“People Who Died” by Jim Carroll Band

"People Who Died" is the best-known song the Jim Carroll Band ever cut, and it sits on Catholic Boy, the group's 1980 debut. It's a roll call of the dead, Jim Carroll counting off kids he grew up with who came to tragic ends, and he wrote every word and note of it himself. Earl McGrath produced.

Carroll came to rock and roll from the printed page. He had already published The Basketball Diaries, his 1978 memoir, along with poetry collections such as Living at the Movies, and his band got its record deal with Atlantic thanks to support from the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards. Even the album sleeve was close to home: Annie Leibovitz photographed Carroll with his parents outside their apartment block at Cumming Street and Seaman Avenue in Manhattan.

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