Many years ago I had a very shit job in a call centre - it was a way to make some money in the holidays and it was questionnaires rather then selling stuff, so I didn't feel too bad about doing it. It definitely was very shit though. I made sure to take my full allocation of breaks, even if it just meant sitting in the tea room reading whatever magazines and papers had been left in there. One day there was a glossy magazine from one of the broadsheet papers with an article in it about Daniel Johnston; until that point I'd never heard of him.
The article was about the release of the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, but gave a very long history and really played up the "genius who you've never heard of angle". It, of course, mentioned that Kurt Cobain was a huge fan (which I think is compulsory for any article about Johnston). Throughout I felt shocked that I'd never heard of him and shortly afterwards bought a best-of online, still having never heard his music. I don't think I'm alone in listening to Daniel Johnston for the first time having heard so much about him but without a clue what his music was actually like. The article did a good job of describing it, so I wasn't too surprised by the style. I guess, however, I was expecting to like it more.
On both this record and the best-of I have, there are moments of pure genius; they're rarely entire songs but parts of songs, or ideas that songs are based around. Some Things Last a Long Time is a great song. On this record, Despair Came Knocking, Running Water and Desperate Man Blues all contain little moments of excellence. The problem for me is that those moments are too few and far between. I know that these songs and albums aren't songs and albums in the traditional sense - they're whatever Daniel felt like recording to keep himself happy, and the "view into his world" angle is certainly fascinating. I feel like a Daniel Johnston album is to any other album what a documentary is to a film; interesting but not something I need to revisit very often at all.
I have no idea when I last listened to this record. I played the best-of a few times when I first got it (in the hope that perhaps eventually I'd get more out of it) and a year or so later I bought Hi, How Are You in Spillers during my Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year. Probably mostly because of Kurt Cobain's t-shirt, this album is Johnston's most well-known (at least by title and cover). The sticker on the sleeve calls it "legendary", which probably helped convince me to buy it. In truth, I get much more enjoyment out of the best-of and had a slight feeling of buyer's regret after picking this one up.
At some point later I finally saw the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and it does offer a brilliant insight into his world. If you haven't seen it, it's certainly worth a watch but I don't think I'd actively be recommending his music to very many people.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 15
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 09/09/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
