Praying Mantis [Explicit]

Jim Carroll | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: November 5, 2007
• Release Date: December 7, 2009
• Label: Rhino/Warner Bros.
• Copyright: 1991 Giant Records, a label of Warner Bros. Records.
• Total Length: 48:36
• Genres:
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• ASIN: B002YS1HA8
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,204 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "This city is on my side...", April 4, 2004

By 

D. B. Rocca (Parkland, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praying Mantis (Audio CD)

First off, let's state for the record that this is a "spoken word" only CD, so those looking for music must look elsewhere.
Jim Carroll is one of my favorite poets, and so I concidered myself lucky to find this CD at my favorite used CD shop. Unlike Carrols other CD's, which are more spoken word and attempts at singing set to music backdrops. Here, Carroll is recorded live in various venues and recites everything from monologue to prose to poetry to amusing anecdotes; now, he's not the best monologuer in the world, but he has a unique cadence and imbues emotion into the sundries he presents.
"Tiny Tortures" is a monologue about an impromptu "performance act," and attacks pretentious artists and critics. Another longer monologue is "The Loss of American Innocence," in which a pre-teens first masturbation is paralleled to the death of John F. Kennedy (believe it or not). "Just Visiting" explores the last thoughts of a bank robber in vivid prose. As with most of the work on the CD, these piece explore sexuality, and how sexuality is an under-current in our everyday lives. Also, the CD is VERY sexually explicit, so be warned.
The stand-outs are still his poems, which reflect the influence of symbolists like Rimbaud. "For Elizabeth" is about a young girl who overdosed on heroine:
This place where I have put you now,
It is a cursed season, an awkward
line, a flawed circle. A snake of fire
devouring what, tomorrow, it will itself become.

"Praying Mantis" is a great compliment to "Fear of Dreaming," Carroll's selected poems. It's not the best spoken word CD ever made, but you gotta love a man who revises Nietzsche: "What does not kill me only serves to make me sleep until 3:30 the next afternoon."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not a toe-tapper!, July 13, 2006

By 

Seanthompson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praying Mantis (Audio CD)

no, there's no music on this cd. but the guy's a poet, not a singer! i prefer this to most of the band stuff. then again, i'm a big fan. have been for nearly 20 years. "just visiting" and "loss of am. innocence" are my faves. for completists or carroll uber-fans? noooo! that distinction goes to "pools of mercury".that's how i feel, anyway.

5.0 out of 5 stars My review, March 15, 2010

By 

Drummer Girl "Thiala" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Praying Mantis (Audio CD)

I for one really like this cd , I listen to it all the time . I never got to go to a reading of his and I really wish I could've but maybe it's because it's a live cd I feel like I'm at one everytime I listen to this cd . No I'm not crazy , that's just the best I can describe the feeling this cd gives me . I also really liked the poetry that was read on the cd and like the others said there isn't any music on this cd but that's not the kind of cd this is anyway . I think a lot of the things he reads on this cd are really beautiful in their own way and not to mention there is some comedy in it when he reads things like the monologue The Loss of American Innocence . As you can tell over all I really enjoy this cd . RIP Jim you will be messed !