Daniel Johnston

[GreatDanish]

Anyone a fan?

A friend mentioned him to me recently, and I've just been fascinated with him ever since.

If you are not familiar with him, he's an artist and musician who is bipolar, and has had some severe mental struggles.

In 1990, Johnston played at a music festival in Austin, Texas. On the way back to West Virginia on a small, private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a hypomanic episode believing he was Casper The Friendly Ghost and removed the key from the planes ignition and threw it out of the plane. His father, a former Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane despite that according to Bill "There was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

Anyway, I have just been listening to some of his music recently, and curious if others have followed him at all.

 

[rizolltizide]

What kind of music? I guess it's obvious I haven't heard of him.

 

[GreatDanish]

What kind of music? I guess it's obvious I haven't heard of him.

Well, I'll preface this with it might not be everyone's taste. Everything I've heard has pretty much just been him and a single instrument, since many of his recordings were simply recorded in his basement with a boombox. I've heard that his first album was made by pressing record, and playing through the songs. Instead of duplicating that tape, he just inserted another tape, pressed record, and played through the songs again.

Here are a few samples. Again, keep in mind that the guy has really struggled with his mental stability.

YouTube - The Sun Shines Down On Me - Daniel Johnston

YouTube - Daniel Johnston "Some things last a long time"

YouTube - Daniel Johnston - True Love Will Find You In The End

 

[rizolltizide]

Damn, that's some somber stuff, bro. You alright? I need to have you checked on?
:biggrin2:

 

[GreatDanish]

This sounds like something you've tried before. You ain't doin' no checkin' on me. I'll let you try that one on AJ.

Really, though, I need something to counter all the Spice Girls I listen to. My life has been spiced up enough. I need something to bring me back down...

 

[rizolltizide]

This sounds like something you've tried before. You ain't doin' no checkin' on me. I'll let you try that one on AJ.

Really, though, I need something to counter all the Spice Girls I listen to. My life has been spiced up enough. I need something to bring me back down...

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

 

[SavannahDare]

Talented Bipolars make the best artists, whatever the medium.

 

[cbi1972]

I went to high school with a Daniel Johnston who played bass for Verbena, but it's not the same guy.

As far as mentally unstable artists, I've been blown away by the story of Elliot Smith
Along with all the typical depression, drug abuse, and alcoholism, in 1998, he survived running off a cliff by landing on a tree that broke his fall by impaling him, and finally completed the deed in 2003 by stabbing himself in the chest.