Jim Carroll Joins the People Who Died

I got around to reading yesterday's NY Times only today. A story kicked me in the head near the end of the main section. Jim Carroll, poet, writer and musician had died of a heart attack at 60.

I didn't know he was 60. I don't know how in the hell he got to be 60 with the life that he lived.

Jim Carroll was an Irish-American kid who grew up in Manhattan. He was a tremendous basketball player at Trinity High School. He kept a diary during high school. When he began the diary, he was full of hope. By the end of the diary, he was a heroin addict, " hustling " in the old, horrible Times Square of the Sixties.

He was befriended by Patti Smith, who called him the " best poet of his generation ". She brought him onstage to read poetry while the band played background. He later wrote lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and Boz Scaggs. Keith Richards helped him get his own deal with Atlantic Records. His most famous song " People Who Died " came from his album Catholic Boy.

Punk wasn't my thing at all, but this guy had something, and I salute you Jim Carroll, a troubled, brilliant soul hopefully now at peace.

For extra credit, his song Catholic Boy


People Who Died
Jim Carroll

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