"People Who Died"

[Moonlit_Angel]

Has anyone heard this song? It's by the Jim Carroll Band.

It's a creepy song. And depressing-if I were that guy, I'd feel like I had a curse on my head, having all these people around me dying (seriously, who the hell would drink Draino on their wedding night? An even better question, why would anyone drink Draino, period?)

And yet, despite the fact that it's depressing and creepy...I like the song.

How about you guys?

Angela

 

[daisybean]

Have you ever read or seen the movie "The Basketball Diaries" ? It's about his teen years as a drug addict. A lot of people in the song are in the book.

 

[Hewson]

"Eddie I miss you more than all the others, this song is for you my brother."

If you like "People Who Died", check out Jim Carroll's "Its Too Late".

 

[notiti]

They were all my friends - they just died....

 

[deep in HELL]

THEY DIED!

THEY DIED!


I saw Jim Carroll Band at the Whiskey on Sunset Blvd. in the 80s.

Real cool! Great live show. He had a heroin problem.

But still burned the place down.

I have a couple of his vynal lps.

I saw him again in the 90s. It was a spoken word show.

Good, but not the intensity of before.




edit to correct dates

 

[joyfulgirl]

I saw him with Marianne Faithful at the Bottom Line in NYC in the mid-80's. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of him whatsoever, although I'm pretty sure it was also spoken word (that part seems vaguely familiar now that deep mentioned it). Marianne Faithful's performance, however, remains vivid in my memory.

 

[deep in HELL]

Teenage junkie, basketball addict, and literary shooting star (he completed the justly revered Basketball Diaries when he was 16), Carroll transforms himself into a postpunk lead singer on his debut album. And a fairly successful transition it is. Crisp, rhythmic guitar lines set the stage for his tales of New York City lowlifes, junkies, and three rather salacious sisters. It's a bleak record and a hopeful one--a peculiar and peculiarly Catholic mix; at least, that's how Carroll accounts for it in the title track ("I'm a Catholic boy, redeemed through pain, not through joy)." The formula really comes together in the unforgettable "People Who Died," as Carroll salutes a litany of ODs, suicides, and other fatalities. If this isn't one of the '80s' greatest albums, it certainly has one of the decade's greatest songs. --Percy Keegan