A couple of weeks back, I was lucky enough to attend the Irish-American Writers & Artists, Inc’s benefit and cocktail party for their annual Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award, in this particular instance honoring storied journalist/author Pete Hamill. As a long-time fan of Mr. Hammill’s, I had a great time (although I was shocked to see the author confined to a wheelchair following some sort of hip surgery). He certainly doesn’t need my help in evangelizing his work, but if you haven’t read any of Hammill’s stuff — even if you’re not feverishly steeped in all things New York City — you’re truly missing out.
In any case, this is the third such ceremony I’ve attended of this organization’s. My good friend (an accomplished author himself) Rob D. invited me to one a few years back, and I was hooked. The entire time I was at this past one, though, I was thinking of another great Irish-American writer/artist from New York City who I think would also be ripe for such an honor, were he sadly not already dead. That writer is Jim Carroll.
I’ve written about my fandom for Jim Carroll here before — most notably about the greatness of “People Who Died” — but the man was truly so much more than that solitary song (and the less said about the cinematic adaptation of “The Basketball Diaries” the better).
As with Pete Hamill, I’m not exactly going out on any precarious limbs espousing Jim’s celebrated books like “The Basketball Diaries,” “Forced Entries,” or his posthumously published “The Petting Zoo.” All his work — to say nothing of his music with the mighty Jim Carroll Band — is worth your time. I’m particularlly fond of his 1991 spoken word album, Praying Mantis. It’s probably out of print by this point, but it’s a sincerely a great listening experience.
Anyway, maybe his material is a little on the dark, gritty and frankly druggy side, but I think the IAW&A, Inc. ought to tip their hat to ol’ Jim. He certainly earned it.
With all that in mind, I have two thing to expound on. First up, I did a random search earlier in the evening on Halloween (before I escorted my little children on their search-&-feverishly-consume mission of Trick-or-Treating) and found this gem. Here’s a crazy-rare clip of the Jim Carroll Band tearing through “People Who Died” at San Francisco’s legendary Mabuhay Gardens in 1978.
Given Jim’s cemented status as being New York City to the very bone, I figured I could probably dig up some photographs of the man in and around Manhattan, but you’d be surprised — there doesn’t seem to be much out there. There are multiple great shots of the JCB rocking out onstage with Keith Richards (photographed at the Trax, a club up on West 72nd Street….no longer there, obviously), but otherwise, the best photograph of Jim Carroll in Manhattan that serves my usual purposes (i.e. can you spot the location?) is this one below…
Pictured with the similarly inclined Patti Smith (I’ve already written enough about her, no need to delve further), here’s an early shot of a hirsute Jim Carroll standing in front of a gate. I have scoured the net, but can find no credit for this image. I have zero idea who took it, but given the length of Jim’s hair, it probably dates back to the early 70’s, comparable to this picture of him taken by photographer (and former Warhol superstar and whip-dancer) Gerard Malanga in 1971.
Quite similar to this shot of Patti with Robert Mapplethorpe, (which turned out to be taken on Washington Mews), I feel certain that his photograph was taken in Manhattan. But…the question remains….where was this shot snapped?
Have at it, campers...here's a larger version.....
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