Please Don't Feed The Ego question

[Paul_Kelly]

The CD is dated 1994 but it contains Impossible Love which wasn't released until Rejected Unknown came out.  Is it the same version or is it in any way different?

[Stallion]

Huh??  I've never heard of this CD.  What is it?

[Disfranchise]

Stallion; it was a compilation a " best of" so far when it came in -94. As it is mentioned on this site it was released in only a few copies but now they have started to reprint it again and you can buy it at the new Daniel Johnston webstore.

[Stallion]

Ok thx for the info.  

[dejected]

Heck, I don't know!   It doesn't seem likely that it existed in that form five years before it went out on Rejected Unknown.

Comparing them, it sounds like the same production to me - including the crickets at the end.  I think its the same recording.

My only plausible explanation is that the "bootleg compilation" is dated wrong.  Maybe it was intended to be "through 1994" but their plans changed

There were four of this album among Daniel's collection - it was basically a bootleg with no label.   I've heard from one other person that there was only a minimal distribution.  

That's what was used to print these.   It sounds like a little more thought should have gone into it.

I'll try to learn more about it.

[dejected]

Here's a GREAT FORUM question:  

Giving, say, four or five "eras" in Daniel's music, if you were to make a "greatest" from each era, what would they be?

I woud divide the "eras" as

1.  Pre-1981 Songs Of Pain.  Now there are recordings of some of those songs that pre-date the tape, so the dividing line is mushy.  Otherwise, I think there will eventually be some decent compilations of material pre-dating all his published stuff.   I may be wrong about that!

2.  1981-1983 or Songs of Pain through everything published for those years (including the lost recordings if they came from those years)

3.  1984-1990 this is kind of a dark era for Daniel, but there was some really good stuff culminating in 1990.  I want to separate out Artistic Vice from 1991 because I think the material all pre-dates the recording of 1990.  I may be wrong about that!

4. 1991-1996 - the only thing put out in these years to my knowledge was FUN some singles and made-for-tv things, etc

5. 1997 - present  - all the voice only productions like RejectedUnknown, Fear Yourself, and the LARGE number of live performances and of course the live album Why Me?

Such a division may need to be altered a lot - maybe combining 4 and 5, for instance.   And many things published in a particular year actually come from a previous era.  So where to divide things in the selection of songs is vague.

What do you think?

[dejected]

If there is agreement in the value of this kind of exercise, I think this is EXACTLY think kind of collaborative thinking that the message boards are good for:  

The FORUM collaboratively produce a list of songs by era to define what should be on the compilations set.

There is a very real look at a "boxed set" in 18 months or so - to coincide with some other events.  So this is not just an academic exercise.

If enought agree, we will move this part of the thread to a new topic.

As it is, I questioned 'why' about several of the songs on that album.  You want to give a "taste" of the "range" of things done during any period, and the "best of" may not be the "most popular", etc.  

This is "the best of", and not "the greatest hits", of course, and that means it should be a listener taste kind of decision, don't you think?

(The problem with a boxed set" is that it can't have 28 albums in it - which is how many he's got on his discography.  So I think 2 from the first era, and one from three others is about right and may be the way to do it.  

What do you think?