Hit impepinable: “People Who Died” (The Jim Carroll Band)

Ha muerto Bobby Keys.

No es que yo sea muy ducho en el currículum de los saxofonistas del rock, pero dudo que haya otro que otro haya estado en tantos discos claves de la historia del género. No en vano en todos los medios lo han apodado “el saxofonista de los Rolling Stones, título que le acredita sobradamente para pasar a la posteridad y a nuestra memoria sentimental.

Pero es que, además, sopló su instrumento para otros personajes principales entre los que están Chuck Berry, John Lennon, Faces, Joe Cocker, Marvin Gaye, Barbra Streisand, Lynyrd Skynyrd y un largo etcétera, que para que nombrar, cuando la idea ya ha quedado más que clara.

Además de poner su talento a trabajar para tantas luminarias siderales, también lo hizo en un disco que a mí me da pie a poner un hit impepinable más en la lista: el Catholic Boy de The Jim Carroll Band.

El hit: People Who Died.

People Who Died

(The Jim Carroll Band, Catholic Boy, 1980)

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
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
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
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 bitchin’ proof
“Hey,” Herbie said, “Tony, can you fly?”
But Tony couldn’t fly, Tony 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
They were all my friends, and they 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
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
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
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died