Died On This Date (September 11, 2009) Jim Carroll / Proto Punk Great; Wrote “The Basketball Diaries”
themusicsover Jim Carroll
August 1, 1950 – September 11, 2009
Jim Carroll was a poet, author, purse snatcher, glue sniffer, male prostitute, heroin addict, post-punk rocker, and one of the greatest basketball players New York City has ever known. His troublesome early life was documented in his own memoirs, written between the ages of 12 and 16. They were later anthologized in best-selling The Basketball Diaries, which was the inspiration of a somewhat fictionalized film of the same name, starring Leonard DiCaprio as Carroll. He published his first book of poetry at the age of 17 and within a few years he was working for Andy Warhol writing script dialog, and later, co- managing his theater. At one point while still a teenager, Carroll became the youngest person ever nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He formed the Jim Carroll Band in 1978 with the help of Patti Smith, and soon released Catholic Boy. It’s “People Who Died” was an instant underground hit and is considered a staple of the New York punk scene of the era. The songs eulogizes his real life childhood friends, the “characters” from The Basketball Diaries. Carroll recorded several more albums of music and spoken word over the next few decades, but in recent years he was mostly writing poetry and fiction. Jim Carroll suffered a fatal heart attack on September 11, 2009.
What You Should Own
Beau Jocque was a Zydeco singer and accordion player who came to prominence in Louisiana during the ’90s. With his band, the Zydeco Hi-Rollers, Jocque injected rock and funk into the Zydeco sound, endearing him to fans throughout the local clubs. A big man, standing 6′ 6″ and weighing in at nearly 275 pounds, Jocque died of a fatal heart attack at the age of 46.
Bill Monroe was a bluegrass pioneer who more or less invented the genre whose name itself was derived from the moniker of his own band, the Blue Grass Boys. Born on the family farm in Kentucky, each of Monroe’s parents passed away by the time he was 16, so he spent the next two years living with his fiddle-playing uncle whom he often accompanied on mandolin at local gigs. When he was 18, Monroe formed the Monroe Brothers with his brother Charlie Monroe and two friends. The friends eventually left and the brothers continued as a duo, signing with RCA Victor in 1936. In 1940, Monroe formed the Blue Grass Boys which soon included banjo great, Earl Scruggs and guitarist 