Jim Carroll
Encyclopedia
James Dennis "Jim" Carroll (August 1, 1949 – September 11, 2009) was an author
, poet
, autobiographer
, and punk
musician
. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries
, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name
, starring Leonardo DiCaprio
as Carroll.
's Lower East Side
, and when he was fifteen the family moved uptown to Inwood
. He attended Roman Catholic
grammar school
s from 1955 to 1963. In fall 1963, he entered public school, but was soon awarded a scholarship
to the elite Trinity School
. He attended Trinity from 1964-1968.
Apart from being interested in writing, Carroll was an all-star
basketball
player throughout his grade school and high school career. He entered the "Biddy League" at age 13 and participated in the National High School All Star Game in 1966. During this time, Carroll was living a double life as a heroin addict who prostituted himself to afford his habit but he was also writing poems and attending poetry workshops at St. Mark's Poetry Project
.
He briefly attended Wagner College
and Columbia University
.
in 1968, and Poetry
the following year. In 1970, his second collection of poems, 4 Ups and 1 Down was published, and he started working for Andy Warhol
. At first, he was writing film dialogue and inventing character names; later on, Carroll worked as the co-manager of Warhol's Theater. Carroll's first publication by a mainstream publisher (Grossman Publishers), the poetry collection Living At The Movies, was published in 1973.
In 1978, Carroll published The Basketball Diaries, an autobiographical book concerning his life as a teenager in New York City's hard drug culture
. Diaries is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen, detailing his sexual experiences, high school basketball career, and his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13.
In 1987, Carroll wrote a second memoir entitled Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973, continuing his autobiography into his early adulthood in the New York City music and art scene as well as his struggle to kick his drug habit.
After working as a musician, Carroll returned to writing full time in the mid-1980s and began to appear regularly on the spoken word circuit. Starting in 1991, Carroll performed readings from his then-in-progress first novel, The Petting Zoo.
/punk rock
group, with encouragement from Patti Smith
, with whom he once shared an apartment in New York City along with Robert Mapplethorpe
. The band was formerly called Amsterdam, based in the San Francisco Bay Area
. The musicians were Steve Linsley (bass), Wayne Woods (drums), Brian Linsley and Terrell Winn (guitars). They released a single
"People Who Died", from their 1980 debut album, Catholic Boy
, the album featured contributions from Allen Lanier
and Bobby Keys
. The song appeared in the 1985 Kim Richards
vehicle Tuff Turf
starring James Spader
and Robert Downey Jr.
(which also featured a cameo appearance by the band), as well as 2004's Dawn of the Dead
. It was also featured in the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries (based on Jim Carroll's autobiography), and was covered by John Cale
on his Antártida soundtrack
. A condensed, 2-minute, version of the song was made into an animated music video by Daniel D. Cooper, an independent filmmaker/animator, in 2010. The song's title was based on a poem by Ted Berrigan
. Later albums were Dry Dreams (1982) and I Write Your Name (1983), both with contributions from Lenny Kaye
and Paul Sanchez. Carroll also collaborated with musicians Lou Reed
, Blue Öyster Cult
, Boz Scaggs
, Ray Manzarek
of The Doors
, Pearl Jam
, ELO
and Rancid
.
at his Manhattan home on September 11, 2009. According to a report, he was at his desk working when he died.
His funeral Mass was held at Our Lady of Pompeii Roman Catholic Church on Carmine St. in Greenwich Village
.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, autobiographer
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, and punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries
The Basketball Diaries
The Basketball Diaries is a 1978 memoir written by author and musician Jim Carroll. It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen...
, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name
The Basketball Diaries (film)
The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 American drama film directed by Scott Kalvert, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, James Madio, and Mark Wahlberg...
, starring Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
as Carroll.
Biography
Carroll was born to a working-class family of Irish descent, and grew up on New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, and when he was fifteen the family moved uptown to Inwood
Inwood, Manhattan
Inwood is the northernmost neighborhood on Manhattan Island in the New York City borough of Manhattan.-Geography:Inwood is physically bounded by the Harlem River to the north and east, and the Hudson River to the west. It extends southward to Fort Tryon Park and alternatively Dyckman Street or...
. He attended Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
s from 1955 to 1963. In fall 1963, he entered public school, but was soon awarded a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
to the elite Trinity School
Trinity School (New York City)
Trinity School is a private, preparatory, co-educational day school for grades K-12 located in New York City, USA, and a member of both the New York Interschool and the Ivy Preparatory School League...
. He attended Trinity from 1964-1968.
Apart from being interested in writing, Carroll was an all-star
All-star
All-star is a term designating an individual as having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player throughout his grade school and high school career. He entered the "Biddy League" at age 13 and participated in the National High School All Star Game in 1966. During this time, Carroll was living a double life as a heroin addict who prostituted himself to afford his habit but he was also writing poems and attending poetry workshops at St. Mark's Poetry Project
St. Mark's Poetry Project
The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 in the East Village of Manhattan by the poet and translator Paul Blackburn, it has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetries for over four decades....
.
He briefly attended Wagner College
Wagner College
Wagner College is a private, co-educational, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 total students located atop Grymes Hill in New York City's borough of Staten Island...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Literary career
While still in high school, Carroll published his first collection of poems, Organic Trains. Already attracting the attention of the local literati, his work began appearing in the Poetry Project's magazine The World in 1967. Soon his work was being published in elite literary magazines like Paris ReviewParis Review
The Paris Review is a literary quarterly founded in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton. Plimpton edited the Review from its founding until his death in 2003. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S...
in 1968, and Poetry
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
the following year. In 1970, his second collection of poems, 4 Ups and 1 Down was published, and he started working for Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. At first, he was writing film dialogue and inventing character names; later on, Carroll worked as the co-manager of Warhol's Theater. Carroll's first publication by a mainstream publisher (Grossman Publishers), the poetry collection Living At The Movies, was published in 1973.
In 1978, Carroll published The Basketball Diaries, an autobiographical book concerning his life as a teenager in New York City's hard drug culture
Drug subculture
Drug subcultures are examples of countercultures, which are primarily defined by recreational drug use.Drug subcultures are groups of people united by a common understanding of the meaning and value of the incorporation into one's life of the drug in question...
. Diaries is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen, detailing his sexual experiences, high school basketball career, and his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13.
In 1987, Carroll wrote a second memoir entitled Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973, continuing his autobiography into his early adulthood in the New York City music and art scene as well as his struggle to kick his drug habit.
After working as a musician, Carroll returned to writing full time in the mid-1980s and began to appear regularly on the spoken word circuit. Starting in 1991, Carroll performed readings from his then-in-progress first novel, The Petting Zoo.
Music career
In 1978, after he moved to California to get a fresh start since kicking his heroin addiction, Carroll formed The Jim Carroll Band, a New WaveNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
/punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
group, with encouragement from Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, with whom he once shared an apartment in New York City along with Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
. The band was formerly called Amsterdam, based in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. The musicians were Steve Linsley (bass), Wayne Woods (drums), Brian Linsley and Terrell Winn (guitars). They released a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"People Who Died", from their 1980 debut album, Catholic Boy
Catholic Boy
Catholic Boy is an album by The Jim Carroll Band. Carroll was notable for publishing a memoir, The Basketball Diaries, and poetry collections including Living at the Movies. It spawned two FM hits, "It's Too Late" and "People Who Died"...
, the album featured contributions from Allen Lanier
Allen Lanier
Allen Lanier was an original member of Blue Öyster Cult. Lanier played keyboards and rhythm guitar. He currently resides in Manhattan....
and Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys is an American saxophone player, and has performed with other musicians as a member of one of the notable horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Harry Nilsson, Delaney Bramlett, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Eric Clapton and Joe...
. The song appeared in the 1985 Kim Richards
Kim Richards
Kimberly "Kim" Richards is an American actress, former child actress, and television personality. She had roles in several Disney movies in the 1970s and later TV shows in the late 1970s and early 80s before returning to the screen with her sister Kyle Richards on Bravo's The Real Housewives of...
vehicle Tuff Turf
Tuff Turf
Tuff Turf is a 1985 American drama film starring James Spader and Kim Richards. The film was released in the United States on January 11, 1985.-Plot:...
starring James Spader
James Spader
James Todd Spader is an American actor best known for his eccentric roles in movies such as Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Crash, Stargate, and Secretary...
and Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
(which also featured a cameo appearance by the band), as well as 2004's Dawn of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)
Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Jake Weber. The film depict a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin shopping mall...
. It was also featured in the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries (based on Jim Carroll's autobiography), and was covered by John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
on his Antártida soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
. A condensed, 2-minute, version of the song was made into an animated music video by Daniel D. Cooper, an independent filmmaker/animator, in 2010. The song's title was based on a poem by Ted Berrigan
Ted Berrigan
-Early life:Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army in 1954 to serve in the Korean War. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in...
. Later albums were Dry Dreams (1982) and I Write Your Name (1983), both with contributions from Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye
Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group.- Early life :...
and Paul Sanchez. Carroll also collaborated with musicians Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
, Boz Scaggs
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1970s with several Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.-Early life and career:Scaggs was born in Canton,...
, Ray Manzarek
Ray Manzarek
Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek , is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, Nite City from 1977–1978 and Manzarek-Krieger since 2001.Manzarek is listed #4 on Digital Dreamdoor's "100...
of The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, ELO
ELO
- Music :* Electric Light Orchestra, a British rock music group** The Electric Light Orchestra , the group's debut album** ELO 2, the group's second album* ELO Part II, an offshoot band of Electric Light Orchestra- Sports and games :...
and Rancid
Rancid (band)
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
.
Death
Carroll, 60, died of a heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at his Manhattan home on September 11, 2009. According to a report, he was at his desk working when he died.
His funeral Mass was held at Our Lady of Pompeii Roman Catholic Church on Carmine St. in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
.
Poetry
- Organic Trains (1967)
- 4 Ups and 1 Down (1970)
- Living at the Movies (1973)
- The Book of Nods (1986)
- Fear of Dreaming (1993)
- Void of Course: Poems 1994-1997 (1998) ISBN 0-14-058909-0
Prose
- The Basketball DiariesThe Basketball DiariesThe Basketball Diaries is a 1978 memoir written by author and musician Jim Carroll. It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen...
(1978) - Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973 (1987)
- The Petting Zoo (2010),
Albums
- Catholic BoyCatholic BoyCatholic Boy is an album by The Jim Carroll Band. Carroll was notable for publishing a memoir, The Basketball Diaries, and poetry collections including Living at the Movies. It spawned two FM hits, "It's Too Late" and "People Who Died"...
(1980) - Dry Dreams (1982)
- I Write Your Name (1983)
- A World Without Gravity: Best of The Jim Carroll Band (1993)
- Pools of Mercury (1998)
- RunawayRunaway (Jim Carroll album)Runaway is a 2000 EP album by author and punk musician Jim Carroll.-Track listing:# "Runaway" - # "Hairshirt Fracture" - # "I Want the Angel" -...
EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
(2000)
Spoken word
- Praying Mantis (1991) (Re-released 2008)
- The Basketball DiariesThe Basketball DiariesThe Basketball Diaries is a 1978 memoir written by author and musician Jim Carroll. It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen...
(1994) - Pools of Mercury (1998)
Collaborations
- Club NinjaClub NinjaClub Ninja is the tenth studio album by the U.S. hard rock group Blue Öyster Cult, released in 1986 . The album was intended as a comeback for the band, whose previous album The Revölution by Night failed to attain Gold status following the Platinum success of 1981's Fire of Unknown Origin and...
, Blue Öyster CultBlue Öyster CultBlue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
(1986) - Other RoadsOther RoadsOther Roads is an album by Boz Scaggs, released in 1988. After an eight-year hiatus from recording, Boz Scaggs returned in 1988 with the album Other Roads, a record aimed primarily at the adult contemporary market. The album reached #47 on the Billboard pop album chart, while the lead single “Heart...
, Boz ScaggsBoz ScaggsWilliam Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1970s with several Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.-Early life and career:Scaggs was born in Canton,...
(1988) - Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed AnthologyBetween Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed AnthologyBetween Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology is Lou Reed's box set. This 1992 release covers the first 20 years of his solo career, including the unreleased "Downtown Dirt," "Nowhere At All" , a 1978 live "Heroin" featuring jazz great Don Cherry, "Little Sister" , and "America ."The box...
, Lou ReedLou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
(1992) - ...And Out Come the Wolves...And Out Come the Wolves…And Out Come the Wolves is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released on August 22, 1995 through Epitaph Records. Rancid's popularity and catchy songs made them the subject of a major label bidding war that ended with the band staying on Epitaph...
, RancidRancid (band)Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, both of whom previously played in the ska punk band Operation Ivy, Rancid is credited—along with Green Day and The Offspring—for reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the...
(1995) - Catholic BoyCatholic BoyCatholic Boy is an album by The Jim Carroll Band. Carroll was notable for publishing a memoir, The Basketball Diaries, and poetry collections including Living at the Movies. It spawned two FM hits, "It's Too Late" and "People Who Died"...
, [Pearl Jam] (1995) - Feeling You UpFeeling You UpFeeling You Up was recorded from 1995–1997 and released November 1997 on 12" vinyl and CD. "It's On Your Face" was used in its entirety in Francis Ford Coppola's TV series First Wave episode 16 "The Undesirables".-Track listing:...
, TrulyTrulyTruly is an American rock band formed in the wake of the grunge era. It featured former Soundgarden bassist Hiro Yamamoto, one-time Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel, and singer Robert Roth...
(1997) - Yes I Ram, Jon Tiven Group (1999)
Compilations and soundtracks
- Tuff Turf SoundtrackTuff TurfTuff Turf is a 1985 American drama film starring James Spader and Kim Richards. The film was released in the United States on January 11, 1985.-Plot:...
(1985) - Back to the Streets: Celebrating the Music of Don Covay (1993)
- Sedated in the Eighties (1993)
- New Wave Dance Hits: Just Can't Get Enough, Vol. 6 (1994)
- The Basketball Diaries (soundtrack)The Basketball Diaries (soundtrack)-External links:* [ AllMusic]*...
(1995) - WBCN Naked 2000 (2000)
- Dawn of the DeadDawn of the Dead (2004 film)Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut. It is a remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film of the same name and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Jake Weber. The film depict a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin shopping mall...
(2004)
External links
- CatholicBoy.com
- AP Obituary in the New York Times
- Internet Movie Database
- Jim Carroll's memorial at Find A Grave