Lunch Break: Jim Carroll Band, “Wicked Gravity”

What else would I be doing during the day than working and listening to KTKE? Even if baseball is on in the background, the volume is down, essentially sparing me the observations of commentators explaining what I can see for myself.

This time, the nugget from the past they hit me with was Wicked Gravity by the Jim Carroll Band

Carroll was a young poet who emerged from the New York arts scene of the late 70’s, along with Patti Smith and Robert Maplethorpe, with whom he apparently shared living space as the punk movement was burgeoning.

He published an autobiographical volume, The Basketball Diaries, in 1978 that dealt with his adolescence, sex, shooting hoops in high school, and drugs, specifically the author’s heroin addiction.

Largely a product of a Catholic upbringing, the young poet hit the music scene to, forming a band and releasing a decent enough first album, Catholic Boy.

The big hit from the disc was For All the People Who Died, but I always dug the cut here, Wicked Gravity a little more as a song.

Apparently this clip was posted on YouTube by Carroll Band bass player Steve Lisnley, who noted the video is from the band’s final live performance.

Carroll produced music, prose, and poetry through 2000. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 60 from a heart attack, and one posthumous volume, The Petting Zoo was released in 2010.

 

One thought on “Lunch Break: Jim Carroll Band, “Wicked Gravity”

  1. I think the Basketball Diaries is a fantastic book. Jim Carroll wrote it. The Jim Carroll Band recorded “People Who Died”, which is also fantastic.

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