Catholic Boy

add Jim Carroll to the list of "people who died, died, died" , he wrote an interesting book that was later butchered into a crap hollywood movie , then he formed a band and had brief success, he basically just stopped and told the stories of the insanity that exists in every group of friends in every NY neighborhood , at least that insanity existed in the 60's, 70's and early 80's New York ....not really sure "that" world is around anymore, everything is way too serious, every mistake magnified, the drugs aren't safe or fun anymore, there seems to be a lack of affable clowns who roam the streets with nowhere to go and nothing to become, everyone has a sharp edge these days, don't get me wrong , the seedy underbelly existed always, but it seemed to be more of balance back then, but maybe that was just a distortion of my own youth...anyway if you never read the "Basketball Diaries", it is worth checking out, I read it in the summer of 1980 between Freshmen and Sophomore year, I may read it again if I can find it......also if you never listened to his signature album "Catholic Boy" ...that is worth listening to , if for no other reason than to think about those people who died, died ,died


NEW YORK — 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, his ex-wife Rosemary Carroll told the New York Times.

In the 1970s, Carroll was a fixture of the burgeoning downtown New York art scene, where he mixed with artists such as Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Larry Rivers and Robert Mapplethorpe. His life was shaped by drug use, which he wrote about extensively.

Carroll also published several poetry collections, while his 1980 album, "Catholic Boy," has been hailed as a landmark punk record, and he became known for one of its songs, "People Who Died."

But it was "The Basketball Diaries," his autobiographical tale of life as a sports star at Trinity, an elite private high school in Manhattan, that brought him his widest audience. The son of a bar owner, Carroll attended the school on a basketball scholarship.

The book, which began life as a journal, was first published in 1978 and then became even more popular, particularly on college campuses, when it was issued as a mass-market paperback two years later. A 1995 movie version starred Leonardo DiCaprio.