the importance of daniels music

[wickedwill]

not sure what is compelling me to write this but i am, maybe it was when i was listening to the song "when we all become famous in the sky" in the the members area and my four year old daughter came in the room and danced the funniest little dance and shot out of the room singing her 4 year old interpretation of the song, its then i realized how alot of dans songs have the same vibe as songs i sang in school. songs like "hang down your head tom dooley" that stick in your head 27 years after the fact. if daniel gets his just rewards for his songwriting we may never know but i bet all i own that one of my grandchildren will one day be singing a daniel johnston song from one of thier school issued songbooks. his art has made one already why not his music. oh well i will stop this ramblin on...........................

[Henry Long]

Great story Wickedwill!
That's the quintessence of art, isn't it? It continues because it somehow becomes internalized and re-interpreted. There is a line from the fantastic film "Basquiate" which I have appropriated into a large wooden sign which hangs in my studio: "Your Audience Isn't Born Yet." When, during a moment of creative frustration, I wonder why the Hell I'm still doing what it is I do after 25 years, the thought expressed on that sign at least allows me to keep holding onto the brush, or camera, or keyboard or whatever.

Visiting my nieces (9and8) over the holidays recently, we were playing in my mother's basement. I was tracing them onto big sheets of cardboard and cutting out shadow "clones" of them to play with. Anyway, I was playing some music in the background (The Liar's "They threw us all in a trench and stuck a monument on top") (!) and the CD was over and I went to put something else in and the younger niece began to sing to herself "running water....running water.. where are you running from..."

Then I remembered that years earlier, like, 5 years ago, I was playing a mix tape I had made of Daniel's cassettes in a similar situation of playtime with them. It struck me as beautiful beyond words to hear her entertaining herself with a Daniel song she heard only once or twice before. (They play Dixie Chics and Britney in my Brother's house. In otherwords, they don't have any Daniel...YET!)

2 things I learned from this:
1. Be careful what music you play around kids. They hear everything.
2. Wicked, you are absolutely right on with your prophecy concerning the lasting impact of Daniel's music. Like Woody Guthrie, his songs will go on as long as we do.