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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary
The crazy genius of Daniel Johnston
blurred the line between the convivial joker and the tragic bard.
Despite mental illness and an erratic lifestyle, his quest for unadulterated
pop was meant to be no-nonsense. His home-made cassettes, beginning with
the blissful meanderings of
Songs Of Pain (1981) and staging an early exploit with
the jovial and naive Hi How Are You (1983), introduced a character
who was ideologically and musically closer to Jonathan Richman than, say,
Syd Barrett. While these early cassettes only partially revealed the full
contours of Johnston's time-warp, Yip/Jump Music (1983) gave meaning to
his primitive, spartan art.
Continued Story (1985), his first real studio recording, and
Respect (1985) contained snapshots of greatness, so Johnston's
masterpiece, 1990 (1990), did not come as a surprise. Its merry-go-round
of catchy ditties and mad romps composed a demonic concept.
The path towards a more accessible sound began in earnest with
Artistic Vice (1992), the first album on which Johnston fronted a real
band, and
Fun (1994), featuring two Butthole Surfers (Paul Leary and King Coffey).
Fear Yourself (2003), basically a collaboration with producer Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse), highlighted his melodic talent.
Full bio
Daniel Johnston was a living legend of the underground throughout the 1980s,
before he was "discovered" and launched world-wide, despite two arrests
(1986 and 1988) and a mental disease.
Johnston (born in 1961 in Sacramento) started out as a songwriter in
West Virginia, but in 1984 relocated to Austin (Texas).
The first document of his solipsistic vaudeville was
the splendid cassette Songs Of Pain (Stress, 1981), an amateurish
recording of just voice and piano. Best typified by the
ragtime piano and crackling voice of Grievances,
his style ranged from
childish stories sung like melodramatic sagas (A Little Story)
to funny parables sung like spirituals (Never Relaxed),
from imitation of grand pop (An Idiot's End)
to frenzied rock'n'roll (Premarital Sex).
He can be more hilarious than a professional comedian (Brainwash)
and catchier than the Beatles (Wicked World).
When he runs out of melodic ideas, he simply hammers on the keys of the piano (I Save Cigarette Butts), and, when he runs out of humour, he closes the
album with the bleakly philosophical Hate Song.
Johnston was clearly a prolific and gifted songwriter and composer of melodies;
an eloquent and, in his own way, elegant bard who was not afraid of making fun
of the world in a way that, ultimately, makes fun of the prankster himself.
His art was sincere primitivism for the sake of being a living nonsense.
His comic vignettes (reminiscent of Jonathan Richman)
More songs of this kind appeared on another cassette,
Don't Be Scared (Stress, 1982):
Going Down,
Lost Without a Dame,
Harley Man,
Evening Stars,
Cold Hard World,
I Had a Dream,
The Story of an Artist,
My Yoke Is Heavy,
Stars on Parade,
And You Love It,
I Had Lost My Mind,
The Sun Shines Down on Me,
Loner,
Don't Be Scared,
Lullaby,
I Was Alone,
Mother Mom Said.
The What Of Whom (Stress, 1982) included:
Man Obsessed,
Peek-a-boo,
Never Before/Never Again,
The Goldfish & the Frog,
Scuttle-butt,
Heart, Mind, & Soul,
Blue Clouds,
Surely You Don't Work All Night,
I Can't Think Anymore,
Excuse Me,
Polka Dot Rag,
Why/Without You,
An Incoherent Speech,
Wicked World,
To Go Home,
Scrambled Eggs,
Peace & Tranquility,
When You're Pretty,
More Songs Of Pain (Stress, 1983) was conceived as the ideal
second part of his first collection, but failed to live up to that standard.
The sound of the piano is as antiquated as ever, but the melodies are less
charming, mostly evoking bar songs for lonely drunk people
(Phantom of My Own Opera, Only Missing You).
Moments of blessed madness such as You're Gonna Make It Joe,
a few instances of great piano playing
(True Grief a` la Jerry Lee Lewis, Mabel's Grievances),
the bluesy Blue Cloud and the plaintive Follow That Dream
are nonetheless worthy of his best material.
However, too many of the songs are mere fragments, and the background voices
get a bit annoying over the long run.
The Early Recordings Volume 1 (Dualtone, 2003) collects
Songs Of Pain 1980-83 and More Songs Of Pain.
On top of the "official" cassettes, Johnston also released two volumes of
The Lost Recordings (Stress, 1991), also dating from 1983,.
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Il primo vinile fu
Hi How Are You (Stress, 1986 - Homestead, 1988), registrato nel 1983,
un buon documento di questo dilettante della musica, erede dei tanti Wild Man Fisher che hanno
solcato la storia del rock. In parte autobiografico alla Jonathan Richman,
quasi sempre geniale negli arrangiamenti (poverissimi, fino ad utilizzare un
vecchio disco di jazz come accompagnamento), Johnston ha un talento innato
per la melodia. Walking The Cow e She Called Pest Control
sono fra i suoi primi gioielli.
Tracks:
Poor You,
Big Business Monkey,
Walking the Cow,
I Picture Myself With a Guitar,
Despair Came Knocking,
I Am a Baby ,
Nervous Love,
I'll Never Marry,
Get Yourself Together,
Running Water,
Desperate Man Blues,
Hey Joe,
She Called Pest Control,
Keep Punching Joe,
No More Pushing Joe Around.
Il doppio Yip/Jump Music (Stress, 1986 - Homestead, 1989 -
Eternal Yip Eye, 2006),
registrato anch'esso nel 1983,
e` una delle sue opere piu` importanti, un'ora e mezza di musica per amici
intimi cantata nel suo registro prepuberale e registrata con un forte soffio
di sottofondo e un timbro arcaico dell'organo in maniera da ricostruire
l'atmosfera del fin de siecle.
Il Chord Organ Blues per armonica e battipanni e il motivetto surf di
Speeding Motorcycle il lamento alla Neil Young di
Don't Let The Sun Go Down sono un tributo all'ingegno dei poveri.
I testi racchiudono gran parte del fascino, e non soltanto
le bizzarre meditazioni sulla condizione umana di Worried Shoes
e le tenere confessioni di I Live For Love: le trovate piu`
(involontariamente) spassose sono
la ballata di King Kong, cantata a cappella con il tono di un sermone
funebre (che verra` interpretata anche da Jad Fair),
e il conto alla rovescia di Rocket Ship, che rende la sensazione del
decollo (e che verra` interpretata anche dai Dead Milkmen).
Dopo aver passato in rassegna un po' tutto cio` che angustia la razza umana,
Johnston si concede un'ode francescana a God che e` la quintessenza della
sua innocente filosofia:
"I'm glad God made me/ because I love the stars/ and I love the moon/
and I love the Earth too/ I love the God/ that made all these things".
Il nastro di
Retired Boxer (Stress, 1984) non e` stato tuttora riedito su disco.
Tracks:
I'll Do Anything But Break Dance for Ya, Darling,
Bye Bye Barbie,
Fighting With Myself,
Too Young To Die,
This Song,
Feels Good,
Oh No,
Strange Boy,
True Love Will Find You in the End.
Su Respect (Stress, 1985) brillano gli amari
sermoni di An Angel Cry e Just Like A Widow.
Tracks:
No Love in Town,
An Angel Cry,
Have Respect,
Dream,
I Know What I Want,
Merry-Go-Round,
A Little Bit of Soap,
Lonlieness,
Good Morning You,
Go,
Fast Go,
Car Crash,
Just Like a Widow,
Heartbreak Hotel,
You Killed My Baby,
You Are a Writer,
Go Some More,
Theme from Respect.
Continued Story (Homestead, 1991), cassetta
registrata nel 1985 (in parte con i Texas Instruments), comprende
It's Over, Funeral Home e Lady In The Radiator.
Tracks:
It's Over,
Ain't No Woman Gonna Make A George Jones Outta Me,
The Dead Dog Laughing In The Cloud,
Funeral Home,
Her Blues,
Running Water Revisited,
I Saw Her Standing There,
Casper,
Ghost of Our Love,
Fly Eye,
Etiquette,
A Walk In The Wind,
Dem Blues,
Girls.
A reissue joined
Continued Story + Hi How Are You (Eternal Yip Eye, 2006).
Gli anni successivi al 1985 furono anni turbolenti. Della musica prodotta
in quegli anni sono giunti soltanto echi lontani: gli EP
Big Big World (Seminal Twang, 1991) e
Laurie (Seminal Twang, 1992).
Dopo un album con Jad Fair senza titolo (per la 50 Skidillion Watts) del 1989,
riedito come It's Spooky (Paperhouse, 1993 - Jajaguwar, 2001),
venne finalmente 1990.
All'insegna di un oscuro tema demoniaco Johnston mette a fuoco il suo matto
canzoniere, che pero` tanto matto non e`, anzi pennella sinistri proclami
metafisici come Spirit World Rising (sei minuti per sole voce e chitarra),
commosse preghiere gospel come Lord Give Me Hope (sei minuti per soli canto
e pianoforte),
timide confessioni di insicurezza come Some Things Last A Long Time (con
una melodia che potrebbe essere dei Beatles, se solo avesse un vero
arrangiamento). Sono gioielli di solipsismo che si ispirano liberamente
alla sapida introversione del blues, ma un blues imparentato con gli esorcismi
atavici di Taj Mahal (Don't Play Cards With Satan).
Tetro filosofo della condizione umana, Johnston e` tutt'altro che il giullare
spensierato che vuol far credere con le sue eccentricita`. Forbito artigiano
di canzoni, non e` neppure il dilettante approssimativo che la sua modestia
farebbe pensare.
Una delle sue canzoni, Do It Right, compare anche sull'album di
Marueen Tucker, Life In Exile After Abdication.
Dopo il 45 giri Speeding Motorcycle (con gli Yo La Tengo),
Artistic Vice (Shimmy Disc, 1992)
continua il progresso verso un sound piu`
accessibile. E' l'album piu` professionale della sua carriera, e
anche uno dei piu` allegri. Forte di un vero complesso d'accompagnamento,
Johnston ingaggia l'incalzante rock and roll di My Life Is Starting Over,
imita la possente cadenza marziale di Zevon in Happy Soul, lambisce
l'incedere ossessivo dei Velvet Underground in Fate Will Get Done.
Ma l'animo puro di Johnston si riconosce subito, anche se le musiche sono
diventate adulte: Johnston canta Honey I Sure Miss You con la semplicita` e
la sincerita` di un tema alla mamma alle scuole elementari,
piange Laurie in un valzerone accorato.
Gli si addice il melodismo spensierato degli anni '60, genere in cui pennella
due gioielli come Love Of My Life e Tell Me Know.
L'elettricita` non ha insomma rovinato la sua arte naif, l'ha fatta fiorire.
Alla fine del 1992 viene anche eseguita la prima del suo balletto,
Love Defined, in gran parte tratto da Yip/Jump Music.
La progressione verso un sound piu` professionale continua
con Fun (Atlantic, 1994), di pari passo con la sua fama (fra i fan anche
Kurt Cobain). Grazie all'accompagnamento di due Butthole Surfers (Paul Leary e
King Coffey), piu` il violino di Regina Carter e il violoncello di John Hagen,
il talento melodico di questo cuore solitario diventato musicista per sbaglio
e` ora in primo piano: Love Wheel, Foxy Girl, Lousy Weekend sfoggiano
ritornelli e contrappunti di prima qualita`.
Senza rinnegare le sue umili origini (un lamento folk di Life In Vain,
il blues strascicato di Catie) o il suo spirito bambinesco
(la matta filastrocca di Happy Time,
il rag per pianoforte di Love Will See You Through),
Johnston si ritaglia un posto fra i cantautori moderni.
Ed e` un posto unico, poiche', in un periodo in cui sono di moda i testi
criptici, lui canta cio` che gli viene in mente senza pensarci su due volte.
Privo di una qualsiasi visione della condizione umana, Johnston si afferma come
il visionario per eccellenza: "Well I've had horrors/ and I've had a lot of
fear/ but the worst horror/ is when there's nothing here".
Nel 1995 Gibby Haines trascrive la sua I Save Cigarette Butts per i P.
L'iriverente furto del celebre discorso "I had a dream" Martin Luther King viene
messo in musica su note di boogie.
Dream Scream (Pickled Egg, 1999) e` una splendida canzone pop, ma
conferma lo stato di isolamento del personaggio.
The Lucky Sperms (Jagjaguwar, 2001) is a new collaboration with Jad Fair.
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Equal parts catchy ditties (Love Forever, Party)
and crazy romps
(Funeral Girl, The Spook, Some Time Spent In Heaven),
Rejected Unknown (Pickled Egg, 2000)
summarizes Johnston's art and persona,
without adding anything significant to a long and gloriously demented career.
The haphazard collections was assembled (and co-written) by
Glass Eye member Brian Beattie.
Daniel Johnston's career was revitalized by
Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, whose arrangements
(and Alan Weatherhead's) helped Fear Yourself (Gammon, 2003) become
one of Johnston's most accomplished, eclectic and eccentric albums ever.
The collection, which flows like a fast-paced parade of musical vignettes,
opens with a demented rant accompany by frenzied ukulele-like guitar strumming
that suddenly mutates into a majestic lament (Now).
Syrup Of Tears borrows the grand piano, the timpani, the strings
from Jim Steinman's operatic rock, and
the glossy melodrama from David Bowie's glam-rock.
Another orchestral zenith of pathos, Love Enchanter, explores that
mood, as does the grandiloquent Power Of Love,
while Must takes that idea and turns into a magnificent
love song, whose chorus soars like a religious hymn.
Less intense, but no less austere, and equally compelling,
Forever Your Love straddles the line between tragic and comic,
with a restless piano that echoes old-fashioned pianolas and a French horn
that seems to rehearse funeral music.
Linkous and Johnston take a break or two from these emotional depths,
which are veritable cathartic baths, with the
innocuous, country-tinged, power-pop of Mountain Top,
the simple, choral pub-song of Fish
(Elvis Costello meets the
Mekons),
the lightning-speed boogie of Love Not Dead (with echoes of
the Stooges, the
New York Dolls,
Tom Petty),
and the upbeat, loud, rocking manifesto of Living it For The Moment.
When it picks up speed and volume, the combo is no less effective than when
it moans in the background.
Johnson has never been so focused and so determined. Linkous has dressed up
his songs so that they deliver the full impact of Johnston's emotions.
Welcome to My World (High Wire, 2006) is a career retrospective.
Johnston made his first awful album at the age of 45:
Lost and Found (Sketchbook, 2006). These songs were probably not
rehearsed much. Some of them sound like previous Johnston songs, just less
astute and less intense. Overall, one has the feeling that Johnston made
the album that people expected him to make. The distance between an
insincere gesture and a self-parody is very short.
Hyperjinx Tricycle (2001) is a Daniel Johnston side project that features Ron English and Jack Medicine that also released the four-song EP Alien Mind Control (2003).
The Electric Ghosts (Important, 2006) is another collaboration with Medicine.
Jellyfish's Jason Falkner produced, arranged
and personally played most instruments on
Is And Always Was (2009), Johnston's glossy "pop" album, but tunes like
Without You and Is And Always Was just don't seem to
harmonize well with his spirit and his voice.
Queenie The Doggie and Fake Records of Rock and Roll would do
well on a Todd Rundgren album.
I Had Lost My Mind originally appeared on Don't Be Scared.
Daniel Johnston died in 2019 of a heart attack at the age of 58.
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