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Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, Is Dead


Jahfin

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By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in “The Basketball Diaries,” died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.

The cause was a heart attack, said Rosemary Carroll, his former wife.

As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This highly unusual combination lent a lurid appeal to “The Basketball Diaries,” the journal he kept during high school and published in 1978, by which time his poetry had already won him a cult reputation as the new Bob Dylan.

The full obituary by William Grimes can be found here.

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Wow - shocked to read this. I'm a huge fan of Jim Carroll. "The Basketball Diaries" is one of my all-time favorite books. I went to his spoken word show years ago and the audience was captivated by him. Afterwards he hung out and talked to everyone, but I was way too nervous to approach him. Sad news to read this morning. :(

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Just for something to do, I saw that guy about 10 years ago at The Bottom Line in NYC. What a depressing mess. We left after about 20 minutes.

I thought he would play some music, but it was just IMHO really amateurish, depressing poetry. I only wanted to

hear one song and guess which one? Now I'm reading these obits and every one says the same thing...... about

how he couldn't carry a tune. Judging by the photos, he was not a happy guy. R.I.P.

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Just for something to do, I saw that guy about 10 years ago at The Bottom Line in NYC. What a depressing mess. We left after about 20 minutes.

I thought he would play some music, but it was just IMHO really amateurish, depressing poetry. I only wanted to

hear one song and guess which one? Now I'm reading these obits and every one says the same thing...... about

how he couldn't carry a tune. Judging by the photos, he was not a happy guy. R.I.P.

That's too bad because when I saw him in concert in a small venue, he was great - mostly sang and read some poetry. Didn't sound out of tune to me.

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