FUN !!!!

[FatPatty]

i know everyone hates fun. but im really startin to dig it. theres some cool stuff on there with just daniel. silly love is so awesome, i listen to it alot, its so short, i wish it would go on forever... i like some of the stuff the buttholes play on too. life in vain is killer! great lyrics and great music!

i love the clip of daniel playin silly love at thedevilanddanieljohnston.com. he kills it!!   WOO-HOO...

[dbeefy]

I like Fun, it definitely has its moments.. Mind contorted, silly love, life in vain, psycho nightmare are all great songs,  although I do think that someone went overboard on the keyboard fills.

Having said that I guess it was famously recorded under difficult conditions, so it's just good that we have it at all.

[Henry Long]

FUN makes me cry.

The strings are a beautiful addition to Daniel's haunted,
fragile vocals and lyrics.

So many of the songs seem to be to the man in the mirror, like "Life in Vain," "Happy Time," etc. Even the packaging is like a diagram of secret clues to the sub-conscious (see back cover example of contorted boy reaching up [or away from??] to the absolutely phallic blue bird in flight).

Personally, I think Paul Leary is a great guy, and has not been given half the credit he deserves for making this difficult album with Daniel. If what I've read on the matter is only somewhat true, it wasn't easy. (And there's more to come!)

Speaking of Paul Leary, anyone notice the distinct similarity of the new White Stripe's single (from "Get Behind Me Satan"- a very Daniel sounding title!) and Paul's stunning little wonder, "The History of Dogs?"

Why couldn't Paul get any airplay? Maybe if Paul had a drum playin "sister"....

[gina164]

I played Fun for my 5-year-old niece, Anna Rose, recently...just so that she could hear 'the burp'...I knew she'd love that...but, to my astonishment...

SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH DANIEL!!!

I was so surprised...

She got quite emotional with me, and told me that I was NOT allowed to play the love songs on the album again...as it was too hard for her to listen, because SHE WANTED DAN TO LOVE HER!

OMG...you can only imagine what it felt like for her "Auntie M" to see that happen...(my full name is Mary Regina, I go by Auntie M with her...).

I tired my best to console her by telling her that when she grows up, she'll find someone just as loving as Dan sounds...Did it work?
NOPE...she's 5...

Well...I did tell her that I would write to him and tell him that she likes his music, and that he has a new fan in California...she told me to be sure to give him her address!!!  Ha ha...I said I would

THEN...She wanted my Fun CD...I told her I needed to keep it in my car's CD player...and that I would buy her one...

It just arrived yesterday!

Too "Fun-ny," isn't it?

Gina

[Henry Long]

Great story Auntie M.
I have had similiar experiences with my neices, now 11 and 10, and the "Hi, How Are You?" tape. My brother has since asked that I not play that around them, so I put on some "Spacemen 3" and "Dinosaur Junior", heh heh.

It doesn't surprise me your neice fell in love with Daniel.

If Daniel gets this tidbit of fan information, I'm sure there'll be a song someday in the lost archives called "Anna Rose."

"Oh, Anna Rose...
You know how these things always goes,
And Oh, how I know your garden grows,
My Little Anna Rose..."

Happy 4th.
Oh, Gina...you liked one poem wrote a while ago (Prayabola, I think). Here is a new poem I wrote, kind of to celebrate the 4th, realizing that the bangs and fireworks we see and hear this time of year are re-enactments of WAR, only without the bloodshed. I began to think it strange that during this hour of the world, during this senseless war, we would celebrate "Freedom" with rockets, gunpowder, and explosions in the sky which essentially mimic bombs. Killing weapons.

Anyway, I was in my attic writing, and I heard a few bangs, people SCREAMING, and got up to look out my high window to see what the Hell was going on.... and a new poem was born. It's also about Mama Earth reclaiming her children. Enough is enough...

The End of War

Longest day has passed,
and the world is once again waning,
slowly turning beneath a ruby moon.
Return of the ancient other.
The accepting perspective: 
long division of my heart.

Suns of the rim,
tiny pearls along that faraway shore,
I have heard whispers of the end of war.
Fireworkings of late June lightening bugs
calling their mates in silhouette treetops.
Constellation’s reflections
in forest floor mirror chips of mica.
Here, half way between Venus and Mars,
the weatherman has been wrong all week.
The skies are swollen, heavy with a purple bruise.
No more, she says softly. No more.

I need count no further than One.

Through my attic window
I hear terrified screaming.
Something’s happening.
Red wing black bird in the reeds.
A woman pulls at the sleeves of a man.
He pushes her away.

Gears of motion!
It’s the screams of children I’m hearing,
riding The Zipper, The Gravitron,
Ferris Wheel and Tilt-a-Whirl.
Kids at Saint Helena’s Church Carnival, 4 blocks away,
caught up in their collective yawp of centrifugal amusement.

Hold on. Here we go. We.

I like this game.
You are what you see,
and if it's beauty, so be it.

(c) 2005 Henry Long
.
.
.
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I think it's finished as a poem, but I reserve the right to change it, of course. I was going to actually mention the 4th of July firecrackers in there somehow, but I don't think it "needs" it.

[gina164]

Hi. Henry,

Yep...

...now that I've read what you wrote...it's kinda amazing that not even one American city called for 'an official' moment of silence to occur during this past eve's festivities in memory of those who have senselessly been killed or maimed or traumatized from our current war/occupation's on-going bombardments...would have been very appropriate...

As I write this, I wonder who 'we'll' kill next...

...'we'...isn't it fun?

Your poem is great...very moving.

Gina

[wickedwill]

I think FUN is great! I once heard a reviewer say it was BLOODLESS...I think it was Irwin Chusid. When I wanna spread the word of Daniel this is usually a good choice!

[dbeefy]

How anyone could listen to, say, Mind Contorted and declare it 'bloodless' escapes me!

(going to get home from work today and stick Fun on .. )

[SpeedingMotercycle]

one of my favorites on Fun would have to be Sad sac + Tarzan.