JIM CARROLL’S ROCK N ROLL HEART-ON

"I don't wanna have any subjective interpretations of my lyrics. I leave them so they can be interpreted through the heart by kids, so five different kids could look at the lyrics five different ways and make it personal. Or even if you listened to it five different times, you could have five different takes of it yourself. The lyrics might mean one certain thing to me, but I make 'em obscure enough so that they're like a verbal movie, so that it's like 'goodbye, people' and they reel with them," said Jim Carroll. His first LP, Catholic Boy, is a meaty slice of urban life that cuts like a razor.

Know this—he's not just so pie putz off the streets of New York who discovered rock 'n' roll two weeks ago. Carroll was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for Living at the Movies, and his second book, The Basketball Diaries, (previously published in parts), ha^ garnered much literary acclaim. Today he has a hot record\out. Does he see himself as a poet or a singer?