Jim Carroll - August 1, 1950 - September 11, 2009

[tangerine]

NYT: Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, Dead at 60

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker who wrote ''The Basketball Diaries,'' died Friday. He was 60.


He died from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan Friday, his ex-wife Rosemary Carroll told the New York Times.


Carroll was a fixture of the 1970s downtown Manhattan scene, where he mixed with artists such as Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. His life was shaped by drug use, which he wrote about extensively.


Published in 1978, ''The Basketball Diaries'' is a memoir of Caroll's youth in New York City. It was made into a movie in 1995 starring Leonardo DiCaprio.


Carroll also published several poetry collections. His 1980 album, ''Catholic Boy,'' has been hailed as a landmark punk record.

nytimes.com

People Who Died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"
But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

I can't write a better obituary for him than the one he wrote himself. Farewell to one of the originals.

 

[silk skin paws]

I don't know much about Jim although I do know someone who's a fan.

 

[desertshore]

I'm glad someone is acknowledging his death here. For Velvet Underground fans, Carroll is the voice on the "Live At Max's Kansas City" album asking for a double Pernod and a Tuinal. John Leland, in Hip: The History, cites his (perhaps unintended) cameo as a moment that "still epitomizes cool." Beyond that and his remarkable life's work, his contributions to the classic oral biography of punk, Please Kill Me, are timeless. RIP.

 

[Hebden]

I went to one of his readings...a while ago...in a rundown bar. There were only ten or so other people there, but it was amazing.

R.I.P.