YipJumpFORUM

Okay, here's a thought...
What was your very first exposure to hearing Daniel's music? Did a friend give you a tape? Hear something in the background of "Slacker" or "Kids?" Maybe it was through another band's cover.
Myself, I was visiting an Actor/Musician friend of mine in Wilkes-Barre Pa. about 6 years ago. Before I returned home, I asked him to let me borrow something interesting to listen to for the ride back to Wilmington, Delaware (about a 2-hour drive) What he gave me was a dubbed cassette someone handed to him in NYC years earlier of "Hi, How Are You?"
The damage was done. I wore that little white cassette tape out. There was next to nothing on the web at that time, just a few articles here and there. Spotty at best. Finally contacted Jeff at Stress and thus begun my nearly dangerous preoccupation with all things Daniel.
One more metaphor, if I may. I heard a story once, that when William Burroughs met Allen Ginsberg for the first time, he handed the poet a copy of Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West" and said, "Here. Educate yourself!" Continuing that tradition, I now do the same with Daniel's music.

I heard 'Summer Time' from 'It's Spooky' on Lee & Herring's radio show when I was 13 and it scared the **** out of me...I taped all their shows but that night rewound the tape and recorded the remainder of the show over that bit, so I never caught the name nor did I want to hear it again.  When I saw L&H live in Carlisle a year and a half later, they played many of the unusual songs they had played on the Radio One show before they came on stage, and oh **** there it was, "Nooo ooone understaaands youuuu...."

I had definately seen the name about various places, and had noticed copies of 'Fun' and 'It's Spooky' in shops but never took it in, just knew that he must be some american indie guy.  I got hold of Wilco's 'A Shot In The Arm' single and noticed 'True Love Will Find You In The End' was written by Daniel Johnston, which was got buried at the back of my mind, as did noticing the same thing about The Pastels 'Speeding Motorcycle'.  Anyway, I heard good things about Half Japanese and I assumed Jad and Daniel were members (for some reason) so I downloaded a bunch of Half-Japanese songs and thought they were pretty good.  It wasn't until I found a messageboard discussion thread about unrequited love songs that I heard Daniel: someone recommended 'Laurie' as being the ultimate song of this kind.  I downloaded it and was blown away, it sounded like some mad kind of murder ballad with great lyrics but I never thought it would be a true story.

I started downloading Daniel's songs according to the titles I liked, stuff like 'Despair Came Knocking' and 'Impossible Love' and thought they we're exactly what I was looking for, and then I heard 'I Remember Painfully' which was almost too much.  It reminded me of Jonathan Richman but taking that method of writing much further and it sounded scary and very, very real.  I had to get hold of some CDs and do some research.  It was only then that I found out about Daniel's illness and it sort of put the urgency of something like 'I Remember Painfully' in perspective a bit more.  I read every online article I could find and bought what few CDs I could get in Scotland.  I got a CD burner for the main purpose of downloading the tapes (legally) off Emusic and went on a mini-crusade to get all the CDs that I could.  The rest is history, I've raved about Daniel's music to most people I know and managed to get some others listening too - you can imagine my jealousy at my friend Alex finding a vinyl copy of 'Artistic Vice' in the only record shop in Dumfries...

At no point in the last couple of years has my appreciation, fascination and enthusiasm for Daniel calmed down and I still think he might be the best ever.....

It was about 7years ago, and I was in Vermont, at the end of my junior college year. A friend of mine said to me "Have you ever heard of Daniel Johnston?" I said "No, can't say I have". He said "If I introduce you to his music, you promise me you'll be a fan of his?" since this was a good friend telling me this, I took him at face value and said "sure".
and lo and behold, I've been a fan ever since.

I've tried the same tactic on other people, but its never really worked.

i had heard of daniel for a long time before making the plunge. i have to admit that even though i hate to hear it now it was some of his antics i read about that roused my curiosity. but one word that always stuck with me when i read about his music was HONESTY. well twice a year i venture back to my old stomping grounds (houston) to see friends and family and to load up on all the music i cant get in the small town that i moved to. one record store i have gone to for well over 10 years (vinal edge) had some daniel in stock and i asked the owner chuck about daniel and he said something like "oh man that guy is great everything he has put out is great" then he walks behind the counter a gets a stack of polaroids of daniel and proceeds to tell me that he comes in every few months and is one of his favorite customers!! he said daniel will come in and do some trades and hang out for a few minutes and shoot the breeze. i had to ask about the tales of insanity and such and chuck said" well its obvious he is battleing some demons but nonetheless he is always super nice and always has a good story to tell, super cool guy no doubt about it" i could not help but notice the guy behind him nodding in agreement. well i bought rejected unknown and chuck said if i wanted to take the disc with me and leave the case there he would have daniel sign it for me but i was not sure when i would make it back down so i declined. well when i listened to it i was expecting more lo-fi. when the second song funeral girl came on well needless to say i was blown away and hooked from that point on. a funny part to this story is that when i was going to visit friends i would take the cd with me to play for them well my glovebox is so full of junk that somehow my cd fell down into the dash and after having my wife veto the idea of yanking out the dash to recover it i had no choice but to go back and buy me a new copy!!!! i have since sold that car to a friend with the clause that if he ever junks it that i be able to rip out the dash and recover my cd...........he looked at me as if i was nuts but damnit that car ate my cd and i want it back. ever since my discovery of daniel i have not looked back and have gotten all his releases and gotten a rather large pile of bootlegs. in fact my whole family digs on daniel he is just awesome. i have to admit i am a cheap bastard but when i set out money for a daniel johnston tape/cd i know i will get my moneys worth. never ever have i been dissapointed and with his body of work being so big that is saying something. well thank you members of the forum for sharing your stories with me and chuck if you ever read this thanks a million for the introduction to daniel and for always making sure your shelves have some daniel on it. you changed my life in a way! THANKS!



www.vinaledge.com                   check it out

encountered daniel's music too many years ago to count.  it made no impression at all at the time.  our youth is gone from us.

"It was a piece of subtle refinement that God learned Greek when he wanted to become a writer- and that he did not learn it better."

:lol:

my first exposure to the great music of Daniel Johnston was when i was listening to a DJ show on radio done by Eddie Vedder.. he played "A Little Story" and "Joy Without Pleasure".. after those 2 songs, i was hooked..
then i did more research and realized Cobain liked his music too.. any musician who had the respect of Vedder and the late great Cobain has to be good.. so i went to museumoflove.com and ordered all the casettes and hi how are u shirt..

My first exposure to Daniel's music was in a now-defunct record store in Belmar, N.J. that my friend Eric tended - one day in 1994 I wandered in, and he said: "You've got to hear THIS guy..." and played the first track off of "Fun." I was hooked within a matter of seconds, and haven't stopped yet :-). Funny thing is, my friend soon lost interest in Daniel's music, and didn't like "1990" when I played it for him some time later - he said it was too depressing. I think that's interesting, because I've never found Daniel's music to be depressing - heartwrenching at times, sad at times - but sad and beautiful at the same time, which makes up for it.

Two other things...
I created an Excel file of Daniel's performances. After a bit more polishing, I don't see why that couldn't be made available to anyone here who wants it. I don't know about you youngsters (snort), but there are over 700 songs now, and I'm beginning to have trouble remembering what song is on what album! (Dejected... did you get this okay? I realize you're busy... just nod yes or no... ;-)).

Second other thing...
Any news on the tribute album, like further artists, or release date? I wonder what the chances are of getting one of Jeff Tweedy's performances of "True Love Will Find You In The End" on there. That would pull in X amount of Wilco fans - which I assume is the aim of the whole project, to pull in fans of the performing artists' work and introduce them to Daniel's music. Has someone remembered to invite Kathy McCarty? She was a pioneer in this kind of thing - although, come to think of it, I haven't heard anything from her AT ALL since "Dead Dog's Eyeball" and the "Sorry Entertainer" EP (sigh).

Hi Doug,

As you can see, there´s a list(tribute artists) on the website and other posts about it on the forum....

I was hoping wilco to be on the record, maybe a studio version for "true love", with Jim O´Rourke as producer...it would be "killer"!!!

But i´m satisfied with mercury rev, Sparklehorse and the Lips....
I just hope that they were all produced and engineered by the great Dave Fridman.

Doug, have you ever imagined The Beatles playing some Daniel´s songs??? It would sound great!!!!

...and......that excel file would be great for all fans!!!!!!

Hey Mindwalk, I just entered our fave producer´s website some time ago, and I read that, yes, Friedmann is producting the Flaming Lips/Sparklehorse´s Go!  Here´s from the site:

March 25, 2004 Flaming Lips here working on a Daniel Johnston song for Mark Linkous. And recording some new Lips stuff.

Man, if only they could get Tom Jones to do the vocals!!!

Just kidding (he says as he ducks and dodges)!

  - Not Daniel

Hi Andy! I saw that on the site!!!!! It´s great!!!!!

I just have to chill myself as i wait for the CD!!!!!

My first exposure to D.J. was through his collaboration with yo la tengo on their genious +love=yo la tengo album.  It wasn't until later though that I truly discovered the brilliance of this great songwriter.  Currently my favorites are the first two, songs of pain and more songs of pain.  I also like his other albums, but I find myself going back to the first two.  Daniel+piano+boombox=magic...

I'd heard of Daniel over the years , maybe first in the Record reviews of Psychotronic video mag back in the early 90s, but didn't really pay much attention.

The big thing for me was Kathy McCarty's cover of 'Living Life' at the end of Before Sunrise.  'Honest, direct and beautiful' is how I'd describe it. Then, on the credits, 'composed by Daniel Johnston'. Things didn't really click until a month or so ago, when Before Sunset opened in the UK.  I ordered a copy of the soundtrack (to both movies) because, amongst others, 'Living Life' is on it..

I'd also heard DJ mentioned in old interviews by a great band who never got much attention , House of Freaks. (although their first two albums have now been re-released on CD , Monkey on a Chain gang , and Tantilla , and I'd recommend them to all).

So I'd heard the name for years , but did a search on Google a couple of weeks ago, and the rest is recent history! I bought Rejected Unknown and Fear Yourself , and more CDs will be following once I get paid at the end of the month! I'm pretty floored by the music and art - all the things that others have said about truth, honesty, beauty I'd agree with. And the man can write a damn good song.

Looking forward to the tribute album...
Db
Cardiff, Wales

THis is news to me - you can order the soundtrack?   I'll have to go web shopping...

You sure can , I bought mine from CD Universe :


http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?style=music&pid=6748131&cart=203731438



It's $14.29

Wow, that looks like a great buy - the music from both films is amazing, especially the Julie Delpy and Kath Bloom songs. (And 'Living Life', of course, but that goes without saying!) The best soundtracks are those that can't really be separated from moments within the film, and vice versa, and that's definitely the case here.

Come to think of it, wonder if Daniel will see many $$$$ for this...?

I hope so, it's obviously been licenced properly, the credit on the cd is to 'Eternal Yip Eye music' , so fingers crossed!

well, i just heard daniel about 1 month ago so it's not hard to say which song i heard first.
This is odd, but the first song I heard is called Dairy Queen, but I don't know what cassette or cd it's from. It's very odd.

This song is seemingly popular, but it isn't on any album (that I know of).   Daniel sings it very frequently at live shows, and so there are many live recordings that have it.

You can find at least one recording in the MEMBERS ONLY section under one of the LIVE shows.

yeah, he does play it a lot. maybe a song that'll go on the new album?

I've heard the "new album" and it doesn't contain Dairy Queen. I also hear that what's left of Gammon Records won't be releasing this new album until next September.   :(

jesus that SUCKS! whats up with that? someone needs to do something about that... :evil:

i was in an austin band, poison 13, and daniel, who was a simultaneously shy and hyper-outgoing funny guy, if that makes sense,  used to come see us every time we played, and gave us his tape, "hi how are you?"  it sat around at our bass player's house for a while, then one day when i went over to his house, he said, "you have to hear this tape from that guy daniel."  i remember the first song i heard was "i am a baby in my universe."  i was blown away.  we all thought that of course he was a genius but i never really thought he would ever become well-known...now i realize that he only needed to be heard to have a big following.  i became his good friend around that period and he never ceased to amaze me with his songwriting, his mental quickness, and his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture--and his way of incorporating different aspects of it into his own worldview.

I first heard about Johnston by doing the groupie thing. Just hanging out one night  after a Lips/sparklehourse performance hoping to meet some of them. Met a few of the diffrent members. Linkus went into his bus with a headache and i sat out and talked with Scott and he recomended him. Couldn't actually find the album he recomended, but i did find Fun. At first i was like this is really weird. But then it grew on me, and now i would give up my right arm before i gave up Johnston!

I was at the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles down the street from my house.  A friend of mine was a having a collection of his comedy sketches shown at an independant film night.  The guy who was running the event was playing "Rejected Unknown" while people were waiting for the first film.  I distinctly remember hearing "Party" and loving the chords.

I heard for the first ime DJ by Why me - live in Berlin - in a music store, I've been touched then i bought Fun and Rejected Unknow, it's hard to fnd DJ disc, so i'm happy to have 2 vinyl(sp) of DJ !!

I'm actually waiting for yip jump music ..... never heard it

For me Dj is a pure songwritter, an amazing artist !

scuse for my english.....

fibrace-

Waiting for Yip/Jump? It's gonna blow your mind. The day you get it, don't make any plans. Heh heh.

I hope, it's been a long time i haven't heard something ineteresting, personnal, poetic , true....

scuse for my english  :mrgreen:

Your English is quite good enough for this place.

On the other hand,

Meine Deutsch ist sehr grosse, Ich night kann sprechen, ist mich krank aber ist mich blau?

(Man, that's gotta translate REALLY BAD!!!)

Hey, maybe if any non-USA visitors here can translate a Daniel song to your native tongue, that would be cool. Someone else could even retranslate it back like in that old game Johnny Carson used to play on his TV show. You know, where you see how much the words change in the process?

Or perhaps, next time I go to visit Daniel (or even if he's got some downtime during SXSW this year, though that's doubtful), I could get him to sing the song in (phonetic) German. All it would take is reminding of the Beatles doing "Sie Liebe Dich"! (I think the only German word he knows right now is "heil").

 - Not Dan

yes ! - Not Dan -

The one i like particulary this moment is Love Enchanted.

oups i'm the guest  :roll:

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?

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

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.

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

Great Story, ND. Thanks!!!

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.



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

Are you into Momus?

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

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!!"

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

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

:-D

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

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.

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.

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 :P. It was good, I'm glad I watched it and I hope to hear some of his music.

My first exposure to Daniel's music was through the soundtrack to the movie KIDS, which I found in a secondhand record shop ten years ago. My first impression was that 'Daniel Johnston' was a pseudonym that Lou Barlow was using to create ultra lo-fi songs (Lou Barlow featured predominantly on the soundtrack; Deluxx Folk Implosion, Folk Implosion, Sebadoh, Slint). In the years since, I began to see references to Daniel (like Kurt Cobain wearing the "Hi, How Are You" T shirt) and hearing his music in films (like Slacker) without consciously realising it. It wasn't untill I saw Richard Linklater's first film, It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, along with his short film about Woodshock on the Slacker DVD, That I realised that Daniel was a real person. I saw the film The Devil and Daniel Johnston and found that I could relate to Daniel's life. 
         

Marquis of Sadness, what is your picture of anyway? It looks like you are sucking a horse cock and massaging his ball's with a keyboard?

Sonic E- Funny story! Lou Barlow's "innocent" side! I totally see how you could've made that assumption based on all the other GREAT songs from KIDS.

By the way, if you haven't already, check out the film "Gummo." (The official site of Gummo, the movie Chloe Sevigny did with writer/director Harmony Korine (who also makes an apppearance in large glasses at the houseparty near the end of KIDS)         

www.finelinefeatures.com/gummo/     

"It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books" is something I've never seen, but now I will have to. Thanks!

What a wonderful read this thread has been!! :-D It's weird but I've been turned on to many of the groups listed by Danny. Some were only just connected through not his songs, but his association. Kramer for one. Danny turned me on to "Bongwater" when he received a load of records from Shimmy Disc. It was the "Double Bummer" album, yes, vinyl, and I was hooked ever since. I've also really enjoyed Jad Fair from the Jad Fair/Daniel Johnston album. But that's a story for later. :wink:

For me it was the pastel's cover of speeding motorcycle which i love...when i found out it was by daniel johnston i didnt really think anything of it until i saw fun and rejected unknown dirt cheap in a record shop...i bought them...liked them, but then didnt think anymore of it until i heard about the devil and daniel johnston.....when i saw this film the songs on there complely blew my mind...i think i really much prefer the songs on the cassettes...i like fun etc aswell but the cassette songs are what really hooked me in when i heard them...i cant wait to recieve the ones iv orderded off jeff at stress...

My first exposure was in 1995. I had just graduated from college. I moved to Tampa, FL and got a job as a third shift tech support person for IBM. I was broke as hell and didn't know many people. A buddy of mine told me about Daniel Johnston so I picked up "Jump/Yip Music". It was one of those albums like "The Electric Eels" album "God says **** you" that I had to listen to twice because the first time I couldn't hear everything. I was totally hooked. I listened to the album every night for a year on my bike ride to and from work. I started at midnight so usually the streets were empty and I would sing along with Daniel at the top of my lungs the whole way to work.

I guess I'm lucky. I got to hear Daniels first songs as they were being written.

Chord Organ: $75.00
Sanyo Cassette Recorder: $69.00
Cheap Cassette Tapes: $3.00 each in packs of 10
Hearing Daniel's first songs as they were being written: PRICELESS!

Yeah. That's true Henry. And I have to be honest...at first I didn't like them!
But they grew on me.