Daniel Johnston has died. A hero of the world of outsider art; a frequently-dubbed “genius” who pointedly hated “the g-word”; a performer whose naked, guileless emotionality was both his greatest artistic strength, and a symptom of his life’s most disruptive traits, Johnson reportedly died on Tuesday night.
To talk about Daniel Johnston’s life and career is to either talk around, or through, the specter of mental illness, which dominated both his life and his art. Diagnosed with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Johnston’s life was marked, with a periodic frequency familiar with anyone who’s lived in close proximity to either disease, with a long series of peaks and valleys, often intimately linked as new thrills and stresses loomed. New albums—heralded by numerous big-name musicians happy to count him among their peers, like The Flaming Lips, Tom Waits, and, perhaps most famously, Kurt Cobain—led to increased scrutiny, led to increased symptoms, led to long stints of hospitalization, sedation, and instability. Johnston never “stopped” making music, or art, but every push toward mainstream success or label recognition was inevitably derailed by the connected circumstances of his life.
And yet, the music persisted: Strange, passionate, and so nakedly emotional that listening to it can feel like an act of aggression on the part of the singer, and an act of voyeurism for the receiver. Devoid of irony, Johnston sang the world the way that 13-year-olds see it—and not just because his high, slightly wavering voice was so frequently described as “child-like” in frequently raving reviews. Isolation, depression, and especially unrequited love mark the entire span of his discography, from the cassette tapes he used to hand out on the streets of Austin—including his most enduringly lonely love letter, Hi, How Are You—all the way up to more recent releases like 2012's Space Ducks. (All, with the exception of 1994's disastrous Fun—the product of a much-sought-after, much-chafed-against deal with Atlantic—released either independently, or with the help of tiny indie labels.)
In numerous profiles—several of them glowingly published by The Austin Chronicle over the years—much is made of Johnston’s desire for pop or rock stardom. He was a peculiar kind of self-made man, pouring his heart into tiny cassette tapes and then distributing it freely to anyone who’d take it. (According to one of those same profiles, before he finally scrounged up the money for a tape dubber, Johnston had to record each copy of his early albums directly onto a blank tape, playing out each song one by one.) It’s not clear what he would have made of the gushing tributes certain to flood the world of music criticism this week, as the—often far more successful—artists he touched and influenced talk about the ways his music made them feel: Fascinated, a little uncomfortable, but above-all-else, seen.
It was probably inevitable that Daniel Johnston the story would one day eclipse Daniel Johnston the man; his music sometimes feels like the raw, concentrated material that other performers distill into more commercially palatable tunes. And his legacy was never more compelling than when being told by someone else, as in 2005's The Devil And Daniel Johnston. Jeff Feuerzeig’s film is generally an argument on Johnston’s behalf, but it doesn’t flinch away from how difficult his mental illness made his life, both for himself, and the people around him. And yet that same legacy has extended its tendrils out into the real world, to do good if, not on his behalf, then on behalf of the feelings his music evoked in others. Austin recently celebrated its second Hi, How Are You? Day—inspired by the “Innocent Frog” mural Johnson painted, 27 years ago, on the side of the city’s Sound Exchange record store. The day (and movement) are designed to spark new conversations about mental health and care.
Per The Austin Chronicle, Johnston’s former manager Jeff Tartakov confirmed that Johnston suffered a heart attack on Tuesday night. He was 58.
41 Comments
Honey, I’ll sure miss you.RIP. This sucks.
This is not not be shitty, I thought he was already dead.Took his Rocket Ship to another plane.
Hey Joe was one of the first songs I learned to play on a piano. It reminds me of a relative. Johnston’s reputation in the music industry is like Tom Hanks with a dose of tragedy. Hopefully he has found peace after a hard enough life while finding love through the admiration of peers and fans.
RIP indeed. He had a tough slog, but now he’s on that speedy motorcycle to heaven. Campfire duets with Wesley Willis have commenced, I am sure!
Thanks for this link. I knew about him from the KIDS soundtrack, and later looked into his music as a result. Watching him barely hold on to the lyrics sheet reminds me that not everyone who makes original, quality music is bound to be a star, or is required to be an extrovert who knows or cares to learn how to manage the business/promotional end of things. His music is definitely unique and worth looking into.
Who brought the onions?
Wish I could like this twice
Wow.Thank you for sharing this. I’d never heard this song before I saw him perform it 10 years ago and it really moved me then. This version is just moving.
Ya know what’s wild? Hansard closed his Chicago show last Friday night with what seemed like an impromptu sing along of Devil Town.
Oh wow. His poor parents.
I believe his parents passed a few years ago, but yes.
Oh, I hadn’t heard that. I guess that’s a blessing in a way.
His poor parents for being dead then
Well, I know a lot of parents who would rather be dead than have to deal with the loss of their child.
I saw him in concert several times, but this last time around with Jeff Tweedy…..well, I have to admit I didn’t think I would see him again.
Honestly that whole tour was a pretty shady affair
I was hoping that I was chipping in on his retirement
Yeah, I’m sure that was the whole idea. But apparently the whole thing was thought up by his brother/manager and he wasn’t really too keen on the idea. The bands he was playing with said they didn’t even get a chance to rehearse with him before the tour. I don’t think they quite realized what they were getting themselves into.
Well, the good news is that the show in Chicago was good…..more professional sounding, but also lacking the edge of past shows. He just looked like hell, though.
These days, I get the ever suffocating feeling that will be me at 58, sans the singer, songwriter and visual artist part.
RIP
hey you got us!
He drove those demons out of his head.
My voice is a littleHorseRunning alone in the woods…
He had a difficult life. But damn, very few voices could bring me to tears as easily or quickly as his could. RIP Daniel Johnston.
This song wrecked me the first time I heard it years ago; it’s wrecking me all over again now.
Same.
True love will find you in the end, Daniel. RIP.
One of the people that didn’t fit the entertainer stereotype that almost got the recognition he deserved.Amazing songwriter and even though most would argue against I love his unique voice and singing style.
My first discovery of Daniel Johnston came on fIREHOSE’s cover of “Walking the Cow” on “Flying the Flannel”. His influence was and is deep.Now, it’s over, but at least there’s no more pushing Joe around. Shit, where’d I leave my worried shoes? I feel like wearing ‘em today.
He’s the hero to all mentally-ill, prickly creative people who know they’re gonna live a life of misery and die young but still want to believe they can somehow figure out how to achieve a weird sort of success in this world.
I’m not trying to sound like an asshole, I’m being sincere. He was and still will always be hope for people like me. RIP man. You were the real deal.
There was always something I was a little uncomfortable with about his “celebrity”: it always felt a little bit exploitative. Amid the authenticity obsession of the late-80s/early 90s (it’s almost hard to remember now, but sellout was a legit, fight-starting insult), I felt like some people latched on to his personal struggles and his perceived childlike quality as a mark of purity; proof that he was the most authentic of all. I’m not saying that everyone who appreciated him or his music felt that way, by any means, but some of the gushing praise he received seemed that way to me.None of this is to detract from the issue at hand: may be rest well and be at peace.
I do understand where you’re coming from, but I think the guilelessness/authenticity is also just in his work. I didn’t know anything about him the first time I listened to his music and I still recognized that it was music with almost no pretensions: just a great tune and lyrics that say exactly what they mean.
Yeah, I mean, I know what you’re saying, but at least with Johnston, he was consistently heaped with praise and regarded as something of a genius savant. The one who actually really made me uncomfortable in the exact way you’re referring to was Wesley Willis. Now, that dude was being exploited for his sickness. Johnston really was a beautiful lyricist. But yeah, it’s all kind of a grey area. They were both definitely exploited one way or the other. Very sad. RIP.
People today have been calling The Devil & Daniel Johnston one of the best music doc of all times which is nonsense because it’s one of the best documentaries period and should be required viewing for any high schooler who thinks of themselves as an artist.
Everybody respects the dead, they
Love the friendly ghost<3
RIP brah
The songs were haunting and magical. Few songwriters could listen to him without wishing they could write songs as powerful and pure.We pain ourselves as our bodies start to decay
We’re getting closer every day We have sinned so many times before We see no need to turn back now ‘Cause
We’re the world, the wicked world Marching to hell We know what we’re doing We’re marching to hell
🙁
the devil and DJ is fantastic, but the extended scenes on the DVD where he meets his HS crush at the festival premier made me cry for the rest of the night.
I got to see him play in the UK back in ‘08, was a great show but it’s felt for some time like this was going to happen