The fearless ambition and hard-won legacy of DanielJohnston
The label tried to make him as comfortable as possible. Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary signed on to produce. Bobbie Nelson made a jaunty cameo. And the entire record -- released in 1994 as, simply,-- was recorded in Johnston’s parents’ garage in Waller, Texas. Though Johnston had spent most of his life idolizing The Beatles, right down to dashing off catchy pop as casually as one might flip a burger,was not a hit. Johnston wanted to be famous; so did his songs.
But on a scale of, like, me to The Beatles, Johnston was much closer to the latter. He wrote at least one standard: “True Love Will Find You in the End,” a sawed-off statement of faith as plaintive as could be imagined. There were a couple dozen others from his early, prolific period: lo-fi depictions of unreturned love and creative frustration and cosmic struggle that turned up on untold mixtapes and in the repertoires of indie stalwarts.
Though he didn’t live in Austin for a particularly long time, it was foundational to his mythos, and Johnston’s death closes a chapter for the city. His ambition mirrored Austin’s: he moved to town as it was transforming from a quiet governmental/educational center to a tech/cultural magnet.
Along with Johnston’s peers in the underground, the record shops that kept his cassettes in perpetual stock were priced out of the city core. Sound Exchange was one of them: a hole in the wall across from the University of Texas campus, it boasted a massive Johnston piece on its outside wall, painted a year before’s release.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
From Communism To Coding: How Daniel Dines Of $7 Billion UiPath Became The First Bot BillionaireInside $7 billion UiPath, the cloud company cofounded by new billionaire Daniel Dines, who's trying to end humdrum office work by providing a 'robot for every person.”
Read more »
From Communism To Coding: How Daniel Dines Of $7 Billion UiPath Became The First Bot BillionaireYou might associate bots with Russian election ruses or customer service stand-ins, but billionaire Daniel Dines' UiPath recently garnered a $7 billion valuation by selling a more humdrum kind by alexrkonrad Cloud100
Read more »
The Healing of Daniel JohnstonRead how Daniel Johnston became a beyond-underground musical hero whose work was championed by Sonic Youth, Kurt Cobain and many more
Read more »
'Mean Girls' Star Daniel Franzese Says Make Gay Big Guys Sexy AgainDamian from 'Mean Girls' says bigger gay men should get more airtime.
Read more »
5 songs to remember Daniel Johnston: Outsider musician and artist beloved by Kurt Cobain, Matt GroeningThe singer's iconic 'Hi, How Are You' album cover found its way to murals, t-shirts and more; the singer was adored by many cult icons.
Read more »
Hear Lana Del Rey's Aching Daniel Johnston CoverSinger’s version of “Some Things Last a Long Time” appears in new short film about the indie legend
Read more »