What was your first exposure to Daniel's Music?

[fibrace]

oups i'm the guest  

[Henry Long]

Not to make too weird a thread of this, but the fibrace post about "been a long time I haven't heard something...personal, poetic, etc" made me reflect, and I thought I'd share today’s “ART” experience here.

First day of Salvador Dali exhibit at Philadelphia Museum of Art. Over 200 works, most I’ve never seen before, in person or print. Called in sick to work and went. Over all inspiring, on many levels. A good story, as good as any, unfolds. Not the least of which was MY connection. (Reading too much Descartes lately)

Of course, the art takes me back. I’m 11 or 12, and Dali is the first artist to make me go WOW. Not a particular favorite, but definitely an early influence. I wanna be an album cover artist, or a comic book artist like Jack Kirby, but this stuff is cool... (Or so it would seem for a few years, until I discovered Picasso and the Moderns and DeKooning etc.) As the beginnings of becoming a painter go, there are worse mentors, to be sure.

So, visitors are required to carry with them the mandatory auditory guide: A cumbersome black box “auditory device” Walkman thingie with headphones. “No Thanx,” I say “it’s distracting.” The dude passing out the headsets actually states, “Are you sure? They’re  a little hard to understand on your own.”(meaning the paintings, I assume) “You gotta be f**king kidding me,” I said. Emma, my fiancé laughs, and we walk in. Get the scene? Even in the museums, man! Even there!

Let's Homogenize the Hell out of your Experience of ART so that everyone will think and feel the same way!!!

So around us we hear people talking ABOUT THE WALKMEN DEVICES! “I think you’re supposed to press the green button...” and “How do you fast forward this?” and “What did he say about this painting?” and on and on. Now "The Media" will tell you what to FEEL about painting No. 37... “please move to the next painting and hear why it is good.” Gimme a break.

Side note: At one point, I overhear someone whisper to another, "Alice Cooper is here!" F**K ME! I begin to REALLY be distracted now. My 12-year-old self is scanning the crowd for a long hair (besides my own warped reflection), examining the crowd for leather, thinking of things to say. Should I say anything? Should I look? What if he’s RIGHT HERE?! I imagine myself face to face with the man, blubbering, "I LOVE YOU ALICE!" I resolve to let the mystery be, take in the art, try to chill. Still, every 4th painting or so, I'm finding myself looking up, radar locked on ‘Rock Icon.’

Then it all hits me in a wave of memory...Alice’s “Love It To Death,” “School’s Out,” “Billion Dollar Babies.” The art was coming on strong, drawing all the time, studying my Dali book as if it were the Dead Sea Scrolls. ("It must have been...It must have been...It must have been a Happy Time...") Comic book heroes. The Operatic Catholic Saints in the stained glass windows at Saint Leo’s Church where I went to school, 1st thru 6th. The Rock and Roll Gods of The Beatles and Alice and Zappa...I’m a total mess. I’m having this 4-Way conversation in my head...Me(at 42), Me(at 12), Alice Cooper and Dali! Emma is looking at me like I have a lobster on my head. I’m sweating now. The room is spinning, melting...no...wait, that’s just a painting. whew...

Ends up, there is a holographic piece of ART, towards the end of the exhibit, OF Alice Cooper, which Dali did in the early 1970's.

Okay, okay. I'm cool....right.....

Of course, this being 2005 America, the exhibit finishes in the RETAIL SHOP, I **** you not. You walk into a collection of photographs and directly into a special section set up in the gallery space to buy stuff. (I felt a little like Christ with the money lenders, but remembered how it ultimately went for Dali himself, the old capitalist, and thus restrained my self-righteous-self) Mugs and plates with tiny ants on them, plastic melted watches, lips, eyes, t-shirts, umbrellas...you know the schpeel. We literally RAN out of there and headed for the Cy Twombly Room of magnificent huge Iliad paintings (50 Days at Iliam)...

Point of story? I forget now, but it is wrapped up in hero worship and all its trappings, I’m sure. As for Daniel, well, THAT’S a different kind of story, but you can see the connections, no?

[Anonymous]

Not to make too weird a thread of this, but the fibrace post about "been a long time I haven't heard something...personal, poetic, etc" made me reflect, and I thought I'd share today’s “ART” experience here... First day of Salvador Dali exhibit at Philadelphia Museum of Art... So, visitors are required to carry with them the mandatory auditory guide: A cumbersome black box “auditory device” Walkman thingie with headphones. “... At one point, I overhear someone whisper to another, "Alice Cooper is here!"

When I was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando a few years ago, we sat down for lunch under the ACTUAL desk carved by the ACG for the cover of "School's Out". Nobody made us strap on any boxes or anything, but a frickin' well bourbon and Coke was ten bucks! In any case, that was almost better than meeting Alice in a lot of ways.

  - Not Dan

[Marquis of Sadness]

Honestly, I heard about a musician called Bright Eyes.. decided to check him out... I noticed he was on an album called "The Late Great Daniel Johnston"... now, I'd noticed this album on several other musicians I like and their discography pages... so I figured I'd check it out. I liked the covers of "Devil Town", "King Kong", and "My Life Is Starting Over Again", so I checked the man himself. I got the Songs of Pain album and Fear Yourself and never looked back.

[notdaniel]

Okay, a friend was just over here and he told me his story - he says he was living near the State (mental) Hospital here in Austin, and at a party he threw one Saturday with his roommate in I guess 1991 when Dan had the apartment "off-campus" there was this goofy guy who showed up and people kept saying he was doing strange things, like drinking milk and beer together out of a mud-caked flower vase.

One girl at the party kept suggesting that they should throw this strange fellow out, but he was more charming and silly than bothersome, so they didn't do so. Towards the end of the evening, one person with a PhD in Music appeared to recognize the guy, and the two of them spent the rest of the night in intense conversation.

The following Monday, the roommate was on the phone with a friend and commented that the new issue of Mondo 2000 magazine had just arrived and was on the coffee table. The person on the other end of the line said that they'd been waiting for that to come out because it had an article on Daniel Johnston in it. The roommate flipped immediately to the page with Dan's picture and realized that she was looking at her mystery guest's photo!

A month or so later, my friend says, they finally got to listen to one of the cassettes, and immediately "got it" and were entranced. Sadly, his roommate died before they ever got to make a planned appearance at a (then very rare) Daniel Johnston performance, but my friend says that when he finally saw a show, Dan was even more powerful live than he had anticipated.

It was a Cactus Cafe gig, probably one of the 1998/99 ones with Kathy McCarty that you see flyers for reproed on the main site, and at one point Dan asked for some water just as a fan way back yelled "Daniel!!!" Dan shaded his eyes from the bright spotlights, squinted off into the distance and asked, in all sincerity, "Yes? Did you need some water, too?"

  - notdan

[Henry Long]

Great Story, ND. Thanks!!!

[clodia]

after a momus show in vienna in 1999 I was staying at the place of a guy I met there (who remembered me from school) and he was playing this daniel johnson cd.
he also had ink patrons all over the floor because of an art project he'd done.
And an empty pack of condoms, size: extra large.
fun days.

Honestly, I heard about a musician called Bright Eyes.. decided to check him out... I noticed he was on an album called "The Late Great Daniel Johnston"... now, I'd noticed this album on several other musicians I like and their discography pages... so I figured I'd check it out. I liked the covers of "Devil Town", "King Kong", and "My Life Is Starting Over Again", so I checked the man himself. I got the Songs of Pain album and Fear Yourself and never looked back.

hurah for the pAper chAse.
And hurah for bright eyes too.

Are you into Momus?

[zack26]

I went to a small independent film venue the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles - the Echo Park Film Center - to check out a screening of a bunch of short films, one of which a friend of mine had made.  There were only about 12 people there - a really small place.  You can buy beer for two bucks out of a mini-fridge and sit back in rickety mismatched movie chairs... it's fantastic. 

They were playing music before the show began... (here it comes, of course)... and this song grabbed me.  I was heavily into the Kinks at that time... and the song they were playing had a similar feel, which I loved.  I asked the guy selling the beers what they were playing and he said "Daniel Johnston's new CD".  He handed me "Rejected Unknown" and I laughed out loud at the hilarious picture of the artist on the back (I still love that picture so much!).  After flipping through the lyrics, I found out the song was "Party"...  wrote his name down... googled... amazoned... picked up "Songs/More Songs of Pain".  Life has been better ever since.

Zack

[lonelyloner]

I once read an article on Audiogalaxy (does anyone remember it? downloaders!?!?) on "Weirdest Artists" or something a long those lines. I remember Jandek was listed. Then I read; "Daniel Johnston? Hey, wasn't Cobain often pictured wearing that one frog shirt?" I decided to check out "Hey Joe" (expecting a ukelale Hendrix cover or something) My first thought was "Woah, this guy isn't weird. He's great!!"

[Marquis of Sadness]

hurah for the pAper chAse.
And hurah for bright eyes too.

Are you into Momus?

I... I... love you.....

He's actually where my screen name comes from. He's my favorite musician.

[clodia]

hurah for the pAper chAse.
And hurah for bright eyes too.

Are you into Momus?

I... I... love you.....

He's actually where my screen name comes from. He's my favorite musician.

[fbuel]

I guesse, being new here this is a good first post to put up.

Twas a christmas a year ago that my brother-in-law bought me an ipod. how i loved that ipod. it was like a conjoined-brother/sister to me.

I downloaded a load of music from my bro-in-laws' computer.
it introduced me to some of my favorite artists of today; Nick Cave, Pj Harvey, Bonnie Prince Billy, menlo park and more that i cannot remember right now.

anyway i was randomly skipping through tracks when i heard 'funeral girl' and loved its morbid-innocence. It was a while before i payed attention to the rest of the album but when i did i didnee stop talking about it; untill my boyfriend bought me "discovered covered", and then i didn't stop going on about that. now i am gagged.

a-thankyou very much. Shanti

[WeirdlySad]

My first exposure was just a month ago.  I could not believe what I was hearing....at first, I was thinking WTF is this guy doing.  Then, after the second song, I was thinking, this is interesting.  After the third, I was blown away.  It's infectious and amazing.  I still can not believe anyone can expose themselves like this.  It's like raw nerves.  Nothing else like it.   Stange and beautiful.

[Majora]

First Daniel Johnston song I ever heard was "Rock n Roll/EGA" in Empire Records. I loved that song the second I heard it, but it wasn't till about a year ago that I bothered to look through the credits and find out who it was by. After that it was just a few song downloads before I was a fan.

[FoxBoyJnR]

Hi, I'm new on the forums. I'm from Belfast, Ireland, Europe.

I havent yet heard any of Daniel's music, I only found out about the guy last night. I seen that movie ''The Devil within Daniel Johnston''. I hadn't a clue who he was but the documentary/film was really good. It tells you about his life up to now. So I haven't heard any of his music but I'd like to hear that album ''Hi, How are You?''.

The documentary was really good in regards to how it was layed out etc. and for anyone else who dosen't really know much about the man himself, this is a really good start. It tells you all about him really, from my prespective, even from when he was a kid right up to when he was an adult, about him writing his songs, going to new york, drinking mountain dew . It was good, I'm glad I watched it and I hope to hear some of his music.