Poet/Musician Jim Carroll Dies at Age 60

Jim Carroll, author, poet, and musician, died Friday at age 60. If you don't know his music, you may know his book, The Basketball Diaries, on which the movie was based (to a large degree anyway). He was like a male version of Patti Smith, taking his poetry and putting it to music in 70s NY, only his, for a long time, included the back beat of heroin.

Carroll's song "People Who Died" is a blood-pumping homage to Carroll's friends who passed on, one very much with Ramones-like riffs that make you want to start pogoing from its opening chords. Drive By Truckers have been covering it as a show ender for some time now. Patterson Hood does it serious justice.

RIP Jim...



Give a Listen: People Who Died (Jim Carroll cover)-Drive By Truckers, Charlottesville, VA, 9-20-08