2025: This page really needs to be updated and reorganized . . .
Daniel Grey Marshall (2000-present)
Carroll has actively mentored this young writer, whose first novel, Still Can’t See Nothin’ Comin’ (2001).
Blue Oyster Cult (1979)
On the BOC album Mirrors, “In Thee” by Allen Lanier refers to Carroll.
Playboy (1981)A Cruiser comic strip from 1981 gives some indication of Carroll’s cultural impact in 1981.
J. O’Barr’s The Crow (1981)
J. O’Barr’s graphic novel, which was adapted to film in 1994, “borrows” lines from the lyrics on the Jim Carroll Band album Catholic Boy.
The Nails (1984)
The Nails’ song “88 Lines About 44 Women” was inspired by Jim Carroll.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
MST3K creator Joel Hodgson explains on Satellite News | PDF (the official MST3K info club website) that the robot Crow’s name was, in part, inspired by Jim Carroll. “The name Crow was inspired by a number of things. I thought it would be cool to have a robot with sort of a Native American feel to it. I had a friend a friend in college who had a friend named Tommy Crow he had all these adventures with. I always thought that was such a cool name. Also the Jim Carroll Band had a song called ‘Crow’ on the album Catholic Boy. If you listen to the song, it’s easy to picture the character of Crow.”
Harmony Korine
Korine, who wrote the screenplay for the controversial film Kids, claims that Jim Carroll attended his birth in Bolinas and cut his umbilical cord. Check out Jim Carroll’s article about Korine and Kids. Korine’s 1998 book A Crackup at the Race Riots includes “suicide note” collaborations with Carroll (uncredited); one is “Letter from Tupac Shakur #2, to a Nineteen-Year-Old German Fan, July 1992.”
Sherman Alexie
Native American author Sherman Alexie has acknowledged Carroll’s strong influence on him. Alexie’s 1993 book The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven includes interesting allusions to Carroll in “Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation.”
Danny Sugerman
Sugerman’s novel Wonderland Avenue actively borrows lines from Carroll.
The Baddies (1990)
The song “Let Yourself Go” by this British band (led by Bo Walker) is dedicated to Carroll. (Hey Bo, give me a link to add here!)
Truly
Carroll cowrote the song “Repulsion” on Truly’s album Feeling you Up (1997). Also, I’ve been told that the lyric book for Fast Stories from Kid Coma (1995) says, “Thanks to Jim Carroll for lyrical advice.” The same source tells me they read somewhere that songwriter Robert Roth is “getting help from his mentor Jim Carroll.” Truly includes the bass player of Soundgarden, Hiro Yamamoto, and the drummer of Screaming Trees, Mark Pickerel. Vocalist Robert Roth appears on Jim Carroll’s album Pools of Mercury.
The Basketball Diaries film (1995)
This film adaptation, by Scott Kalvert, of Carroll’s teenage semi-autobiography is, at best, influenced by Carroll. It is not a “pure” adaptation of Carroll’s book.
Butthole Surfers (1996)
The Butthole Surfers’ song “Pepper” on ElectricLarryLand is clearly a takeoff on the 1980 Jim Carroll Band song “People Who Died”. It may not be apparent on first listen, but the structure of the two songs is similar (you can sing the lyrics of one to the music of the other), and obviously the general concept of both is the same. (Eh, maybe it’s just a punk thing. Or a music thing. I could make the same claim about “88 lines about 44 women” by The Nails and Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” about different JC songs . . . )
Curtis’s Charm (1996)
Curtis’s Charm, by Canadian director John L’Ecuyer, is an excellent film adaptation of Carroll’s short story of the same title, published in Fear of Dreaming.
Irvine Welsh (1996)
Irvine Welsh’s first novel Trainspotting, which has been adapted to film, was in some ways inspired by Jim Carroll. Carroll wrote a blurb for Welsh’s next novel.
Tribute Album (1998)
The Jim Carroll Band inspired a 20-song tribute album by Philadelphia bands.
General
Carroll’s “famous” admirers include Peter Buck of REM, Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Keith Richards, Danny Sugerman, Lou Reed, Ray Manzarek, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Pearl Jam, Rancid, and Pete Townsend. (Lots more.)
If you have found other examples of Carroll’s influence, please e-mail me!