Jim Carroll passed away this week. His art touched me as it did to many, and I will always remember how his first record, Catholic Boy inspired me to live for the day.
He was an athlete, junkie, Pulitzer Prize-winner and rock star. Many called him a punk poet, but that label somehow proves too narrow. As his once-girlfriend Patti Smith did and still does, Jim Carroll used punk to animate his avant-poetry and expose both forms to new audiences.
Carroll left us with much more artistic treasure, but that one record means a lot to me. When I heard "People Who Died", "Nothing is True", or the title track, I felt connected with a master storyteller who lived the dark, rebellious, ecstatic post-disco New York culture of the late-70's and early 80's.
Carroll left us with much more artistic treasure, but that one record means a lot to me. When I heard "People Who Died", "Nothing is True", or the title track, I felt connected with a master storyteller who lived the dark, rebellious, ecstatic post-disco New York culture of the late-70's and early 80's.
I was born in a pool, they made my mother stand
And I spat on that surgeon and his trembling hand
When I felt the light I was worse than bored
I stole the doctor's scalpel and I slit the cord
I was a Catholic Boy. Redeemed in pain, not through joy...
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