A Poet Is Gone

Just found out that America has lost one of it’s most unique and passionate pop-culture characters.

Jim Carroll has died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack on Friday.

After establishing himself as a poet, Carroll next turned to music, coaxed in part by his friend Patti Smith. Carroll caught the eye of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, who helped the Jim Carroll Band secure a three-record deal. Their first album, 1980’s Catholic Boy, is considered a landmark of the New York punk scene. Carroll followed the debut with two more LPs, 1982’s Dry Dreams and 1983’s I Write Your Name, then released a fourth album, Pools of Mercury, in 1998.
The soundtrack for the Basketball Diaries film also found Carroll collaborating with Pearl Jam on a new version of his song “Catholic Boy.” Carroll’s “People Who Died,” a Catholic Boy ode to Carroll’s friends who died too soon, also featured on the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s E.T.

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