{"id":4205,"date":"2022-01-10T22:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T22:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?page_id=4205"},"modified":"2025-03-05T18:25:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T02:25:58","slug":"catholic-boy-jim-carroll-returns-to-rock","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carrolls-interviews\/catholic-boy-jim-carroll-returns-to-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Boy Jim Carroll Returns to Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interview by Lisa Scott,
CatholicBoy.com 1998<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After fourteen years, Jim Carroll dives back into rock and roll with Pools of Mercury<\/em> (Mercury), a brilliant hybrid album combining music-backed spoken-word and song-structured rock and roll. Despite many attempts to get Jim back into the studio, it took a collaboration with producer Anton Sanko to make it happen. With the completion of Void of Course<\/em>, a new collection of poetry, Carroll intended to record an album of spoken-word performances set to music. Instead, the sessions evolved into Carroll’s first rock record since his three albums with the Jim Carroll Band in the 1980’s. According to Jim “The dam broke loose,” and the result is the best of both Carroll worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You once said you had no desire to do another rock album, so how did Pools of Mercury come about?<\/strong>
A lot of the pieces in Void of Course<\/em> were more lyrical, so I thought about doing a spoken- word album with music. I’d already done one without music…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Praying Mantis…<\/strong>
Yeah, and that was kind of a defiant thing to do with no music at all. But most guys just want to jam on top of the stuff, you know. So, I’d worked with Anton Sanko on this Jack Kerouac tribute album. I also knew him as Suzanne Vega’s producer and keyboardist, and his take on producing spoken-word was, well he’d never done it before but he wrote movie music, and I just figured he’d be good for spoken-word. Anton’s approach is different – it’s about the rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did this approach work in setting your poems to music?<\/strong>
He wanted certain syllables to hit with the downbeat, so it was really very precise. And you can do that now with a computer program that allows you to move words around. You can get a longer pause if you need one or if you want to stretch out a syllable, you can. I did a lot of readings and we chose the best one, the one that was the most heartfelt and with the right tempo. Then we just used the computer to move the words a bit if it didn’t work with the beat. And that’s the difference with Anton. He works on rhythm where other guys just work on jamming out over it, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So initially this was planned as an album of spoken-word set to music. How did the rock songs come about?<\/strong>
I played the band “Falling Down Laughing,” a song originally written for The Basketball Diaries<\/em> movie. I had these great musicians there, and I figured they were just so good, we’d rerecord that song. Once we started, this whole rock and roll energy fell into it. Then the guys in the band started giving me songs to write lyrics to, and it was like the dam broke loose. Once that happened, it just became more of a rock and roll flavored album than a spoken-word album. Actually, the spoken-word pieces are a good counterpoint to the songs. It’s like a strange hybrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How were the musicians assembled for the project?<\/strong>
Anton got them together… his brother Eric, who plays with John Cale, and Tristen Avakian, who’s really a great guitar player, and Frank Valardi the drummer is just an amazing session drummer who’s been around for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a lot of great percussion on this album.<\/strong>
Yeah, like on “Hairshirt Fracture.” The original was very monotone, like a dirge. We added a lot of drums. Somebody said bongos–it’s not bongos. We did not use bongos on this record!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about a video?<\/strong>
I don’t know. I’ve always had a weird thing about videos. I’ve always thought people could make up better videos in their head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any plans to tour with the band?<\/strong>
No. The musicians are all in different bands. We might do another show in New York, maybe Boston or Philly. But it’s a big band, too, so it would be, like, a big production. We enjoyed the two shows we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NYC and Seattle. How did it feel to be performing rock and roll after fourteen years?<\/strong>
It was fantastic. Everybody just stood up the whole time. Usually there are chairs or people just sit on the floor for spoken-word, but they were just pressed up against the stage the whole time like it was a rock concert. Yeah, we had a great time, and we would love to do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 1998 Lisa Scott<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This interview was supposed to appear in HITS . . .<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview by Lisa Scott,CatholicBoy.com 1998 After fourteen years, Jim Carroll dives back into rock and roll with Pools of Mercury (Mercury), a brilliant hybrid album combining music-backed spoken-word and song-structured rock and roll. Despite many attempts to get Jim back into the studio, it took a collaboration with producer Anton Sanko to make it happen. With the … Continue reading Catholic Boy Jim Carroll Returns to Rock<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":3992,"menu_order":10,"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":[44],"class_list":["post-4205","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-15P","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4056,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/jim-carroll-music-and-spoken-word\/music-jim-carroll-jim-carroll-band\/","url_meta":{"origin":4205,"position":0},"title":"Music by Jim Carroll & The Jim Carroll Band","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Runaway EP Released: 2000 By: Jim Carroll Label: Kill Rock Stars Get this recording on Amazon Pools of Mercury Released: 1998 By: Jim Carroll Label: Mercury Get this recording on Amazon A World Without Gravity: The Best of the Jim Carroll Band Released: 1993 By: The Jim Carroll Band Label:\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":4211,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carrolls-interviews\/poet-jim-carroll-waxes-lyrical-on-return-to-rock\/","url_meta":{"origin":4205,"position":1},"title":"Poet Jim Carroll Waxes Lyrical On Return To Rock","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Colin DevenishEdited by Michael GoldbergSonicNet Music News of the World 24 November 1998 After 14 years out of rock scene, author\/singer returns with latest album of songs, Pools of Mercury. Contributing Editor Colin Devenish reports: After more than a decade out of the rock scene, poet and author Jim\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3992,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carrolls-interviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":4205,"position":2},"title":"Jim Carroll’s Interviews","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"These, arranged in reverse chronological order, represent just a few of Carroll's interviews. I continue to add more as I have time; most of the newest additions are PDFs. Margo Tiffen, A Previously Unpublished Jim Carroll Interview Surfaces.\" Poetry Foundation 17 May 2017. M. Patricia Li, \"Basketball Diaries Author Bounces\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4519,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/jim-carroll-music-and-spoken-word\/spoken-word-lecture-recordings-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4205,"position":3},"title":"Spoken-Word\/Lecture Recordings by Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"See also: Spoken-Word: Collaborations Pools of MercuryReleased: 1998By: Jim CarrollLabel: MercuryGenre: Music and spoken word Get this album on Amazon Curtis's Charm: Original Motion Picture SoundtrackReleased: 1996By: Music by Mark Korven with songs by My Brilliant BeastLabel: Rabid Dog ProductionsGenre: Film soundtrack Carroll reads \"Curtis's Charm,\" from Fear of Dreaming.\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\/naropa-university_174.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/naropa-university_174.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/naropa-university_174.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10044,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-biographies\/jim-carroll-mercury-records-biographical-sketch-1998\/","url_meta":{"origin":4205,"position":4},"title":"Jim Carroll: Mercury Records Biographical Sketch 1998","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"June 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Max's Kansas City has gone highbrow and Midtown; heroin has a chic; and punk rock has gone the acceptable and safe shopping mall route--not exactly the world Jim Carroll thrust himself into as a carpe diem teen and literary rookie genius. It's not the universe that welcomed The Jim Carroll\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4196,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-biographies\/jim-carroll-all-music-guide-2000\/","url_meta":{"origin":4205,"position":5},"title":"Jim Carroll – All Music Guide","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"All Music Guide (2000) *By Jason Ankeny Download PDF Born: 1949 in New York,NYGenre\/Styles: Rock, Proto-Punk, New Wave, PunkInstruments: Vocals, SongwriterLabels: Kill Rock Stars, Mercury, Atlantic, Giant (more) To rock audiences, Jim Carroll's crowning achievement was the hit \"People Who Died,\" a brutally emotional punk record saluting the victims of\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\/4205","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=4205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8511,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4205\/revisions\/8511"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}