I became a fan of Daniel Johnston's music after watching the 2006 documentary The Devil And Daniel Johnston. This details the history of his desire to be a successful musician and artist, his obsessive love for Laurie, who inspired so many of his songs, and the various other effects that his combination of talent and mental health problems have caused.
A major part of his fame has always been associated with his mental illness. But being a mentally ill musician is not the reason for his being famous.
He was signed to Atlantic Records, after a bidding war, while he was in a psychiatric hospital. A major impetus for this was the publicity caused when Kurt Cobain was photographed wearing a t-shirt with some of Daniel's artwork on it. That fact really tells the story behind his success I think. Other musicians, including a lot of famous ones, have always been fans.
This is partly because of his extreme self-belief and enthusism but it is fundamentally because they could see the potential in his songs. The songs have generally always sounded rough and sometimes frankly not good but when these songs are covered by famous fans of his work they appear as the hidden jewels they are.
In 2004 he released The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered. The first disc being covers and the second disc originals. Many artists over the years, including Beck, The Eels, Wilco, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse, The Flaming Lips, Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes and Tom waits, have covered his songs.
There's always a lot going on with Daniel. In October 2009 he released his first studio album in six years, a film is being made of his life intended for release in 2011, he has his own successful iphone app!, his art is shown in major galleries and he continues to tour (amongst other things).
So here now are some of his songs. A mixture of originals and covers.
