“Catholic Boy” by Jim Carroll Band

"Catholic Boy" is the title song of the Jim Carroll Band's 1980 debut album, and it put a poet at the front of a band working the seam between new wave and punk, with Earl McGrath and Bob Clearmountain producing.

Carroll didn't arrive as an unknown: The Basketball Diaries, his 1978 memoir, and poetry like Living at the Movies had made his name first, and a word from the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards helped get the group signed to Atlantic. The cover and the title make a knowing pair, with Annie Leibovitz photographing Carroll beside his parents outside their apartment building at Cumming Street and Seaman Avenue in Manhattan. The record's best-known number, though, is "People Who Died", a roll call of the young people from Carroll's past who met tragic ends.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.