me. “But I’m at the point where I just want to do two minutes and be done. I always mention you favorably in my segments so it shows our friendship. I’ve already prepared most of my short speech. It’s a very short time of 2 minutes each, so I’m so nervous that if we do it together, it might be a different story!
After it was over, he sent me the following email: Hey, we’ve been together long enough, haven’t we? I was able to make a good run toward longevity. We were a very good team. The Globe company got their money’s worth when we went out on a mission. ”
