{"id":10352,"date":"2025-06-11T00:41:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T07:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/?page_id=10352"},"modified":"2025-06-11T00:42:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T07:42:22","slug":"jim-carroll-is-poet-for-the-20-somethings-by-aaron-beck-columbus-dispatch-10-nov-1997","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/jim-carroll-is-poet-for-the-20-somethings-by-aaron-beck-columbus-dispatch-10-nov-1997\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Carroll is poet for the 20-somethings (1997)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jim Carroll is poet for the 20-somethings
By Aaron Beck<\/strong>
Columbus Dispatch<\/a><\/em>, 10 Nov. 1997<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-somethings are constantly badgered by the Andy Rooneys of the world for being apathetic and having short attention spans. Had the Rooney clique been in Little Brother’s for a night of spoken word with Jim Carroll, it would have witnessed a striking feat of endurance by an audience rivaled only by witnesses of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carroll took the stage 50 minutes after his expected 10 p.m. starting time Saturday and held the standing-room-only crowd’s attention for the next 90. With a shaky voice one part Bobcat Goldthwait, one part William Burroughs, Carroll read poems about Brazilian train surfers and venereal disease, sang-spoke lyrics and read a large chunk of an unfinished novel about a young New York painter on a spiritual quest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rock club provided the perfect environment for a Carroll reading. The sinewy, sunken-cheeked author, lyricist and diarist is known primarily for The Basketball Diaries<\/em>, an autobiographical account of Carroll’s perilous coming of age in Lower Manhattan’s social netherworld. But in the early 1980s, Carroll sang and wrote lyrics for the Jim Carroll Band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 47-year-old looked professorial in round-rimmed, mottled glasses, longish red-orange hair parted in the middle and a sleek black blazer. After a nervous shuffling of papers, Carroll started with a story from Forced Entries<\/em>, his follow-up to The Basketball Diaries<\/em>. Its frank subject matter — crab lice were the main characters — presaged the rest of the night’s fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Carroll tended to ramble a bit — especially when he read from the untitled novel — the crowd never let on. Everyone clapped and hollered after everything he read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carroll later ditched the blazer, quickly becoming “Jim Carroll, Rock ‘n’ Roll Poet.” That’s when he found his groove. Sing-speaking the song, I Want The Angel<\/em>, from the Jim Carroll Band’s first album, Catholic Boy<\/em>, the 6-foot-4-inch Carroll lurched around the stage, exhibiting more confidence in his delivery than he showed all night. Holding a microphone in his right hand, he rolled his left through the air to jibe with the cadence of his choppy words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the last pieces he read, Eight Fragments for Kurt Cobain<\/em>, found the one-time heroin addict lamenting the early departure of the Nirvana front man: “Pressure, that’s how diamonds are formed . . . But why won’t we ever hear another riff, another feverish line? . . . That’s what I don’t understand . . . That’s what’s always kept me alive<\/em>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chronically crotchety Rooney no doubt would have whined about the non-primetime material that embodies Carroll’s work. He would have been impressed, though, by the lack of stone-faced slackers one sees at most rock ‘n’ roll events these days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Carroll is poet for the 20-somethingsBy Aaron BeckColumbus Dispatch, 10 Nov. 1997 Twenty-somethings are constantly badgered by the Andy Rooneys of the world for being apathetic and having short attention spans. Had the Rooney clique been in Little Brother’s for a night of spoken word with Jim Carroll, it would have witnessed a striking … Continue reading Jim Carroll is poet for the 20-somethings (1997)<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-10352","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-2GY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5724,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/jim-carroll-at-university-of-new-hampshire\/","url_meta":{"origin":10352,"position":0},"title":"Jim Carroll at University\u00a0of New Hampshire","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Carroll at University of New HampshireDurham, NH23 September 1997Review by Holly BedardThe New Hampshire Online26 September 1997 Chris Rowe\/Staff Photographer Author, poet, musician Jim Carroll looked out into the sea of over 350 faces that came to see him in the Strafford Room of the MUB Tuesday night. His\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Jim Carroll by Chris Rowe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/rowe.gif.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3999,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/death-notices-tributes\/","url_meta":{"origin":10352,"position":1},"title":"Death Notices & Tributes","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It will take a while to get the hundreds of notices documented, so I will post this page as \"in progress.\" At least initially (almost) all articles will be available in PDF format only. If you found something not listed here, please email me the details. Thanks! Addington, Carrie. \"Poet\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/background\/about-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":10352,"position":2},"title":"About Jim Carroll","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"May 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Need to update story! A \"*\" next to a link means I need to make a new page for the link to point to. Download this as a PDF Lynn Hirschberg, describing a Jim Carroll Band concert in 1980, before the release of\u00a0Catholic Boy, reported overhearing a\u00a0Oui\u00a0photographer remark, \"You're watching\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art - Catholic Boy (1980) - by The Jim Carroll Band","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cboy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4163,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":10352,"position":3},"title":"Feature Articles","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Feature articles are general interest articles about Jim Carroll. Some of them include interviews and reviews and, as such, are also included in the Interviews and other areas within the Research Library of the site. These articles are arranged in chronological order. Ted Berrigan, \"Jim Carroll.\" Culture Hero 1.5 (1969).Poet\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10052,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-biographies\/jim-carroll-sonic-net\/","url_meta":{"origin":10352,"position":4},"title":"Jim Carroll – Sonic.net","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"June 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"from Sonic.Net To rock audiences, Jim Carroll's crowning achievement was the near-hit \"People Who Died,\" a brutally emotional punk record saluting the victims of the New York drug culture. In truth, however, Carroll's artistic legacy was considerably more complex and far-ranging -- an acclaimed novelist, poet, actor and spoken-word performer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5880,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/jim-carroll-and-lenny-kaye-at-cornell-university-1997\/","url_meta":{"origin":10352,"position":5},"title":"Jim Carroll and Lenny Kaye Sound Off in Statler Show","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Cornell University, 3 March 1997 Review by Jade Chang, Cornell Chronicle Musician and author Jim Carroll sings one of his self-penned rock songs, with accompaniment from guitarist Lenny Kaye, at Statler Auditorium on March 3. Jim Carroll performing at Cornell University -- Photo by Denise Weldon\/University Photography Author, poet, musician\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Jim Carroll","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/chang.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10355,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10352\/revisions\/10355"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=10352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}