There are a several sites
on the Web that offer complete poems by Jim Carroll, and almost all of them are doing so in
violation of United States copyright law. You are more than welcome to hunt for them
yourself using all of the internet search engines at your disposal; usually they appear
ranked in the mid-hundreds in search results.

Not without express written
permission from Jim Carroll. Jim Carroll’s work is protected by United States copyright
law.

You are welcome to use any of the Press Photos, so long as you credit the photographers.

Other than the press photos, most of the images appearing on
CatholicBoy.com are NOT the property of CatholicBoy.com. Before using any of them, please refer to the photo
credits provided to helo you locate and contact the
copyright owners.

Images that ARE
property of CatholicBoy.com include the logo caricature of Jim Carroll, design elements,
and various photographs by Cassie Carter. You may contact Cassie Carter to request permission to use
these.

If you wish to use any text
from CatholicBoy.com, you must contact the copyright owner for permission. All articles,
reviews, and interviews include a byline and, if from an outside source, the name of the
source. Materials from outside sources also generally carry a copyright at the bottom of
the article (separate from the Jim Carroll Website copyright). If you wish to use text
from an outside source, you must contact the original source via the information provided
in the byline and/or copyright. If the text is a review or other material exclusive to
CatholicBoy.com, and the author is anyone other than Cassie Carter, you need to contact
the author. If the author is Cassie Carter, or if there is no byline or any other
identifying information, you should contact Cassie Carter.

Check out the audio and video pages within the Works section of this site.

As far as I know, there is
no online or offline source for guitar tabs/chords for any Jim Carroll or Jim Carroll Band
songs. If you find a source, please tell me, because I get this question all the time!

If it’s any help, John S.
informs me that “People Who Died” is a 12-bar blues in C-major. (I have no
idea if that’s true.)

You
can purchase all currently-in-print work on online via CatholicBoy.com’s
links to Amazon.com, iTunes, and other sources on the books,
albums, and films
pages (in the Works section).

If
you suffer from online purchasing phobia, go
to the customer service desk at your local book/CD/video store
and order the items you want. Merchants will always order items
for you, usually at no additional cost.

Dry Dreams has never been released on CD; it was released only on
vinyl and cassette, and it is currently out of print. Sometimes
you can find it in used record stores, auctions, and in collector’s
shops. Check out the Collecting
page for tips on where to get it.

I really
don’t know where to find the soundtrack to Tuff Turf, which
is unfortunate because it’s the only place you’ll get the original
version of “It’s Too Late.” I got my vinyl copy directly
from Rhino Records in 1989.

Check out the Collecting page for tips
on where to find rare Jim Carroll items.

Large-sized
posters of Jim Carroll are hard to find. There’s a gorgeous one
that came out with Dry Dreams and an enlarged album cover
poster for Catholic Boy (see
them here). Obviously there are a lot of DiCaprio posters
that came out with the Basketball Diaries movie. There
are also some really cool ones for the Canadian film adaptation
of Curtis’s Charm, and I’m sure some must be out there
for the film Tuff Turf, but you won’t see Jim Carroll in
these. These are the only posters I know about at the moment.
There are, however, a lot of “broadsides” and other
items ranging from single poems on legal-size to square cardboard
album covers to promotional flyers in all sizes floating around,
waiting to be owned by someone who will love them.

The
sources listed on the Collecting
page tend to sell posters as they become available. Also check
out e-Bay.

I generally
do not keep up on the prices for Jim Carroll items, although I can
tell you that rare items are skyrocketing.

You
can view the prices of all currently-in-print work and some rare items on online via CatholicBoy.com’s
links to Amazon.com, iTunes, and other sources on the books, albums, and films pages (in the Works section). For rare items, check out the Collecting page.

Much of Carroll’s work is available in translation.

Additionally, international fans should use the links to Amazon.com on the books,
albums, and films
pages. Amazon ships internationally and offers a lot of flexibility
in forms of payment.

If
you still suffer from online purchasing phobia, go
to the customer service desk at your local book/CD/video store
and ask to order the items you want. Jim Carroll’s books are available
through Viking Penguin, which is an international company

Jim Carroll’s work exists
in translation around the globe, and new translations appear regularly. However, when a
particular title will be translated into a particular language is something I cannot
foretell.

Much of Carroll’s work is available in translation.

Additionally, international fans should use the links to Amazon.com on the books, albums, and films pages. Amazon ships internationally and offers a lot of flexibility
in forms of payment.

If
you still suffer from online purchasing phobia, go
to the customer service desk at your local book/CD/video store
and ask to order the items you want. Jim Carroll’s books are available
through Viking Penguin, which is an international company

The movie is not accurate
at all. For details, read the book and check out the
Basketball Diaries film section of the website, which
offers a scene-by-scene guide comparing the film to the book, as well as reviews and
commentary.

In short, no. I’d say the
overall story sort of reflects something like what happened in Jim Carroll’s life, but
you’ve got to read the book. For details on the film, check out the Basketball Diaries film section of the website, which offers
a scene-by-scene guide comparing the film to the book, as well as reviews and commentary.

In general, no, I don’t
know what music is playing during a specific scene in the movie, although a few songs
stand out. “Catholic Boy” by Jim Carroll (with Pearl Jam) plays at the start of
the film. “People Who Died” by the Jim Carroll Band plays during the scene
immediately after Bobby’s funeral. “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors plays
during the basketball game in which the boys have popped pill drawn from Pedro’s hat (just
don’t ask me why this song was chosen–I have no idea!). That’s about the best I
can do without watching the movie again, and I really don’t want to do that.

Only two poems are read in
voice-over during the film (“Little Ode on St. Anne’s Day” and “Blood
Bridge”), both from Living at the Movies; the other voice-overs
are entries from The Basketball Diaries, usually bastardizations. If you are really
dying to know what a specific piece is, pause and rewind enough times to write down the
first line or two. If you take the time to do that, I’ll be happy to report back with
titles and/or page references. Note: if you describe the scene context, too, you’ll be
helping me add significant information to the scene-by-scene guide.

I’ve received only a
handful of queries like this, but I think the topic bears mentioning in the FAQ simply
because in several cases, the character in question was, in fact, who the questioner
thought it might be. Case in point: Bobby Stokes, aka “Bobby
Sachs,” whose younger brother contacted me in 2000. It was a wonderful thing to
put a face on this kid who had been memorialized in both The Basketball Diaries and
“People Who Died.”

Check out the 1968 Trinity School Yearbook to see some of the most
easily-identifiable characters in The Basketball Diaries. Beyond that, if you think
one of the characters in The Basketball Diaries might be based on you or someone
you know, please specify which character and provide details about the person’s real name,
the neighborhood they grew up in, the school(s) they attended, and any other salient
details that connect the real person to the character. Most of the time, the real person
is not the character, but I will look into it. (Be forewarned: this always takes a long
time because I have to ask Jim.)

In Forced
Entries, Carroll details the events in his life that led him to move to Bolinas,
California, where he enrolled in a methadone program and successfully got clean in the
mid-1970s. However, bear in mind that an addict is always an addict, whether
they are actively using or not.

CatholicBoy.com offers a
large collection of full-text articles, interviews,
and performance reviews. Of course not all materials are
available online; you will need to consult traditional print materials as well. Your best
resource is the extensive annotated bibliography of Jim Carroll I published in the Bulletin
of Bibliography (1990). An updated, unannotated version of this bibliography is
available on the website. Look at the secondary bibliography for
articles about Carroll, including interviews. Look at the primary
bibliography for a detailed listing of work by Carroll.

If you are sure the lines
are by Jim Carroll, be sure to include all of them in your message and state where you
found them. If the lines are not by Carroll, I cannot guarantee that I will answer you.

As a scholar, I am happy to
offer critical commentary on Jim Carroll’s work, but I will not “tell you what it
means” or claim to be able to read Jim Carroll’s mind. Before you ask me to comment
on Jim Carroll’s work, please do the following first:

• Conduct
  your own research, draw your own conclusions, and present your question to me in the
  context of your own thesis/argument.
• Please
  read my published articles and conference papers on the Full-Text
  Articles page so you are familiar with what I have already said.

I beg
you not to ask me questions like this. Please focus your topic (I am writing about Jim
Carroll’s use of similes in “The Distances”) and come up with at least a
tentative thesis statement expressing what you think is the significance of your chosen
topic. Then ask me a specific question. As a rule, before you ask me to comment on Jim
Carroll’s work, please do the following first:

• Conduct
  your own research, draw your own conclusions, and present your question to me in the
  context of your own thesis/argument.
• Please
  read my published articles and conference papers on the Academic Studies page so you are familiar with what I have already said.

Although CatholicBoy.com
offers a large collection of full-text articles, interviews, and performance reviews,
you also need to consult traditional print materials. Your best resource is the extensive
annotated bibliography of Jim Carroll I published in the Bulletin of Bibliography (1990).
An updated, unannotated version of this bibliography is available on the website.
Look at the secondary bibliography for articles about
Carroll, including interviews. Look at the primary bibliography
for a detailed listing of work by Carroll.

Yes. I am delighted to
consult on scholarly work about Jim Carroll. All I ask is that you respect intellectual
property.

You may contact me by email.

The most likely place to
find Jim Carroll’s poems is in his books. If you are trying to find a poem online, click here to read another FAQ.

My website partner,
LaVerne, maintains an extensive Jim Carroll Band collection and is an avid trader. Check out his page of rarities here.

If you are the owner or manager of the venue, or if you are a member
of your college’s student activities group, click
here for information about booking Jim Carroll. Also refer to
the Contact Information page.

Jim
Carroll occasionally performs music, usually “on the fly”
when musician friends happen to be available. He does not currently
have a band and does not, as a rule, accept engagements for music
performances. If you are the owner or manager of a venue, or if you
are a member of your college’s student activities group, and you
are dead set on booking Jim Carroll for a music show, click
here for information about booking Jim Carroll. Also refer to
the Contact Information page.

No, I can’t. Although I
have a large collection of archival material, I cannot distribute it without express
approval by Jim Carroll’s representatives.

Yes, I can field any questions
about news items or gossip.

Refer to the Contact
Info page section for publishers.

Not without express written
permission from Jim Carroll. Jim Carroll’s work is protected by United States copyright
law.

Refer to the information
provided on the Contact Info page. Be sure
to provide sufficient details and plan on following up.

United
States copyright law provides guidelines for “fair use.”
Do a search for “copyright fair use” on any internet search
engine and check out the Copyright Office of the
Library of Congress online to see if you need to obtain permission.
If you do need to obtain permission, refer to the information for
publishers provided on the Contact Info page.

Almost all of the images on
CatholicBoy.com are NOT the property of CatholicBoy.com. Please refer to the photo credits
provided to locate and contact the owner of any image you wish to use.

Images that ARE property of
CatholicBoy.com include the logo caricature of Jim Carroll, design elements, and various
photographs by Cassie Carter. You may email Cassie Carter to request permission to use
these. Please be sure to specify what you want to use and in what capacity.

If you wish to use any text
from CatholicBoy.com, you must contact the copyright owner for permission. All articles,
reviews, and interviews include a byline and, if from an outside source, the name of the
source. Materials from outside sources also generally carry a copyright at the bottom of
the article (separate from the Jim Carroll Website copyright). If you wish to use text
from an outside source, you must contact the original source via the information provided
in the byline and/or copyright. If the text is a review or other material exclusive to
CatholicBoy.com, and the author is anyone other than Cassie Carter, you need to contact
the author. If the author is Cassie Carter, or if there is no byline or any other
identifying information, you should email Cassie Carter for details.

The “basics” are
available in the Short Biographical Sketch. For more detailed
information, click on “Jim Carroll” in the main menu of the CatholicBoy.com
website to go to the About Jim Carroll page, which offers a
variety of biographies and other information. Also check out
the Full-Text Articles and Interviews for various tellings of Jim’s story. Above all, read The Basketball
Diaries and Forced Entries!

Check out the Books and Albums pages.

Original JCB guitarist Terrell
Winn reported on 3/19/01: “I saw that there is some interest as to what the rest of
us are doing from the band: I teach English and global awareness to high school juvies
here in Portsmouth, NH; Brian Linsley is an investment banker in Utah; Wayne Woods is a
very successful photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area; and Steven Linsley is in L.A.,
also a successful photographer.”

Just about any music mega-site has a section on the Jim
Carroll Band. In the future, CatholicBoy.com will include extensive details on the band.

If you haven’t found answers to your questions here, please email me!