Geez, I would love to see that Target commercial. Fodder for the video section, perhaps?

Strangely, I had a different commercial experience the other day. I sometimes have the news going in the other room while I'm in here on the computer, and heard a commercial with a few slow chords and the first line "Your picture... is still... on my wall" ... So, my eyes open like "WHAT?!" and I move out to see it's the beginning of a Mercedes-Benz commercial. Don't know what the song is (it's not "Some Things Last A Long Time")... so did Daniel, um, borrow the line of some other song to begin his own, or did someone else borrow the first line of HIS song...?

As for the Nick Drake commercial, I disagree with the comments that have been made here. I've loved that music for decades, and, you know, if someone wants to use "Pink Moon" for a commercial - I think that's fine. Why? Because I bet it exposed more people to Drake's music in 60 seconds than 15 different reissues of those Island albums did in 30-odd years. Putting the sticker on the CD merely says: "Hey, this is where you heard that song you liked! Buy me!." I think it's great that more people might have found Drake's music through the commercial.

Now I'm just waiting for "McDonald's On The Brain" to pop up on my TV screen (LOL)...

Doug

Good point, Dejected... I never thought about that. People just finding out about Daniel or who don't know much of his music and happen across the D&TN CDs are liable to miss the point entirely, and think those things are what he's about. While they're welcome to hard-core fans (what isn't?), in the overall picture they don't do his career any good.

I'm not sure I think the same about the Jad Fair collaborations - at least they might broaden Daniel's exposure to people who only buy Jad Fair records (hard to imagine, but I presume there are a handful). Personally, I think even less of those records than I do of the "Danny And the Nightmares" albums.

The Hyperjinx Tricycle album is more tolerable - good enough that at least one doesn't think "Sheesh... did they REALLY have to release this?" -- Of course, I would rather have a REAL Daniel album, but since those come out so infrequently, I'm happy for some stop-gap music that's at least listenable.

Now, who's gonna buy that comp. album and put "I Dream of Jeanie" up as the mp3 of the week? .

Doug

It's either the albums with Jad Fair, or the Danny and the Nightmares stuff. All of 'em sound like they were knocked off in an hour or two and no one, Daniel included, shows any musical or compositional talent on them.

Coasters.

Doug

Some people like the raw, lo-fi early tapes best.
Some people like the more produced, studio recordings best.

I'm simply wondering if there's any relationship between one's preference, and what type of recording one first encountered Daniel's music through. That is... do people who first heard the Stress Records tapes generally prefer the lo-fi stuff, while people who were first exposed to Daniel via "Fun" prefer the more polished recordings. I'm not saying this is an answer... just wondering if it's a possibility.

I do, however, find your comment about "Fun" quite interesting. What is there about the album that you don't like?

Perhaps the answer is this...
What's the first Daniel Johnston you heard? I wonder if one likes best what one was initially exposed to (my first exposure was "Fun" back in 1994).

Doug

Of course, cassettes were the only game in town when Daniel was recording the tapes. But I believe they've been supplanted by CD-Rs, which retain their quality copy-to-copy, and are cheaper to buy as well.

Personally, I would be happy never to see another cassette as long as I live, Daniel or not.

Of course, I transferred the Stress cassettes to CD-R (for my own use, of course!) and listen to them that way. Not only is it easier to skip the indecipherable dialogue recordings (ahem), but if you scan and print out some inserts they don't turn yellow .

Strangely, I remember the Stress material was uploaded a couple of years ago onto a pay-per-mp3 site, and the quality seemed better than the  tapes (I suspect the uploaded MP3s were mastered from CD, and not from the lo-bias cassettes). Maybe Jeff can explain this more fully. Of course, there's only so much fidelity you're going to squeeze from those tapes, and fidelity's not what it's about ANYWAY (although fixing the pitch on "Retired Boxer" really DID make it more listenable).

Doug

It was vaguely disappointing to see the Bowie show up for this month - like the WFMU show, it's readily available elsewhere on the Web.

I know there's stuff out there, Dejected - and, if I may put in a request, I'd like to see the stuff on that series of bootlegs start being uploaded so I can stop fighting off the urge to buy it off of Ebay .

Other thoughts for rarities? The "Texas Trip" tracks... maybe just the soundtrack from the MTV appearance... the Danny and the Nightmares demos... and who knows what else is lurking out there waiting to be sprung upon an unsuspecting public...

Anyway... don't wish to complain, sorry. I'll be patient. I'll be patient...



Doug

I think Daniel's best album is his most recent one - "Fear Yourself."

Of course I would rather have the material on CD rather than streaming audio - but I don't see why that's an issue, since public domain capture utilities are readily available for both Mac and PC. In other words, anyone capable of streaming it is capable of capturing it, and can burn it to a CD.

I agree about the worth of the WFMU show, but I don't see why mp3's from it should be made available here when the show itself is readily available on WFMU's site, particularly when they're kind enough to stream it so that anyone who wants it can have it. What am I missing here?

Right >$10.00 a CD is crazy, particularly when I look at the track listings and subtract everything I already have (the singles), interviews and cover versions... and it appears to come out to a couple of discs of stuff.

Ah, well, glad to hear it'll pop up here eventually.

RE: Bootlegs
Interesting Daniel would consider "Lost Recordings" and "Frankenstein Love" to be bootlegs - makes me wonder what definition he's using. Obviously these were issued by Stress with Daniel's approval, so there's no rights issues. Maybe he just means he never saw them as "real" albums, but more as fillers or odds and ends type things (I guess Live at SXSW would be in there as well, then).

Hmm.

Anyway, the link for the radio show is:

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/AC

Enjoy!

Doug

No, 13 discs is too FEW.
But I'm confused... the Ebay description says these are "approved" by DJ - and points us to dejected for information, implying (at least) that there's some kind of connection between y'all.

Dejected... is this stuff going to be made available to the Faithful (i.e., here) at some point, either for purchase or download? A positive answer will certainly steer some of us away from over-the-top Ebay prices...

And, okay, while I'm here... a couple of more notes on the current crop of MP3s...

Remember the "withdrawn" MP3 from month #1, which turned out to be nothing more than Dylan's "Apple Suckling Tree" (from the "Basement Tapes")? By some bizarre coincidence, "Hot Dog Burning Tonight" (from month #2) has the exact same tune as "Apple Suckling Tree."

I also missed one of the Beatles corrections - minor, I know, but it should be "Getting Better," not "It's Getting Better." Shame on ME!

Finally - and excuse me if you all know this already - but Daniel's hour-long appearance on WFMU Radio from 1990 was recently rebroadcast and is available as streaming audio from WFMU's website (which, if you've got a Mac, you can capture with a handy little program called "wiretap"). I'd never heard this show before, and it was great fun. "Speeding Motorcycle" was lifted from this broadcast for the single (and Yo La Tengo's compilation CD), but they also join Daniel for "Casper The Friendly Ghost" and "Whispering Hope". Daniel does a lot of comedy routines, and double tracks himself at times. Some other highlights are a great version of "A Lonely Song" and an up-tempo "Devil Town" (of all things!). The whole thing ends with Daniel singing along to the 5th Dimension's "Aquarious." Great!

First of all, thanks so much for uploading the November numbers! What a treat to hear Dan (and Co.) run through some Beatles songs . Keep 'em coming!

Here's some corrections:

Ray Pickens - Ray is playing a familiar piece (the title of which escapes me), but Dan is reciting the lyrics to Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

Move Over = One After 909
Revolution = Revolution 1
Get Back Loretta = Golden Slumbers



Doug

Not to be anal about it, or anything, but the tape was probably recorded in the early morning of December 9th, not December 8th.

Tough listening. Brings all of that back (well, for those of us old enough to remember it... sigh.)

Anyway, what I wanted to mention is that this tape - and the five other songs uploaded to the cassette section for October are now presumably the earliest Daniel recordings we've been able to hear, since Songs of Pain wasn't recorded until 1981.

One thought... it would be nice to have .jpgs of the actual tapes illustrated, although I like the collage as well (I want to hear ALL of those someday, dejected! ).

Doug