Daniel Johnston

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Daniel Johnston in 2006

Daniel Johnston (born January 22, 1961 in Sacramento , California , United States - September 10, 2019 ) was an American singer , musician and artist .

Life

Drawing by Daniel Johnston on a house wall in Austin, Texas (from 1994). See also: Hi, How Are You .

Daniel Johnston was born in California, the youngest of five children . He grew up in Cumberland , West Virginia in a strictly Christian home, the son of an engineer. Much younger than his siblings, he showed artistic inclinations early on, which were met with disconcertment in his environment. Among other things, he drew comics with strange creatures, and the “eyeball” appears again and again. The resistance that he encountered in his environment, which did not fit into the classic male role model, was processed in numerous cassettes and also short films.

During puberty he failed to follow the path that had been mapped out. After a major crisis, his parents had to take him away from the demanding college, and he went to an art college in his home country. But even here he was unable to meet the requirements of the degree. His parents sent him to live with his older brother in Austin , Texas , where he worked at the Astroworld amusement park. After the summer he returned to West Virginia, but disappeared after a short time. He reappeared in Austin and hired himself out in a McDonald's restaurant as a table clearer.

He gave away the songs he had recorded himself on cassettes, including to an editor of the local newspaper. In 1983 a local record store began selling his demo tapes for the first time, helping him to become better known. MTV finally did a feature on Daniel Johnston in 1985, which caught the attention of the American independent scene. Bands like Sonic Youth , Dead Milkmen and others wanted to record songs by him. But his psychological problems prevented a breakthrough. Driven by the desire to become famous, a visit to Sonic Youth in New York in the late 1980s ended in disaster. Only the collaboration with Jad Fair from Half Japanese was successful. But this too ended abruptly. Johnston harassed a woman he believed possessed by the devil and frightened her so much that she jumped out the window and broke her legs.

Kurt Cobain , the singer of Nirvana , brought Johnston to the temporary high point of his fame in 1992 when he wore a t-shirt with the cover of the tape Hi, How Are You , which Johnston had drawn, during the presentation of the MTV Awards . Johnston went under contract with Atlantic Records and released there in 1994 the album Fun , of which only a few thousand pieces sold.

In 2004 the double album The Late Great Johnston: Discovered Covered was released, on which 18 songs were originally by Johnston and as cover versions by bands and musicians such as Eels , TV on the Radio , Bright Eyes , Death Cab for Cutie , Beck , Mercury Rev , Vic Chesnutt , M. Ward, and Tom Waits are included.

In 2005, Jeff Feuerzeig's documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston , a film portrait of the musician, was released. The film was well received by audiences and critics and was awarded the prize for best documentary director at the Sundance Film Festival .

On the Beach Boys - tribute album Do It Again: A Tribute To Pet Sounds from 2006 Johnston can be heard with his version of God Only Knows .

Illness and death

Johnston suffered from bipolar disorder . In 1986 and 1988 he had to move into clinical care. He moved back to live with his parents, first in West Virginia and in the 1990s in Waller, Texas, where his parents moved to. During another manic-psychotic phase, he pulled the key from his father's small plane on his return from the Austin Music Awards in 1990, causing the plane to crash. Father and son survived the crash with minor injuries. The renewed popularity peak after 1992, which led to the record deal with Atlantic, was followed by another psychological crisis - there was no further publication on Atlantic. Things had calmed down around Johnston since then. He continued to compose music, occasionally gave concerts and drew; his drawings have been exhibited worldwide.

Johnston probably died as a result of a heart attack.

Discography

Johnston in appearance, 2012
  • Songs of Pain (Stress Records, 1981) cassette
  • Don't be Scared (Stress Records, 1982) cassette
  • The What of Whom (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
  • More Songs of Pain (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
  • Yip Jump Music (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
  • Hi, How Are You (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
  • The Lost Recordings (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
  • The Lost Recordings II (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
  • Retired Boxer (Stress Records, 1984) cassette
  • Respect (Stress Records, 1985) cassette, 10 "
  • with Texas Instruments : Continued Story (Stress Records, 1985) cassette
  • Merry Christmas (Stress Records, 1988) cassette
  • New York, CBGBs 04/22/88 (Bootleg Tape, 1988)
  • with Jad Fair : It's Spooky (50 Skidillion Watts, 1989)
  • Continued Story / Hi, how are you? ( Homestead Records , 1989)
  • Yip / Jump Music (Homestead, 1989)
  • Live at South by Southwest (Stress Records, 1990) cassette
  • 1990 ( Shimmy Disc , 1990)
  • Artistic Vice (Shimmy Disc, 1991)
  • Please Don't Feed The Ego (Eternal Yip Eye Music, 1994)
  • Fun ( Atlantic Records , 1994)
  • with Ron English and Jack Medicine: Hyperjinx Tricycle ( Important Records , 2000)
  • Why me? live in Berlin, Volksbuehne 06/06/99 (Trikont, 2000) CD
  • Rejected Unknown ( Gammon Records , 2001)
  • Live Vienna, Flex, October 13 , 2001 (Radio Broadcast, 2001)
  • Daniel Johnston & Jad Fair : The Lucky Sperms - Somewhat Humorous ( Jagjaguwar , 2001)
  • Fear Yourself (Gammon Records, 2003) CD
  • The Early Recordings of Daniel Johnston Volume 1 ( Dualtone , 2003) 2CD
  • The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (Gammon Records, 2004) CD
  • Lost And Found (Sketchbook, 2006) CD
  • The Devil Has Texas: The Tribute EPs Extended ( Little Teddy Recordings , 2008) CD
  • Lost And Found (Little Teddy Recordings, 2008) LP
  • Is and Always Was (Eternal Yip Eye Music, 2009)
  • Beam Me Up (Hazelwood, 2010)
  • Space Ducks (Feraltone / Cargo, 2013)

Web links

Commons : Daniel Johnston  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Kevin Curtin: Austin Songwriting Genius Daniel Johnston Dead at 58. In: The Austin Chronicle. September 11, 2019, accessed on September 13, 2019 .
  2. ↑ The Devil and Daniel Johnston (film) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  3. ↑ The star among the outsiders. In: Spiegel Online , September 12, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Johnston, Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer, musician, and artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Sacramento, California
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 2019