{"id":4186,"date":"2022-01-10T22:17:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T22:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?page_id=4186"},"modified":"2023-03-28T15:08:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T22:08:15","slug":"deletethe-first-time-i-heard-jim-carroll-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/deletethe-first-time-i-heard-jim-carroll-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\nHome<\/a> > Research<\/a> > Feature Articles<\/a> > The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll, by Jonathan Lethem<\/span><\/p>\n

The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll<\/h1>\n

By Jonathan Lethem
\nGentlemen’s Quarterly<\/i>, August 2002<\/span><\/p>\n

In the August 2002 issue of GQ (with Vin Diesel on the cover), “Nine writers remember
\nthe first time they heard the music that changed their lives.” The nine writers
\nare Kurt Loder, Eric Bogosian, David Gates, Russell Banks, Junot Diaz, T.C. Boyle,
\nJoe Jackson, Terrence Rafferty, and . . . waaay back on page 175, Jonathan Lethem.
\n— Cassie<\/em><\/p>\n

The summer of 1980,
\nI was 16 and unpersuasively cool. I listened to the Ramones and clung to a thin
\nclaim of having been “there”–meaning CBGB, which at the time let you in without
\nan ID. But I meant to be a writer and had begun favoring Talking Heads and Elvis
\nCostello, music that buffered emotionality in layers of cleverness and metaphor
\nand postures of alienation. I spent a lot of afternoons at my desk, writing stuff
\nthat wasn’t any good. One such day that summer, the deejay on WNEW came on and
\nannounced a debut single “by a New York poet turned rock ‘n’ roller.” I sneered
\nin advance–this would probably be some flowery singer-songwriter, about as tough
\nas Billy Joel. Then the deejay dropped the needle on Jim Carroll’s “People Who
\nDied,” which by the end of one snarling, anguished chorus had wrecked the walls
\nof my pretensions. The song was a ticking bomb of rage at loss–They were all
\nmy friends, and they died!<\/i> Carroll moans, as astonished that he’s found a
\nvoice to report it as he is at the gruesome fact of death itself. Though I’d have
\nto learn the lesson a thousand times again, Carroll’s channeled beatnik vulnerability,
\nshrouded in punk rage, was the first rebuke to my foolish hope that being a writer
\ncould mean skirting my emotions. No, it would always mean ramming straight into
\nthem. Carroll had put me on notice.<\/p>\n

The deejay let
\nthe song finish, then immediately played it again: He–and I–was that impressed.
\nI still am. Nothing else of Carroll’s has had that impact on me, but it hardly
\nmatters; “People Who Died” is breaking me open still, and there’s room for only
\nso many songs like that in your life. Even if Carroll had somehow managed a career
\nthat kept that song’s impossible promise, punk–or life–isn’t always about keeping
\nthe promises you make but daring to make them in the first place. That’s what
\n“People Who Died” knew that I didn’t and why it broke my heart twice quickly in
\nsuccession, before I’d completely understood it could be broken–and why the song
\ngoes on breaking it now that I’ve learned.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lethem is the author of Motherless Brooklyn<\/i>; Amnesia Moon<\/i>; Gun, with
\nOccasional Music<\/i>; and other works. Click on the images below for
\nmore information on Amazon.com.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2002 Gentlemen’s Quarterly<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home > Research > Feature Articles > The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll, by Jonathan Lethem The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll By Jonathan Lethem Gentlemen’s Quarterly, August 2002 In the August 2002 issue of GQ (with Vin Diesel on the cover), “Nine writers remember the first time they heard the music that … Continue reading The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":4163,"menu_order":12,"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":[80],"class_list":["post-4186","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-15w","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":729,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/the-first-time-i-heard-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4186,"position":0},"title":"The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jonathan LethemGentlemen's Quarterly, August 2002 In the August 2002 issue of GQ (with Vin Diesel on the cover), \"Nine writers remember the first time they heard the music that changed their lives.\" The nine writers are Kurt Loder, Eric Bogosian, David Gates, Russell Banks, Junot Diaz, T.C. Boyle, Joe\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4163,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":4186,"position":1},"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":4165,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/articles-poems-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4186,"position":2},"title":"Articles & Poems by Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Man Who Sold the World.\"\u00a0By Jim Carroll.\u00a0New York Times Book Review, 1 Dec. 2002.Carroll reviews Kurt Cobain's\u00a0Journals: \"It's fascinating like a car wreck, and I, for one, wish that only the music survived his death.\" \"I Shot a Deer.\" By Jim Carroll.\u00a0Gentlemen's Quarterly, January 2002: 113-14.GQ\u00a0asked five writers to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4060,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/jim-carroll-music-and-spoken-word\/music-jim-carroll-jim-carroll-band\/runaway-e-p\/","url_meta":{"origin":4186,"position":3},"title":"Runaway EP","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Cover Art - Runaway EP (2000) - by Jim Carroll Runaway E.P.By Jim CarrollKill Rock Stars, 2000 Get this on AmazonSee also: Lyrics and Audio Library SONGS: Runaway Hairshirt Fracture (DEMO) I Want the Angel (LIVE) It's Too Late (LIVE) Falling Down Laughing (LIVE) Liner Notes PRODUCED BY ROBERT ROTH;\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art - Runaway EP (2000) - by Jim Carroll","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/runaway.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/background\/about-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4186,"position":4},"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":4175,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/articles-poems-by-jim-carroll\/i-shot-a-deer\/","url_meta":{"origin":4186,"position":5},"title":"I Shot a Deer","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jim CarrollGentlemen's Quarterly January 2002 (pp. 113-14) In its January 2002 issue (with Hugh Jackman on the cover), GQ ran a feature titled \"My First Time,\" explaining, \"Before every big discovery, there's a journey into virgin territory. We asked five great writers for five great coming-of-age stories.\" The five\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4186","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6996,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4186\/revisions\/6996"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}