"People Who Died"

It's kind of sad that on my first ever posting I'm going to cheat. Not cheat death. Just cheat. Today's subject didn't actually die yesterday. As a matter of fact, even though his death was announced on Monday, he passed away in his LA home last Friday. But seeing as how his biggest accomplishment in life (to me, at least, as I'll explain later) was a song called "People Who Died", who better to kick of the morbidity with than poet, musician, actor and all around swell ex-junkie Jim Carroll?

I first learned of Jim Carroll in 1981, the year after his first album "Catholic Boy" was released. Many a night was spent cruising in Mark Sieben's purple Chevy pickup with "People Who Died" cranking, repeatedly, through Pioneer TSX-80 speakers mounted one inch behind my head. I believe I have Steve Bratke to thank for discovering this ode to friends passed on. Or possibly (and more likely...) his older brother Mike.

I know many would propose that "The Basketball Diaries" (the book and/or the film) would be the pinnacle of Carroll's creative output, but I beg to differ. For me, there are few bonding experiences that I recall more fondly than searching out high school parties with Mark, Steve, D'arcy, et al, while singing:

"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"

Thanks for the memories...

Jim Carroll 1950 - 2009