Daniel Johnston - Is and Always Was
Jason Falkner manages to set up a sort of production halfway house, which raises everything out of the bedroom, but still burrows deep to the tender core at the heart of Daniel’s songs.
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No artist can make me say "I don't get it" quicker than Daniel Johnston
but deep down I feel like I do get it, and there's just nothing there. It really seems like an emperor's new clothes situation, I don't think they guy has ever made a piece of music that's not willfully excruciatingly obnoxious. I'm a bit suspect of anyone who praises this guy, whose music is clearly moronic, whether intentionally or accidentally (see "Sorry Entertainer").
I know what you mean but...
...I think if you were to scour your music collection you would find numerous songs you love, and didn't realise were actually covers of songs written by Daniel Johnston. His often lo-fi recordings and performance style hide some geniunely marvellous songs. (And I say this as someone who has until Spotify heard very little of the man's own recordings.)
I think there is one key parrallel with Daniel Johnston and Bob Dylan, in that it has on occasion taken someone else's cover of one of his compositions to bring out the true majesty in the songs. For Dylan you could cite The Byrds version of "Mr Tamborine Man", or Hendrix's version of "...Watchtower" as just two examples. For Johnston there have been numerous examples over the past 20 years of artists I like covering songs by Daniel Johnston. Examples include Sparklehorse ("Hey Joe" and "My Yoke Is Heavy"), Spectrum (to name but one of many versions of "True Love Will Find You In The End"), Spiritualized ("Funeral Home"), The Twilight Sad ("SomeTthings Last A Long Time")
My fear...
...is that someone genuinely appalling is going to cover one of his songs one day and have a huge hit with it. I could see someone like Tori Amos picking up on "True Love...". Hopefully it won't happen. Good call on the Spectrum cover, I'll have to dig that out and listen again, I remember it being a decent version.
I'm pretty sure there are no Daniel Johnston cover songs on any recording I own, I don't listen to many artists in the vein of those you mentioned.
The thing with Dylan is his music is actually fucking amazing it it's own right. His great songs were not hidden in any way. They've been improved on, but what was there to begin with was fucking amazing. Not the case with Johnston.
I do get it
As an OK guitarist I admit that his songs are genuinely simple, but that's the charm.
There's some stuff of his I can't stand ("I Picture Myself With A Guitar"...what?) but I'm going through a bit of a tough and lonely time right now and his stark directness and childish innocence is bloody refreshing and relevant to me, at its best ("Story of an Artist", "Go") really gets me.
It shouldn't do, but it damn well does.
The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered
Although now I agree with you about Dylan, when I first tried to listen to his stuff 20 years ago I didn't get it. I thought, "hang on, he can't sing, and he's not really very good at that harmonica either, has nobody ever noticed this?!". I would much rather listen to covers of his songs than the originals. I feel differently now though, and I love listening to Dylan.
This change is in no small part due to covers of Dylan songs by Cat Power, The Byrds, Hendrix The Band, and some friends I used to play.
You might find CD1 of of this set worth listening to. CD1 is covers of Daniel Johnston songs and CD2 are his originals. It's by no means a 'best of', but it might help you appreciate Daniel Johnston, just in the same way that me hearing Dylan covers helped me understand Dylan better:
http://open.spotify.com/album/0AyNLSCPqEcFvqP1wnculi
It's simple...
Daniel Johnson is the prime example of talent over competence. He writes some shit stuff at times and can sound terrible but then delivers a line like "hold me like a mother should." Sometimes it's not about being the best singer or the greatest guitar player but about whats in your heart that's important. Sometimes I can't listen, But sometimes he makes me cry.
It's simple...
Daniel Johnson is the prime example of talent over competence. He writes some shit stuff at times and can sound terrible but then delivers a line like "hold me like a mother should." Sometimes it's not about being the best singer or the greatest guitar player but about whats in your heart that's important. Sometimes I can't listen, But sometimes he makes me cry.
oops
by the way...
Just seen him tonight and his guitar was knacked, His band were great, I missed his encore because I was taking A leek when he did a 30 second version of "True love..." and came back to see him running off but it was still great.Daniel looked like he was having fun and it was very special.