Catholic Boy

Amazon.com
Teenage junkie, basketball addict, and literary shooting star (he completed the justly revered Basketball Diaries when he was 16), Carroll transforms himself into a postpunk lead singer on his debut album. And a fairly successful transition it is. Crisp, rhythmic guitar lines set the stage for his tales of New York City lowlifes, junkies, and three rather salacious sisters. It's a bleak record and a hopeful one--a peculiar and peculiarly Catholic mix; at least, that's how Carroll accounts for it in the title track ("I'm a Catholic boy, redeemed through pain, not through joy)." The formula really comes together in the unforgettable "People Who Died," as Carroll salutes a litany of ODs, suicides, and other fatalities. If this isn't one of the '80s' greatest albums, it certainly has one of the decade's greatest songs. --Percy Keegan

Catholic Boy,Jim Carroll Band,Atco,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

Catholic Boy

Average customer rating:

Jim Carroll - Poet and Rocker
I totally agree with blahblah
Truly the best
Something like a Dancer
An Underrated Classic

Catholic Boy
Jim Carroll Band
Manufacturer: Atco
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

American Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

New Wave | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

4-for-3 Alternative Rock | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 Pop | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

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A World Without Gravity : The Best Of The Jim Carroll Band
Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries: 1971-1973
The Basketball Diaries
Pools of Mercury
Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin)

ASIN: B000002IB6
Release Date: 1989-08-30

Tracks:

Wicked Gravity
Three Sisters
Day And Night
Nothing Is True
People Who Died
City Drops Into The Night
Crow
It's Too Late
I Want The Angel
Catholic Boy

Amazon.com

Teenage junkie, basketball addict, and literary shooting star (he completed the justly revered Basketball Diaries when he was 16), Carroll transforms himself into a postpunk lead singer on his debut album. And a fairly successful transition it is. Crisp, rhythmic guitar lines set the stage for his tales of New York City lowlifes, junkies, and three rather salacious sisters. It's a bleak record and a hopeful one--a peculiar and peculiarly Catholic mix; at least, that's how Carroll accounts for it in the title track ("I'm a Catholic boy, redeemed through pain, not through joy)." The formula really comes together in the unforgettable "People Who Died," as Carroll salutes a litany of ODs, suicides, and other fatalities. If this isn't one of the '80s' greatest albums, it certainly has one of the decade's greatest songs. --Percy Keegan

Customer Reviews:

Jim Carroll - Poet and Rocker.......2007-02-19

Nobody melds poetry and rock and roll better than on this album.
It's too bad in a way that most people only know "People Who Died" because the whole album is a stunner.
From start to finish, every song is a gem, with Carroll's disaffected vocals sharing the roar and rumble of a crackerjack rock band.
After releasing a classic such as this, it makes it all the more frustrating he couldn't follw it up.
The next album - "Dry Dreams" - has about two great cuts and that's it.
But do yourself a favor - if you like straight-up hard rock fronted by a NYC poet spewing gritty lyrics, this is for you.
I still play this 27 years later and it's just as fresh.

I totally agree with blahblah.......2007-01-26

SOLID 5 STARS

"One of the best Rock Albums of all time. He never got close again. For some strange reason the poet and the band just clicked on this one."

Exactly.

"I don't think any of them know why."

They couldn't do it again, that's for sure.

"Some of the best lyric poetry ever written"

At the same time sad, funny and scary. EVERY SONG.

"Very New York street city sound."

VERY New York. If you don't get New York you won't get this.

"Art at it's most honest level, no pretension."

Absolutely. Raw honesty. What Carroll does best. Brutal honesty.

"When the city drops into the night there's one moment of light, that's when everything seem clear, the other side, it seems so near."

Lyrics so good many have memorized into my brain. A straight ahead rock sound that somehow just fits the music perfectly.

Truly the best.......2007-01-06

This guy was sick. I enjoyed every minute of it. I first heard this album in the Navy in 1981 and remembered in my head for 25 years the song It's Too Late. I never noted who the artist was, however and was stranded with the memory of a great song that no longer was getting airplay. Fast forward...I had been searching for anything with Jim Carroll band for some time and finally...success. I get the CD's and of course Catholic Boy is the first I open. It is truly unique from beginning to end he barely sings, rather he talks with the music and it sounds great and what he has to say makes me more in tune to listen. The players are top notch as well. Why the hell do they not make more music like this and less of Creed.

Something like a Dancer.......2005-07-13

This is a very important, much-overlooked, fabulously rocking an poetic document of punk NYC at it's very best (did GG Allin ever record?)

I bought this when it first came out on vinyl as a college freshman (Pete Fornatale played People WHo Died during his 10-1 slot on the old WNEW) and have loved it ever since. I work out to it--I listen to it on the train--I write listening to it. I know Bryan Goluboff, who wrote the movie Basketball Diaries and I envy the fact that he got to know Jim (I didn't care for the movie, but I like the way BG plays basketball and he's a great dramatist). If you are a kid just coming up you have to get this and listen to City Drops (featuring Stones sax player Bobby Keyes) and I want the Angel...it'll blow yer mind.

An Underrated Classic.......2005-04-17

Jim Carroll delivers his finest work, out of three releases, here on Catholic Boy. Everything about this album is perfect: sharp songwriting, great lyrics, and playing that scorches. In a sense, Carroll has created an album that is direct, to the point and eloquenty captures the lives of the downtown NYC outsider; it's an album that Patti Smith should have recorded but didn't. Catholic Boy somehow is not mentioned in the pantheon of punk classics (due to the fact it was released in 79-80 not 1977)but it is deserving a greater merit.

Average customer rating:

simple but amazing
Surprising, but beautifully done
This is the one to get.

Catholic Classics, Vol. 5

Manufacturer: Gia Publications
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Christian Contemporary Music | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music

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Chants | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

Catholic Classics 1
Catholic Classics, Vol. 2
Catholic Latin Classics
May Angels Welcome You/ Catholic
Be Not Afraid

ASIN: B00005A0AE
Release Date: 2001-03-06

Tracks:

Shall We Gather At The River
Praise God From Whom All Blessing Flow
For The Beauty Of The Earth/Ubi Caritas
Ave Maria
Ave Verum Corpus
Panis Angelicus
How Great Thou Art
Amazing Grace
Go, Silent Friend/In Paradisum
We Gather Together/Adoro Te Devote
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
Simple Gifts

Customer Reviews:

simple but amazing.......2006-01-29

The guitar and vocals on this CD will blow you away. Of all of the Catholic Classics CDs, this one is my favorite - an awesome way to learn some of those more traditional songs without a voicy choir.

Surprising, but beautifully done.......2006-01-12

I really expected a more traditional arrangement with organ & choir, so I was in for a bit of a shock right off the bat. The arrangements are relatively simple with one or two voices and limited orchestration. However the effect is wonderful. The primary singer has an unusual high and clear voice, and the harmonies raise goosebumps with their beauty (all I know about music I learned from my highschool punk rock band, so you'll have to listen to the tracks above if my description is unclear).

Some of the tracks are forgettable, but the others are truly outstanding. "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" is wonderful, and exceeded only by "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name." The mixture of latin chant with vernacular on "For the Beauty of the Earth/Ubi Caritas" and "Go Silent Friend/In Paradisium" was tastefully done. The performers and arrangers also rescued the otherwise saccharine "How Great Thou Art" and turned it into a genuinely inspiring hymn, although they were unable to accomplish a similar feat with the thoroughly overplayed "Amazing Grace."

So many other people have beautiful renditions of Ave Maria, so the track on this CD barely registers for me. Panis Angelicus is done better on many other disks as well.

Still, if it were only "Praise God..." and "Holy God..." on this CD, it would be worth the price. Truly excellent.

This is the one to get........2003-09-08

Very beautiful and inspiring rendition of some favorite Catholic classics. The most beautiful: "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" which fades in the middle into a chant-like revery-inducing song only to flourish again with new-found faith at the end. Second most beautiful: "Holy God, We Prise They Name," which builds in three voices towards the end, one added for each person of the Blessed Trinity. Also noteworthy: "For the Beauty of the Earth," with its mix of Latin and English transitions and blending of Gregorian chant in between verses. Good rendition of "Ave Maria" and "Simple Gifts." A lot of steel-string guitar played strong and true, but not overwhelming the beautiful voice of David Fischer. Fischer accompanies himself on the best tracks, to great effect (especially "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow").

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