5/8/2021 0 Comments Daniel Johnston Respect Zip
Its Spooky is the belated UK issue, with bonus tracks, of Jad Fair and Daniel Johnston.McCarty Dead Dogs Eyeball: Songs of Daniel Johnston (BarNone) 1994 Various Artists A Tribute to Daniel Johnston Vol.
EP7 (Ger. Little Teddy) 1995 The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (Gammon) 2004. Equally disturbing in its weirdness and beautiful in its Beatlesque melodicism and loopy invention, Johnstons music is an extraordinary mixture of art and madness. But the fringe-weird product of a pitiable genius carries with it an uneasy air of freakshow exploitation. As difficult as it is to resist his innocent charms, its no easier to view Johnstons cult- figure prominence (and short-lived major-label contract) without some concern. The collections are wildly uneven: Songs of Pain is lucid, incisive and invigorating. On the other hand, Dont Be Scared is disjointed, a muddy transliteration of some fine songs. As musically accomplished and clear as Songs of Pain, the quietly harrowing and confessional The What of Whom rivetingly sets plaintive cries for help to tender melodies. More Songs of Pain, performed forthrightly on piano and voice (except for the sound of a TV announcer and a 60-cycle hum that occasionally find their way to tape), fits a sweet version of Johnstons beloved Beatles I Will amid intensely winsome originals and a jaunty instrumental. Dating from the same time but unreleased for nearly a decade, The Lost Recordings I is a hissy, badly edited and haphazard effort that could have easily remained out of circulation. Despite the muffled sound and toy instruments, theres no mistaking the inspired wit and riveting honesty. Big Business Monkey attacks an employer with venom and clever rhymes; Ill Never Marry, the now-classic Walking the Cow and She Called Pest Control allude to romantic problems. While Hey Joe rewrites Hey Jude, the anguished autobiographical complaints of Keep Punching Joe is simply sung over a big-band swing record. The lyrics offer enthusiastic elegies to The Beatles, God and Casper the Friendly Ghost, while exploring personal issues in Sorry Entertainer and I Live for Love. The albums standout is King Kong, an extended and erudite a cappella plot summary and analysis. The eighteen-song Respect (available in Spain on 10-inch vinyl) is also brilliant, loaded with the remorseful An Angel Cry, a solemn cover of A Little Bit of Soap, a grimly offbeat interpretation of Heartbreak Hotel and the sharply worded Just Like a Widow. Played on two guitars, Aint No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me is a left-field winner, as are Johnstons measured piano version of I Saw Her Standing There, the rocking Ghost of Our Love and Girls. Theres more chaff than usual, but not enough to outweigh the good stuff. The contents of Continued Story are included on the CD of Hi, How Are You.) The bootleg-quality Live at SXSW finds Daniel and his acoustic guitar enthusiastically performing his songs (a couple of them twice) at three Austin venues. Nonetheless, in an industry stampeded by the rise of alternative rock, the signing of a genuine underground cult icon proved irresistible, and, after much to-ing and fro-ing, Johnston wound up with an Atlantic Records contract and made Fun with producer Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers. Not too surprisingly, Johnstons fragile music wilts in an atmosphere of orderly organization, pristine sound and occasionally ambitious arrangements (Life in Vain, Happy Time and Lousy Weekend, which employ strings, are the exceptions to an otherwise spare instrumental rule). Themes and subjects that previously prompted radiant songs of broken glass from Johnston here fail to spark anything memorable (Love Wheel and Silly Love come close, though, and Learys manic guitar storms shock Psycho Nightmare to life). Ignoring the butterfly-on-a-wheel circumstances of its creation, theres nothing identifiably wrong with the record, but Fun is fittingly or not the most forgettable album in Johnstons catalogue. Happy Time, a red-vinyl 7-inch preview of Fun, contains two tracks from it, an unreleased original (Come See Me Tonight) and a wavery rendition of the Beatles Love Me Do. The 89-vintage Laurie EP (a name that will register pungently with fans) also contains The Monster Inside of Me, Whiz Kid and The Lennon Song.
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