{"id":4188,"date":"2022-01-10T22:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T06:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?page_id=4188"},"modified":"2025-03-08T15:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T23:37:07","slug":"brian-marnell","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/articles-poems-by-jim-carroll\/brian-marnell\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Marnell: He Overcame Heroin, Then Died on the Way Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Joel Selvin, Pop Music Critic 1983 (source unknown)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Brian Marnell: The creative force behind SVT.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Note: the majority of the article is a letter written by Jim Carroll to Marnell’s family.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Songwriter-guitarist Brian Marnell died last month, ironically, after fighting and overcoming a heroin habit. As the creative force behind SVT, Marnell was a real talent and could have been a contender. His song, “Heart of Stone,” while only released on a small local label, made plenty of noise–and was later recorded by Marty Balin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before his death, Marnell traveled to New York to record a song he wrote with Jim Carroll, whose new album is expected later this month. Carroll, author of the acclaimed “The Basketball Diaries” and a Pulitzer Prize noininee while still in his teens, wrote an emotional tribute to his friend and musical associate and sent it to Marnell’s, family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I felt sadness,” wrote Carroll. “I felt confusion . . . I felt anger at the theft of another talented musician and another friend. That very week, two or three days prior to his death, I spoke with at least three common friends who had spoken to Brian and commented on his good spirits and his desire for more work. He had been writing new songs, expressing renewed ambitions. There are other angers I felt, other contributors to the theft. There are no reasons I feel it necessary to name them here and now . . . suffice to say that these robbers have claimed too many. Brian should have been spared. “He had outdistanced this enemy to life and spirit, had put months between it and himself. The gossipmongers will have their tales to wag, but the facts contradict all that. Brian Marnell was clean. His body was simply weak. He was inexperienced in the process … in the motions of outrunning the insidious manifestation of a notion all pervasive and WRONG. That is the tragedy; it was that inexperience that killed . . . he let his weight drop drastically, even as his spirit began to rise and fight and win. Brian loved life. He was giving . . . innocent and naive as a teardrop. It is those who want to escape that become escape artists. Brian wanted to escape nothing; he wanted to plunge straight ahead. He was taken only by a misguided notion, guilty only to the allure of a false romance. His body was too weak as he tried to reclaim it. A toll had been taken. A lesson should be learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I, in a selfish sense, lost a lot. Brian was a newfound and powerful collaborator. We had been friends for years, and always spoke of working together. It was only in this past year we got it together. I sent Brian some lyrics for my new LP. He sent back a demo of incredible force. He came to New York to play on that song, and wound up playing a spare stinging lead on another song and backing vocals on what seems like everything on the record. To me, the song we wrote together is in many ways the strongest on the album . . . it is surely my personal favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wanted more, but I’m glad we got what we did. There was a strong chance that he was going to become a member of the group when we began touring on the record’s release. We lost that, as well . . . but, again, his work is there, preserved by the grooves. His spirit is there, too. In these ways, Brian did leave the thief quite far in the distance. The last word was his . . . in his music, his spirit, in the friends who mourn his death, their loss. Think about his song ‘Heart of Stone.’ It’s pure craft and inspiration. It comes from a timeless place, that type of music. I demand he is not forgotten, in each and all of many ways, in his life and in his death.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To close one song on his album, Carroll picked pieces of five poems and five musicians read them slmultaneously into one microphone. He gave Marnell some lines from “Seasons in Hell” by Rimbaud: “Am I to be carried off like a child, to play in paradise, forgetful of all sorrow? … Spiritual combat is as brutal as the battle of men, but the vision of justice is the pleasure of God alone . . . Meanwhile, this is the vigil. Welcome then, all the influx of his vigor and real tenderness. And, in the dawn, armed with ardent patience, he shall enter magnificent cities.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joel Selvin, Pop Music Critic 1983 (source unknown) Note: the majority of the article is a letter written by Jim Carroll to Marnell’s family. Songwriter-guitarist Brian Marnell died last month, ironically, after fighting and overcoming a heroin habit. As the creative force behind SVT, Marnell was a real talent and could have been a … Continue reading Brian Marnell: He Overcame Heroin, Then Died on the Way Back<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":4165,"menu_order":5,"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":[50],"class_list":["post-4188","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-15y","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4059,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/jim-carroll-music-and-spoken-word\/music-jim-carroll-jim-carroll-band\/i-write-your-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":4188,"position":0},"title":"I Write Your Name","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I Write Your NameBy The Jim Carroll BandAtlantic, 1984 Get this on Amazon.comSee also: Lyrics and Audio Library Cover Art - I Write Your Name (1984) - by The Jim Carroll Band SONGS: Love Crimes (No More) Luxuries Voices Sweet Jane (by Lou Reed) Hold Back the Dream Freddy's Store\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art - I Write Your Name (1984) - by The Jim Carroll Band","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/iwyn_cover_new.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4165,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/articles-poems-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4188,"position":1},"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":4000,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/innocence-lost-solidarity-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":4188,"position":2},"title":"Innocence Lost; Solidarity Found: A Personal Encounter with Jim Carroll at the Great American Music Hall","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Liz KatoSan Francisco, CA 11 September 1996 9 December 1999 Fast becoming my new idol, Jim Carroll--author of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries--is an icon, in certain respects, of how I want to be, in writing, speaking, and making music. As the night of his spoken performance in San Francisco approached, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9531,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/background\/friends-influences\/important-people-in-carrolls-life-and-work\/artistic-influences-mentors-supporters\/ted-berrigan\/","url_meta":{"origin":4188,"position":3},"title":"Ted Berrigan","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"May 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Ted Berrigan (1934 - 1983) is one of the most important figures in Jim Carroll's life and work. Having just published his first book of poems,\u00a0Organic Trains, in 1967 (when he was 18), Carroll gave a copy of the book to Berrigan, one of his literary idols. Berrigan published what\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\/05\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4163,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":4188,"position":4},"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":4188,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4188","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=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9033,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4188\/revisions\/9033"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}