Daniel Johnston

[luminous]

Having a little obsession the last few days!

A friend actually put an album of his on my ipod a few years ago, I listened and thought it was ok, some great lyrics but not the most soothing beautiful voice so I never got too excited or paid too much attention, I knew about and much preferred Jeff's version of True love will find you in the end:).

Then I just watched the movie "The devil and Daniel Johnston" and became more intrigued and have been watching lots of youtube clips etc, and found some links to other stuff I love, I didn't know my favourite song from "Where the wild things are", Worried Shoes was by him, Wow I love that song.

Then I found this clip with Glen Hansard and the Swell Season who I've really loved for years and was in tears.

 

 

 

I love when I find stuff like this but wonder how it escapes me for so long.

I actually thought he was dead and expected the movie to end that way, so glad he's not, guess I was fooled by the name of the cover album, "The late great Daniel Johnston" which I'd heard of but am yet to listen to.

 

[PopTodd]

Beautiful video. Thanks for posting that!

Since you are just discovering DJ through his colab with another artist, I thought that I would share the way that I discovered him, too -- also through a collab. This one with Yo La Tengo. It was in rotation when I was DJing in college and completely grabbed me when I put it on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCOkbOmKjMk

 

Oh, and "Worried Shoes" is also my favorite song of his.

And the movie is wonderful.

[Sir Stewart]

Good Lord, yes thanks for posting that Swell Season clip. 

[luminous]

Haha I love his passion through Speeding Motorcycle "Lets Goooo, ahhoooo yeah" lol, and he sounds so exhausted at the end.

He's really growing on me a lot the more I listen and know the tunes a bit. So many great collabs and covers out there too, Sufjan Stevens, Bright Eyes and my favourite find of the day was M. Wards Story of an Artist, so good!

I also found out he was just in New Zealand for Laneway festival in february, although i probably wouldn't have gone anyway because I was anticipating Wilco

[LouieB]

Daniel Johnston is one of the saddest dudes in the pantheon of mentally ill rock figures.  The movie bummed me out (and still does) and when I bought a couple CDs of his work, I couldn't bear to put them in the player and listen. 

 

LouieB

[luminous]

Daniel Johnston is one of the saddest dudes in the pantheon of mentally ill rock figures.  The movie bummed me out (and still does) and when I bought a couple CDs of his work, I couldn't bear to put them in the player and listen. 

 

LouieB

 

I totally understand that reaction too.

It's definitely sad and disturbing to see him struggling and shaking, overweight, dribbling and chain smoking etc and I really dislike the thought that he's only 'famous' because of the mental health stigma, that the fuss is out of pity and it's some kind of in joke. But then I don't like to think he should be disregarded out of prejudice either. I'm still thinking about that and also the dilemma of whether it's the psych issues that make him talented or what he could be if he wasn't 'crazy'... if he had a better voice and looked cooler he'd be amazing

I do find a lot of truly brilliant lyrics in his songwriting,  but other people singing and playing them is more listenable and attractive to me too. 

Did you give them away yet LouieB?

Haha, I don't really need them, Spotify is like a magic key to finding almost anything and immediately

[LouieB]

I did not give then away yet.  I feel like I should give him a shot, but like I said it is painful to think about.  I have said this before, but I saw three documentaries about musicians with mental health issues about the same time.  Two were about folks with serious problems, the other being the Roky Ericson movie and the third being about the Brian Jonestown Massacre (whats the name of that movie??)  Recently when I saw the Rodriguez movie I got the same vibe.  Clearly there is more going on with the guy than just he didn't quite make it, but the filmmakers were not very forthcoming about that.

 

LouieB

[Guest Don Draper]

Brian Jonestown Massacre film was DiG!

 

I think that not giving Daniel Johnston a chance because he's mentally ill is kind of doofy myself.  As long as you have the albums, try to enjoy the music on its face; if you don't, you don't.  A Ghost is Born is a beautiful album, though Jeff Tweedy was apparently in the midst of a terrible period of drug abuse.  I don't enjoy Hell is Chrome or Spiders (Kidsmoke) or Handshake Drugs any less because he may have been in pain when he wrote/recorded them.

 

Point being, if we only listened to happy, healthy musicians whose art had not been exploited, the only shows I'd be hitting up would be elementary school sing-alongs.

 

Not to mention: assuming he has lost the ability to consent to what he does or to enjoy what he does because he is profoundly mentally ill seems somewhat prejudiced to me.  The film, like all documentaries, was edited to cultivate a narrative.  To be sure his illness is very debilitating, but it's clear he enjoys making music and he likes when people listen to his music.  And he seems to enjoy the collaboration.  I don't know that exploiting the mentally-ill dude to further your street cred is any different than having the token black guy with a rap/turntable interlude on your pop song - not that either are alright.

[bigideas]

I saw the DJ documentary a while ago and still haven't deleted it off my DVR.

I was really fascinated.

One song kept playing and I knew it sounded familiar. It was from Beach House covering one of his songs.

 

One thing - in the doc it says that he didn't have a tape duplicator, so every cassette was basically a new version of the album that he recorded live to tape.

Question - how did they decide which version was THE version that would be put on CD, etc. from now on?

 

I would like to hear one of his albums, I just haven't gotten one yet.

[LouieB]

Just to be clear I am not dismissing Daniel Johnston because of his mental illness. I am not uncomfortable with mental illness per se, but I do think some people's fascination with him (and Roky Ericson, etc.) does involve his illness. There is nothing romantic about mental illness.  I do need to actually listen to his records, but since I haven't given them away I someday will.

 

LouieB