{"id":729,"date":"2022-01-07T19:44:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T03:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/?page_id=729"},"modified":"2025-03-05T20:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:08:04","slug":"the-first-time-i-heard-jim-carroll","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/the-first-time-i-heard-jim-carroll\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jonathan Lethem
Gentlemen’s Quarterly, August 2002<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Jackson, Terrence Rafferty, and . . . waaay back on page 175, Jonathan Lethem. — Cassie<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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

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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 Jackson, Terrence Rafferty, and . … Continue reading The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4163,"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":[39],"class_list":["post-729","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-bL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4186,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/deletethe-first-time-i-heard-jim-carroll-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":0},"title":"The First Time I Heard Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4163,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":729,"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":4175,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/articles-poems-by-jim-carroll\/i-shot-a-deer\/","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":2},"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":[]},{"id":3984,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-tour-log-1995-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":3},"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":7873,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-biographies\/almanac-of-famous-people-1998\/","url_meta":{"origin":729,"position":4},"title":"Almanac of Famous People (1998)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"April 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Almanac of Famous People, 6th ed. Gale Research, 1998 Jim Carroll Also known as: James Dennis Carroll Born: August 1, 1951 in New York, New York, United States Nationality: American Occupation: Poet, Singer Source:\u00a0Almanac of Famous People, 6th ed. Gale Research, 1998Rock composer who depicts NYC brutality; wrote Pulitzer nominee\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":729,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/729","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=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8576,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/729\/revisions\/8576"}],"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=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}