Best Of: World Without Gravity

Jim Carroll Band | Format: Audio Cassette

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (August 17, 1993)
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00000EVMZ
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,483,605 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. People Who Died

2. Work Not Play

3. Differing Touch

4. It's Too Late

5. Wicked Gravity

6. I Want the Angel

7. Them

8. City Drops into the Night [Live Version][#]

9. Dry Dreams

10. Jealous Twin

11. Plain Division [#]

12. Voices

13. Lorraine

14. (No More) Luxuries

15. I Write Your Name

16. Love Crimes

17. Catholic Boy

18. Day and Night

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Carroll was a New York poet living in California when punk exploded in the late 1970s. He rightly sensed that punk was as much a lyrical stance as a musical one. Inspired by contemporaries like Patti Smith and Richard Hell, Carroll found himself a band and started spewing his literate and often fatalistic verse over a solid 4/4 beat. His surprise 1980 hit "People Who Died" sounded both shocking and exciting as it roared out of bored radios all across America. The rest of this guitar-heavy set--including the classic "Wicked Gravity" and the previously unreleased "Differing Touch"--paints similarly edgy portraits of lurkers and fringe dwellers. The rote rock backing occasionally gets a little tepid, but Carroll's bitter-junkie tongue burns throughout. --Michael Ruby

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Punk as street experience, June 2, 2004

By 

J from NY (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A World Without Gravity : The Best Of The Jim Carroll Band (Audio CD)

Jim Carroll's personality comes through strong in his poetry and famous "Basketball Diaries", but seemingly even stronger in his music. To read about this guy's unbelievable experiences is one thing, but to hear him put work them into songs with a 70's punk flavor is another thing entirely. "People Who Died", "Crow", and "Catholic Boy" are probably the most autobiographical songs in Caroll's canon. One is never sure of Carroll's position on his extensive drug use. In a "World Without Gravity" there is a catching lyric "We need some pure pure white/Yeah we can nod all night" and only after one hears it a few times does one realize just what he's making reference to. I've always wondered what Carroll would himself say about drug use in general as a result of his experiences. The closest you'll get is this album and his other ones, since in the diaries and poems he is flippant with the issue. All in all this is a great album, the smartass junkie tongue coming through loud and clear with a kind of existential abrasiveness that reminds us:Carroll still has the rebellious heart of the teenager and twentysomething he once was.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jim the Amazing, August 8, 2005

By 

D. Carlotti "music is my blood" (san jose, ca usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A World Without Gravity : The Best Of The Jim Carroll Band (Audio CD)

In 1984 James Spader & Robert Downey (this movie is so old school the he wasn't even a JR yet) starred in a movie called
Tuff Turf and in that movie there is a scene in a warhouse where this band was playing live and I heard Voices for the first time
Jim Carroll was the voice I heard and the Jim Carroll band was the band I fell in love with. If you buy this CD at no time will it disappoint you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have, August 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A World Without Gravity : The Best Of The Jim Carroll Band (Audio CD)

If you love Jim's books you'll really love his music. Many people stilldon't know he made 3 albums in the 80's. This compilation by Rhino features all the best from his 3 albums including People who Died and City Drops into the Night.