Singer, poet, and spoken word artist Jim Carroll passed away over the weekend, leaving behind a bookshelf of poetry books and a collection of music that included the hypnotic single “People Who Died.”

As an underground New York poet in 1978, Carroll published a memoir about his drug-fueled youth entitled, “The Basketball Diaries.” Many years later, Leonardo DiCaprio would star in an adaptation of the book. The hardworking poet was compared to Bob Dylan for his work with The Jim Carroll Band. According to his website, he died at his writing desk.

Fellow poet and singer Patti Smith had this tribute at the NY Times: “I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation … The work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty.”