RIP Jim

One of my very first posts on Hootenanny was about Jim Carroll. His death last Friday reminded me of college summers drinking cheap, no-name whiskey purchased from the bargain bin, smoking what little dope we had and speeding along dirt roads in my Buick Opel in the middle of the night listening to the Jim Carroll Band's "Catholic Boy" on a battery powered cassette player. Jim was an American icon during a long era of great, batshit-crazy writers beginning in the 50's and 60's and including the likes of Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Bukowski. It was writing based in authenticity and as Thompson referred to it, "bad craziness", drugs and alcohol. I learned a new way to write by reading them and though I tried to write like them too, never quite hit the mark. And now Jim's dead too. Rest in peace Jim Carroll, you will be missed.

5.29.2006

if nothing is true ... then everything's permitted



Jim Carroll
A Catholic Boy and a great American poet.