Jim Carroll. Last punk era

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

America is known for its many extraordinary personalities in the creative world. The writer, poet and punk musician Jim Carroll belonged to such people. He was one of the most iconic writers of the post-Beat generation, gaining popularity with the general public for his poetry and The Basketball Diary. Carroll was a true heir to the beat tradition. His poems were inspired by the street and read in bars. And with his rebellious music, Jim Carroll has had a significant impact on modern rock music.

Jim Carroll biography

James Dennis Carroll was born into a Catholic family of Irish origin on August 1, 1949 in the Lower East Side, a working-class area of New York. His father was the hereditary owner of the bar. When Jim was 11 years old, the family moved to the northern part of Manhattan, to Inwood. Teenager Jim was a rebellious character. Hisappearance, especially long hair, and lifestyle caused many family squabbles with a conservative father. Jim has been addicted to drugs since he was 13.

In 1963, Carroll entered a regular Catholic school. Here his skill in playing basketball was manifested, he became a local sports star. Everything foreshadowed a happy career as a basketball player. After some time, Jim won an athletic scholarship to the elite private school Trinity, where he studied from 1964 to 1968. At the same time, Carroll discovered in himself a craving and talent for writing, attended poetry seminars. He described his turbulent teenage years in notebooks, which he kept from the age of 12 to 16. Later, they formed the basis of his cult work "The Diary of a Basketball Player".

Literary activity. Home

Jim Carroll's first collection of poetry, Organic Trains, was released in a limited edition in 1967, when Jim was only 18 years old. He was immediately noticed as a talented poet by such venerable beat writers as Allen Ginsberg, Ted Berrigan and Jack Kerouac. In 1970, a second collection of poetry, 4 Ups and 1 Down, was published, and excerpts from Jim Carroll's teenage notebooks were printed in the Paris Review. After these publications, Carroll firmly established himself as a literary talent and gained fame as one of the best poets of his generation, earning comparison with Arthur Rimbaud.

In the early 70s, Jim briefly worked with the artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol, who was fascinated by the young poet. He wrotedialogues for his films and even starred in two films. At the same time, he met and lived together with the American singer and poetess, the "godmother" of punk rock Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, a photographer.

Music activities

In 1973, with a great desire to get rid of drug addiction, Jim Carroll left New York and settled in Bolinas, California, north of San Francisco. For several years he enjoyed a creative solitude. He wrote poetry and lyrical songs, hatching the idea of writing lyrics for musical performers. Here, Jim Carroll's personal life changed - he met Rosemary Clemfuss and married her in 1978. Unfortunately, their union ended in divorce, but they remained friends all their lives.

Jim Carroll's musical career began by accident. In 1978, Patti Smith came on tour to California, and invited Jim to perform on stage with her band - reading poetry in the background. The audience greeted Carroll enthusiastically.

Jim Carroll decided to create his own musical group. Thus was born the punk band The Jim Carroll Band. Soon she was noticed by the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who helped the band in organizing a recording contract for 3 years.

The group released their first record called Catolic boy in 1980 and was a resounding success. It is considered the last big punk album. In 1982 and 1983, two more records were released, not as popular as the first,followed by a break of 14 years. The band's songs are considered American punk classics. Jim Carroll again turned to musical creativity only in 1998, recording the album Mercury Pools.

Literary activity. Continued

In 1978, Jim Carroll's autobiographical book, Diary of a Basketball Player, was published. This is a series of disgusting events in the life of a teenager abandoned by parents and society, rapidly falling to the very bottom. By the end of the book, the hero from a successful athlete turns into a real drug addict, capable of anything for the sake of a dose. In 1995, based on this work, a film was released in which Jim Carroll was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

During the break of his musical career (from 1983 to 1998) Carroll fully returned to literature. During this time, he published three collections of poetry, recorded several audio books, and spoke at public literary evenings.

But all of Jim Carroll's late creative activity was no longer as successful as the early one, although he had a lot of fans.

Last year

Jim Carroll fell often throughout his life, but he knew how to be reborn like a Phoenix bird from the ashes. This lifestyle was detrimental to his he alth. American writer Jim Carroll spent the last year of his life in the house where he grew up, finishing his first and last autobiographical novel, The Petting Zoo. The novel was published in 2010, after the death of the author.

Jim is ill on his last dayfelt: pneumonia and hepatitis C were making themselves felt. He died of a heart attack while working at his desk on September 11, 2009.

Jim Carroll bibliography

Poetry collections:

• 1967 - OrganicTrains;
• 1970 - 4 Ups and 1 Down;
• 1973 - Living at the Movies;
• 1986 - The Book of Nods;
• 1993 - Fear of Dreaming;
• 1998 - Void of Course: Poems 1994-1997.

Prose:

• 1978 - Basketball Diary;
• 1987 - Diaries 1971-1973;
• 2010 - The Petting Zoo.