The Jim Carroll Band

An old favorite of mine, I loved the "Catholic Boy" LP when it was released....today it sounds horribly dated,
one of the worst-aging albums in rock history, but that is the way it goes sometimes.....not that we care, Carroll was a fine singer/writer, was profiled in the movie "The Basketball Diaries" (In which he was played by Leonard DiCapprio), (you may also wish to look into his writing)....anyway, I STILL love "Catholic Boy" (1980), there are some incredible songs on there (notably "It's Too Late", "Wicked Gravity", "Crow", "City Drops Into the Night", and more)....dragging the album down a bit is the best known song, "People Who Died" which has NOT aged well, not at all, it's almost (sadly) comical to listen to the details of the deaths of Carroll's childhood pals, BUT, ignore that and you hear some fine Stones-ish rock, it really IS a fab album, although it is almost the definition of a "period piece".......

He had only one good album in him, and "Catholic Boy" was it......I happen to have his two other studio releases, "Dry Dreams" and "Pools of Mercury"........in two words, THEY SUCK.....BUT, I'm sharing them just because.....well, they ARE sort of rare (and for decent reason!)

OK, MUCH better than that are these two fab live boots, one from Boston (1980) and one from New York (1981)......these are really pretty great, drawing on a lot of "Catholic Boy" material, using some alternate lyrics for "It's Too Late (an actual reference to Reverend Sun Myung Moon!), a fab cover of "Sweet Jane" (in which he changes the lyric from "Riding in a Stutz Bearcat Jim" to "Riding in a Stutz Bearcat Lou", quite a cool small tribute if you ask me)....I wouldnt steer ya wrong....these boots are GREAT.....the other studio LP's? Well, procede with caution, you'll see if you venture there.......

OK, love me some Jim Carroll Band, they were a fave of mine ca. 1980......only one good album, but he made his mark, a couple of good books, a good movie made about his life, and, of course, "Catholic Boy"......hope ya like these, it's been YEARS since I've put them up, if you dig up on these congratulations, you are truly a leftover from the late 1970's, just like, well, me.......live with it or revel in it, it's life one way or the other.......

BTW if anyone has any other Carroll boots, that would be fantastic if you could share them!

CATHOLIC BOY-01 Wicked Gravity/02 Three Sisters/03 Day and Night/04 Nothing Is True/05 People Who Died/06 City Drops Into the Night/07 Crow/08 It's Too Late/09 I Want the Angel/10 Catholic Boy

DRY DREAMS-01 Work Not Play/02 Dry Dreams/03 Them/04 Jealous Twin/05 Lorraine/06 Jody/07 Barricades/08 Evangaline/09 Rooms/10 Still Life

POOLS OF MERCURY-01 Train Surfing/02 Falling Down Laughing/03 Zeno's Law of High-Heeled Shoes/04 Desert Town/05 It Goes/06 My Ruins/07 Pools of Mercury/08 Things That Fly/09 I Am Not Kurt Schwitters/10 Hairshirt Fracture/11 Female as Thunder/12 Cinco de Mayo-Message Left on a Phone Machine/13 The Beast Within/14 8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain

12/1/80 BOSTON-01 Intro-Wicked Gravity/02 Three Sisters/03 City Drops Into the Night/04 Catholic Boy/05 It's Too Late/06 Voices/07 Crow/08 Lorraine/09 Nothing Is True/10 People Who Died/11 Dialogue/12 Sweet Jane

LONG ISLAND NY 12/27/81-01 Wicked Gravity/02 It's Too Late/03 Catholic Boy/04 Nothing Is True/05 Day and Night/06 I Want the Angel/07 People Who Died

Jim Carroll.....long gone, long forgotten......"Catholic Boy" is a great early 1980's remnant, is a semi-classic,
and the boots are totally fab as well......the other studio LP's? Well, at the very least, they are kind of hard to find......please check some of this if unfamiliar, and by all means check the movie "The Basketball Diaries", it's tremendous IMO and gives us as good a picture of Carroll as we are likely ever to get.

Again.....ANYONE have any other Carroll material? It's hard to find shit.....would be tremendous if someone out there had another boot, some more studio shit, or, really ANYTHING !