The 1981 Listening Post - Daniel Johnston - Songs of Pain

 Daniel Johnston - Songs of Pain

#527

Daniel Johnston

Songs of Pain

Genre: The original DIY confessionalist

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Grievances

I Save Cigarette Butts

An Idiot’s End

Is it possible to separate Dan from his music? I mean, can we look at the songs as stand alone tracks or is that impossible, given who he was and his mental state?

I mean, “Grievances”….that’s a good song, right? 

I never watched the documentary about Daniel. It was off Amazon by the time I found the time to watch it and then I decided that I wanted to know less about him and just experience his music and try to decipher who he was through his songs. 

It seems to me, from this collection, that Dan grew up in a pretty conservative environment. He is singing about the evils of pre-marital sex and “marching to Hell” and, well a host of guilt ridden stuff that is also filled with shame and confession. 

I appreciate Dan and what he did and the sheer guts of this but I absolutely don’t want to hang out with him. I’m also sitting here, listening, fully aware that Daniel was inventing pure confessional alternative music just 14 years after Sgt. Pepper and, in many ways for me, he dwarfs that endeavor which was the epitome of nascent studio trickery and magic. Daniel is more of the traveling bluesman except that he seems to be a shut in stuck with an upright garbage piano and can’t go anywhere for his agoraphobia. 

You could highlight just about any song as a representation of who Dan was. They are pretty much the same. Honkytonk piano in need of tuning, singer also in need of tuning (and some Neo-synephrine) and a tortured soul. As David Raposa wrote in Pitchfork: “it's nearly impossible to admire Daniel Johnston the Songwriter without thinking about Daniel Johnston the Person, and I'm not sure that it's the best thing to do.”

I really vacillated between 2.75 and 4. Hence the rating. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/songs-of-pain/1558590861

The 1985 Listening Post - Daniel Johnston - Continuing Story

Daniel Johnston - Continuing Story

#503/1137

December 2 1985

Daniel Johnston

Continuing Story

Genre: Indie Lo-Fi

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Ain’t No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Out of Me

Etiquette

It’s impossible to be objective. I’m listening to this 48 hours after Daniel died. 

How can you listen to this and not be moved by him? I think Johnston actually works better in retrospect post-mortem. His pathos is more poignant that way.

When he sings about relationships, lack thereof, like “I’m a Loner”, you can’t help but wonder if he’s making an excuse for his loneliness or just owning it. I’ve never seen the documentary but I will. 

Does Springsteen know how hard Daniel bit on “Cadillac Ranch” on “Funeral Home” rendering the former a shadow of itself and pointing out the ridiculousness of singing odes to cars when, obviously, those are death machines?

It’s too hard to be objective. Cuz there are times, like on the cover of “I Saw Her Standing There” that it sounds like what it probably is: some kid who doesn’t really play piano, trying to bang out the chords to this song, recording it, and putting it out there. 

Daniel understood YouTube before it was an inkling in anyone’s brain. 

Working with The Texas Instruments has brought out the fun in Daniel. Especially on “Etiquette”.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/continued-story-mw0000837184

The 1985 Listening Post - Daniel Johnston - Respect

Daniel Johnston - Respect

#4 

January 1 1985

Daniel Johnston

Respect

4.25 out of 5

What the hell is happening? The 80s have taken a sharp turn. 

This is an insidious record. Insidious because it’s simple to the point of insipidity. But it’s also haunting. Somewhat powerful. It’s a DIY indie thing that sounds like it was recorded in someone’s bedroom then buried in the backyard and unearthed, the cassette tape wiped and blown and then popped into a handheld recorder and played back at a funeral. And then, as if to prove me right, the song following the sweet “Go” is “Fast Go” which is “Go” if the tape player was stuck on fast forward. Oh no! That tape is gonna get stick, Daniel!!!

Then you research this and you discover that Daniel is, indeed, mentally imbalanced and he's also been weirdly influential and maybe the inventor of the DIY Indie aesthetic that echoes to today. In between hospital institutionalizations he was a strange musical savant that deserves to be heard. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/respect/307415161