I lived in austin when he was at his peak. I knew him slightly, if one could say such thing because sadly he was mentally ill and not operating in reality. There were some people that really cared about him but most people paid money to see a person not in a right mind. I hope he has found peace. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Some of his work is indeed very powerful, some is disturbing. Many songs are poetic, some don't make much sense. But they all convey a lot of emotion, and are nice to hear. Daniel Johnston had the blues, he just played in another style. I've been meaning to see 'The Devil and Daniel Johnston'.
I basically was in the scene of the people who cared for him...Bill Anderson of Poison 13, Brian Beattie and Kathy McCarty of Glass Eye and others.
I got exposed to that scene through my girlfriend at the time, who was in a punk bluegrass band with Bill Anderson called Joan of Arkansas.
When Bill first layed a ton of Daniel Johnston cassettes on me, I couldn't stop listening to them, (and also got pretty depressed!) I got to hang with him at a few shows.
I consider him a brilliant songwriter mental illness and all, and to me, he really touches with precision and heart the vulnerability of the human spirit, could be my own illness speaking!
He will probably always be ill, but at least he has gotten some bit of notoriety and income for the work he has poured his soul into!
Here is a project he is currently involved with (again with Brian Beattie and Kathy McCarty) that I found out about when I went back to Austin this past weekend:
