GO GET ME A DOUBLE PERNOD (Muerte callada de Jim Carroll)

Era su voz la que que decía aquello de "Go get me a double Pernod" entre el estruendo de copas brindadas y acoples del Live At Max Kansas City de la Velvet Underground, uno de esos discos en el que la atmosfera de humo y mala vida casi se puede tocar y que ha acompañado a un servidor muchas más tardes de las aconsejables para conservar la salud. Su voz la que gritaba que todos sus amigos habían muerto en "People Who Died", el inevitable hit de su primer álbum, ese sardónico "Catholic Boy" (Atlantic, 80) que pese a su evidente pleitesía loureediana volaba alto, amparado por una lírica afilada marca de la casa y una banda ajustada como un guante a sus aviesas intenciones -Steve Linsley (bajo), Wayne Woods (batería), Brian Linsley (guitarras) y Terrell Winn (guitarras)-. Era también suya la mente que escribió esos archicitados "Diarios del Baloncesto" y la larga, demacrada y simbólica figura entre warholiana y quijotesca por la que habían pasado, aparentemente con igual intensidad, vicios y virtudes. Baloncestista, heroinómano, chapero suburbano, poeta maldito enrolado en esa caterva de fantasmales dobles neoyorquinos de Rimbaud y compañía. Rockero en el filo; ni siquiera el destrozo previsible que le inflingió Leo Di Caprio cuando intentó acercarse a su figura en "Diario de un rebelde" consiguio privarle de un prestigio eminentemente subterráneo. Hizo muchas cosas más, claro, pero nuestra memoria es siempre parcial, egoista y caprichosa, y hacer justicia a un artista cuando llega su turno exige hacérsela también en vida, y eso raramente sucede. Con modestia, nos conformamos hoy con recordarlo con la misma mezcla de distancia y pasión que parecía exudar cada palabra que dejó para el futuro. Ataque al corazón a los sesenta años, según fuentes imperiales.La cosecha de outlaws de este año esta siendo cruenta y sin cuartel.



People Who Died

Teddy sniffing glue he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died / I miss 'em--they died

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others,
And I salute you brother/ This song is for you my brother

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly . . . Tony died

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, hey, I know it's dangerous,
but it sure beats Riker's
But the next day he got offed
by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died