Daniel Johnston - Songs of Pain (1981)

"I Save Cigarette Butts" by Daniel Johnston


Beck's loosest demo Beck and Dava recorded in 1990 is an extremely informal session where Beck and Dava simply enjoy the process of recording together. The demo has no real song ideas that'll grow up to be hit singles and everything they do record is off-the-cuff. Mixed in between the songs and half-songs is the banter that leads from one to another. On one particular recording, Beck goes on at length on one of his influences Daniel Johnston. According to Beck, Johnston is a born-again Christian who at one point played with the Butthole Surfers. That's not necessarily true, but he and members of the Surfers did collaborate (with the band holding Johnston in high regard), and Johnston's songs are awash with Christian influence. Whether the songs reflect a faithful or cynical approach to Christianity is another conversation altogether...

Daniel Johnston learned to play the piano and wanted to be just like The Beatles. A few things stood in his way: he couldn't sing and he suffered from manic depression and schizophrenia, but he continued to play. He took classes at a couple of universities but, for reasons most likely rooted in his mental illnesses, he would always wind back down in his parents basement. It's in the basement where Johnston recorded his work on an old boombox. He'd then take the tapes he had made and go down to local record stores, universities, and clubs in Austin to give them out by hand. He gained a certain local notoriety for both his music and his odd behavior.

His first recording titled Songs of Pain and consisted of songs he recorded in 1980 and '81. The recordings are naturally poor in quality and consist of Daniel banging away frenetically on his piano singing his personal songs in his broken voice. Mixed in between the songs are sound bites of field recordings usually of friends and family. The most notable and saddening is a fight between he and his mother on how he'll never amount to anything. She criticizes him for his laziness while he retorts with sarcastic agreement and self-defeatism. The fight is one they've had many times before. The songs, as such, are very difficult to separate from their source material. Most of the Songs of Pain are in reference to a girl he loved who would eventually marry an undertaker. As such, whenever there is a reference to a funeral, a girl he loves, or a girl on whom he wishes ill, you begin to imagine Daniel's state of mind. His songwriting on its own is raw. His piano riffs are heavily embellished and his lyrics take turns of stream-of-consciousness. Still, the riffs are accomplished and the lyrics are deeply honest and find their way to natural conclusions whose notes and thoughts will resonate in the hearts of listeners.

Here is the discography surrounding Daniel Johnston's debut album:

Songs of Pain

"Urge" by Daniel Johnston


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!