I just don’t get Daniel Johnston.
After listening to Retired Boxer about three years ago I was left stunned, dumbfounded and even frustrated. I’d leave the album for months in the vein hope that when I came back for another listen, maybe it had changed, maybe I wasn’t listening right and all that fuzz and static was just my mind playing trick on me, that these brutally simple lyrics where more cryptic than what I originally thought. But no, it just stayed the same.
What I realised is that it was this intrigue, that kept bringing me back, that someone was recording this ‘terrible’ music without inhibition or care and they were so convinced that what they were doing was beautiful and right that it was undeniably infectious.
Three years later my opinion hasn’t changed. It’s not that I love Daniel’s music nor loath it but there is something that always draws me back. Maybe partly it’s due to me being undecided on his authenticity. After watching The Devil and Daniel Johnston one thing that struck me was his determination to become ‘famous’ and be played on MTV. If I heard those statements coming from another’s mouth I would surely doubt their intentions for making music, but with Daniel it is almost excusable, and why? Is it because of his illness, his label as an obscure, unappreciated troubadour or something else?
Everybody loves an ‘unappreciated’ artist, somebody that they’ve found that nobody understands except the select few and maybe Johnston fills those boots for many, maybe even myself.
Do we like him because he is or was mentally unstable? Is his music just our dirty little window into his room of confusion and suffering? After the album has finished we can walk away with hands clean and a quaint image on what it’s like to be crazy. The theme that really struck a chord with me from The Devil and Daniel Johnston was not the music, the crazy antics or his flittering with the big names of the underground. For me, the movie highlighted the unconditional love that Daniel’s family held for their son and the fact that without they’re support he may not even exist let alone be an artist. It is the families of the mentally ill that have the hardest time and receives the least thanks.
End rant. To the album
1990 is the best way for someone new to be introduced to Daniel’s chaotic world. It is one of the most polished and clean recordings of Daniel’s career and one of the most direct. It is a collection of studio and live recordings capturing Johnston at his most angelic and most manic. Careless Soul and Funeral Home were recorded in New York in a small record store and shows Daniel almost at breaking point. At one stage during Careless Soul he holds back tears for reasons only known to him. The pearl of the album is my favourite Johnston song, Some Things Last a Long Time. It is just undeniably beautiful and honest. Honesty is something every artist struggles with but for Daniel it is indisputably natural and to his credit he is one of the most honest artists in the world.
http://www.divshare.com/download/2287884-7bc
After listening to Retired Boxer about three years ago I was left stunned, dumbfounded and even frustrated. I’d leave the album for months in the vein hope that when I came back for another listen, maybe it had changed, maybe I wasn’t listening right and all that fuzz and static was just my mind playing trick on me, that these brutally simple lyrics where more cryptic than what I originally thought. But no, it just stayed the same.
What I realised is that it was this intrigue, that kept bringing me back, that someone was recording this ‘terrible’ music without inhibition or care and they were so convinced that what they were doing was beautiful and right that it was undeniably infectious.
Three years later my opinion hasn’t changed. It’s not that I love Daniel’s music nor loath it but there is something that always draws me back. Maybe partly it’s due to me being undecided on his authenticity. After watching The Devil and Daniel Johnston one thing that struck me was his determination to become ‘famous’ and be played on MTV. If I heard those statements coming from another’s mouth I would surely doubt their intentions for making music, but with Daniel it is almost excusable, and why? Is it because of his illness, his label as an obscure, unappreciated troubadour or something else?
Everybody loves an ‘unappreciated’ artist, somebody that they’ve found that nobody understands except the select few and maybe Johnston fills those boots for many, maybe even myself.
Do we like him because he is or was mentally unstable? Is his music just our dirty little window into his room of confusion and suffering? After the album has finished we can walk away with hands clean and a quaint image on what it’s like to be crazy. The theme that really struck a chord with me from The Devil and Daniel Johnston was not the music, the crazy antics or his flittering with the big names of the underground. For me, the movie highlighted the unconditional love that Daniel’s family held for their son and the fact that without they’re support he may not even exist let alone be an artist. It is the families of the mentally ill that have the hardest time and receives the least thanks.
End rant. To the album
1990 is the best way for someone new to be introduced to Daniel’s chaotic world. It is one of the most polished and clean recordings of Daniel’s career and one of the most direct. It is a collection of studio and live recordings capturing Johnston at his most angelic and most manic. Careless Soul and Funeral Home were recorded in New York in a small record store and shows Daniel almost at breaking point. At one stage during Careless Soul he holds back tears for reasons only known to him. The pearl of the album is my favourite Johnston song, Some Things Last a Long Time. It is just undeniably beautiful and honest. Honesty is something every artist struggles with but for Daniel it is indisputably natural and to his credit he is one of the most honest artists in the world.
http://www.divshare.com/download/2287884-7bc
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