October 5, 2005

You Too Will Die

hi how are you

When I look upon Daniel Johnston’s work, I am filled with a sadness that, I confess, is born of envy. How can one lonely man excel in the fields of music, filmmaking, painting and drawing and still have the energy to indulge in fundie Christianity and long, torturous bouts of manic depression?

Thus it has been for young Daniel, through a series of brilliant cassette tapes he recorded, according to the bio, “on a $59.00 Sanyo mono boom box” in 1983-84, to his so-called discovery in the mid-decade as some sort of street-cred mascot for various lame rock bands and subsequent coronation as the Godfather of Indie Rock (well, it could be worse) complete with obsessive-fan sites and a soon-to-be-released documentary that looks really fucking good.

Anyway… the songs. Here are three of them: stark, funny, chilling, personal and painful. I love this guy.

Daniel Johnston – “Hey Joe” (from Hi, How Are You cassette; reissued on Homestead Records)
Daniel Johnston – “Walking the Cow” (from Hi, How Are You)
Daniel Johnston – “Funeral Home” (live) (from 1990; Shimmy-Disc Records)

Shout-out to Markus from Zurich.

Rick at 10:40 pm

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