{"id":10273,"date":"2025-06-06T03:44:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T10:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/?page_id=10273"},"modified":"2025-06-19T17:48:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T00:48:14","slug":"iron-horse-northhampton-ma-1996-review-by-norman-kee","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/iron-horse-northhampton-ma-1996-review-by-norman-kee\/","title":{"rendered":"Iron Horse (Northhampton, MA) 1996 – Review by Norman Kee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jim Carroll at The Iron Horse
Northhampton, MA, 2 December 1996<\/strong>
Review by\u00a0Norman Kee<\/a><\/strong>
The Source<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(Albany, NY)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with the publication of his first collection of poetry, Living at the Movies<\/em>, in 1973, Jim Carroll has amassed a body of work respectable by any measure, commercial, artistic, or otherwise. But in a live situation, Mr. Carroll reveals and revels with his secret weapon, his voice. In his own words, “My voice has a quiver. A quiver is where you keep arrows until you shoot them.” His voice set up the many wonderful dichotomies of his Monday, December 2nd spoken word performance at the Iron Horse in Northhampton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making mention that his late arrival by train and rush to get there had put him in a “funk”, Mr. Carroll dived into ‘A Day at the Races’, a prose piece from Forced Enteries<\/em>, the sequel to The Basketball Diaries<\/em>. [He made reference to the film version, saying it wasn’t bad, but it “had nothing to do with the book.”] ‘A Day at the Races’ tells a charming story of love and crab infestation (really), and stuck close to the version included on Praying Mantis<\/em>, his outstanding 1991 spoken word recording. The luxury of knowing the story of the piece allowed me to indulge in the other aspects of his delivery. The angularity and variable speed of his timbre almost belies his seemingly effortless rhythm and the stunning beauty of his words. It also seems paradoxical that a man possessed with such grace and beauty in his words and speech could seem so physically awkward. His left hand moved as if it belonged to a marionette at the mercy of an irregular metronome. Like Angus Young’s stage stomp and stamp, it was keeping some rhythm, but not his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After several more prose entries, Mr. Carroll moved into some new poetry, largely unpublished. He read his great and moveing ‘Eight Fragments for Kurt Cobain’, recently run in the New York Times Magazine, that encourages empathy for Mr. Cobain while also making the listener appreciate that Jim Carroll is one who has survived. ‘Dancefloor’ is one of the few pieces that truly captures the kinetic club energy which flourishes and feeds on itself and seems to exist independent of all else. ‘Like Virginia’ was short, sweet and pleasantly blunt. He also read the lyrics to a hilarious and witty song inspired by a gold paint-faced huffer he saw on COPS<\/em>, which is to appear on the soundtrack to Gummo<\/em>, a forthcoming flick coincidentally inspired by the same incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most transcendent aspect of his work is Mr. Carroll’s extreme care of word choice and their placement, and its powerful and diverse impact. With just 20 syllables, he conjured the image of an Italian cabinet maker dead at his place of work, and each and every listener could vividly picture a lush and similar apparation, palatable with smells, light and feel. Then with even fewer words, by staking out the relationship between the words but not defining it, every listener had pitched their own complex mental tent to encompass these stakes, no two alike. Such distinct abilities, not usually found in the same place, were in stunning full force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Carroll at The Iron HorseNorthhampton, MA, 2 December 1996Review by\u00a0Norman KeeThe Source\u00a0(Albany, NY) Starting with the publication of his first collection of poetry, Living at the Movies, in 1973, Jim Carroll has amassed a body of work respectable by any measure, commercial, artistic, or otherwise. But in a live situation, Mr. Carroll reveals and revels … Continue reading Iron Horse (Northhampton, MA) 1996 – Review by Norman Kee<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3985,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"folder":[38],"class_list":["post-10273","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-2FH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10348,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/jim-carroll-the-iron-horse-northampton-ma-12-march-1996-review-by-tracy-sloan\/","url_meta":{"origin":10273,"position":0},"title":"The Iron Horse – Northampton, MA 12 (1996)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"June 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Carroll at The Iron HorseNorthampton, MA 12 March 1996Review by\u00a0Tracy Sloan Jim performed at the Iron Horse, Nothampton, MA, on March 12. My guess is the Iron Horse holds about 200 people and it appeared to be a sold out show. The audience was a wide mix of people\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4628,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/night-and-day-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":10273,"position":1},"title":"Night and Day: Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Norman KeeMetroland, 5 October 2000 Jim Carroll\u2019s first book, the 1973 poetry collection\u00a0Living at the Movies, earned the then-22-year-old a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Before the close of the \u201970s, Carroll had published his most (in)famous work,\u00a0The Basketball Diaries\u00a0(the movie of which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll), and put together\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10200,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/the-crocodile-cafe-seattle-1998\/","url_meta":{"origin":10273,"position":2},"title":"The Crocodile Cafe, Seattle (1998)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"June 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Carroll at The Crocodile CafeSeattle, WA, 19 November 1998Review by Hope LopezEarpollution, January 1999 I was introduced to Jim Carroll over four years ago by a friend of mine who's in a rock band from Toronto. I was impressed by the liquidy bass line that he contributed to a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3985,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":10273,"position":3},"title":"Performance Reviews","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Performance reviews are arranged in reverse chronological order and include both professional and \"fan\" reviews. The newest additions are PDFs. If you have ever seen Jim Carroll perform live, please send me your review and\/or photos! Lucky Dog Music Hall (Worcester, MA) 16 April 2005Photos by Laura Vona University of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3984,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-tour-log-1995-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":10273,"position":4},"title":"Jim Carroll: Tour Log 1995 – 2008","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"2008 St. Mark's Annual New Year's Day Marathon (New York, NY), 1 January 200833rd Annual New Year's Day Marathon Reading 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival (Brooklyn, NY), 16 September 2007\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jim Carroll, Gloria Naylor and Joe Meno Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA), 5 May 2007 St. Mark's Annual New Year's Day Marathon\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10113,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/the-middle-east-cambridge-ma-and-suffolk-university-boston-ma-2001\/","url_meta":{"origin":10273,"position":5},"title":"The Middle East (Cambridge, MA) and Suffolk University (Boston, MA) 2001","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"June 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Carroll with Terrell WinnThe Middle East (Cambridge, MA) 28 March 2001Suffolk University (Boston, MA) 4 April 2001Review by\u00a0Derek X Nemirow Twice in the last 8 days I had the distinct honor of being in the audience for spoken word performances by poet\/author\/songwriter Jim Carroll. 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