Daniel Johnston

Songwriter, singer, guitarist

For more than 20 years Daniel Johnston has been defying the odds by bringing his homegrown but emotionally earnest music to a legion of fans. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Johnston has never been able to maintain what most would consider a mature, normal lifestyle. He has been prone to bouts of dangerous and self-destructive behavior, and at age 46 was still living with his parents in a Houston suburb. Yet he has been hailed as a genius by performers such as David Bowie, the late Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits, Beck, and Mike Watt, and was the subject of the popular 2005 film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which chronicled his life and art. His recordings have demonstrated a palpable artistic progression, and illustrate what all the fuss is about.

Johnston was born on January 22, 1961, in Sacramento, California, the youngest of five siblings. He was raised in Cumberland, Virginia, by devout fundamentalist parents who discouraged his artistic leanings as unrealistic and self indulgent. At an early age he showed a penchant for the visual arts, keeping books of his cartoon sketches and making Super-8 movies in which he played multiple characters. He briefly attended Kent State University in Ohio, where he met a young woman who inspired him to write songs. "What really happened," he told a writer for the Texas Monthly, "is I met a girl who was engaged to an undertaker. But she was very beautiful, and I made up some songs just to please her. And she liked them. And I just flipped out. I was at the piano banging away every day, writing songs. And I turned into a maniac and I never gave up, and that's what really happened to me." In his twenties, after landing in Austin, Texas, he began making cassette recordings of his own songs, which he handed out to anyone who would take them. Because Austin was a thriving center for amateur musicians from all walks of life, a bit of good luck put some of his tunes into the right hands. MTV ran a feature on Johnston and word of his eccentric music spread.

His poorly recorded repertoire of love songs, homages to comic book superheroes, and reflections on the challenges of his everyday life were duplicated and stocked with great enthusiasm by record stores from coast to coast. Before he knew it, an independent record label issued a vinyl recording of some of his early songs, and his music began receiving public attention. Unfortunately Johnston's personality was not ideally suited for the rigors of sudden fame. Changes in lifestyle and recreational LSD use took their toll. He was hospitalized twice for severe breakdowns, yet had the presence of mind to ask his manager to obtain a deal with Mountain Dew, in which he would perform a song claiming he was institutionalized for being "crazy about Mountain Dew."

Demand for his music persisted, and in 1994 Atlantic Records signed him and released the sparsely produced album Fun, which included 18 of his best tunes. In numbers like "Foxy Girl" and "Catie," Johnston cooed in a high-pitched warble like Tiny Tim. "Silly Love" was strangely reminiscent of Neil Young's "Needle and The Damage Done." His voice exhibited an immature quality that could be taken as emotional sincerity.

On the 2000 release Hyperjinx Tricycle, Johnston was backed by Brady Brock on guitar and vocals, Brett Ladin on guitar and bass, Jack Medicine on guitar, Mike Menner on drums, and someone named "Kramer" on various instruments. More slickly produced, with double-tracked vocals and complimentary instrumental and vocal arrangements, the often-lighthearted tone of this set acquitted Johnston nicely. His cover of the Terry Jacks' schlock/pop classic "Seasons in the Sun" was decidedly more trippy than the original version and didn't suffer for having been shelved for 30 years.

Rejected Unknown, released in 2001, was more stark than its predecessor and hit more emotional chords, and his tonal deviations were evocative of Lou Reed. More than Fun and Hyperjinx Tricycle, the collection showed signs of musical maturity. Johnston contributed piano, guitar, and percussion to many tracks and asserted better vocal control. The album marked Johnston's long contractual battle with the Atlantic Record label, which had prevented him from releasing much new material during the 1990s. The tone of the songs prompted All Music Guide critic Jason Nickey to comment, "While the music on Rejected Unknown can at first sound overly self-deprecating and even angry at times, Johnston is actually painting a much larger pic- ture—a picture of endless longing for acceptance, hopeless romanticism, and unrequited love."

His 2003 album Fear Yourself was produced by Mark Linkous of the band Sparklehorse. The session's more elaborate and melodic orchestrations were sympathetic to Johnston's vocal style, and comparable in ability to many indie artists who have made bigger commercial splashes.

Another 2003 release, The End is Near Again, by Danny and the Nightmares, was a collaboration with husband and wife team Jason and Bridget Nightmare. The guitar work on this set gave it a raw, distorted feel, placing it somewhere in the late 1960s. The following year a bevy of Johnston's adherents assembled Discovered, Covered: The Late Great. Artists Beck, Tom Waits, Sparklehorse, Clem Snide, and others paid tribute to Johnston in a two-CD set, the second of which featured Johnston's renditions of the tunes covered by his admirers. His 2006 release, Welcome to My World, was a well conceived collection of his early cassette recordings. The accompaniment was strictly his own and suited his vocal performances. He followed it with Lost and Found, released only in England, which included a tribute to the Beatles. A Houston theater group wrote and performed a rock opera, Speeding Motorcycle, based on his music. Johnston continued to suffer health problems that limited his participation in the project.

Selected discography

Songs of Pain, Stress, 1980.

Don't Be Scared, Stress, 1982.

The What of Whom, Stress, 1982.

Hi, How Are You, Homestead, 1983.

Yip/Jump Music: Summer 1983, Homestead, 1983.

Retired Boxer, Stress, 1984.

Continued Story, Homestead, 1985.

Respect, Stress, 1985.

1990, Shimmy Disc, 1990.

Live at SXSW, Stress, 1990.

Artistic Vice, Positive, 1993.

Fun, Atlantic, 1994.

Rejected, Tim/Kerr, 1999.

Why Me? Live Volkesbuhne Am Rosa Luxemburg Platz 6/6/99, Trikont, 2000.

Rejected Unknown, Gammon, 2001.

Fear Yourself, Gammon, 2003.

Discovered, Covered: Late Great, P-Vine, 2004.

The Electric Ghosts, Important, 2006.

Welcome to My World, Eternal Yip Eye Music, 2006.

Lost and Found, Sketchbook, 2006.

Daniel Johnston & Jad Fair, 50 Skidillion Watts, 2006.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, 2006.

For the Record …

Born Daniel Johnston on January 22, 1961, in Sacramento, CA. Education: attended Kent State University, early 1980s

Featured in MTV series The Cutting Edge, 1985; moved to New York City, 1988; released Atlantic Records debut, Fun, 1994; featured in documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, 2005.

Addresses: Website—Official Daniel Johnston Website: http://www.hihowareyou.com. Personal—Daniel Johnston, P.O. Box 583, Waller, TX 77484, e-mail: daniel@hihowareyou.com.

Sources

Periodicals

Texas Monthly, February 2005.

Online

All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com, (January 18, 2007).

Daniel Johnston Official Website,http://www.hihowareyou.com, (February 11, 2007).

Sketchbook Records Official Website,http://www.rejectedunknown.com, (February 11, 2007).