Daniel Dale Johnston (b. January 22, 1961 in Sacramento, California) is a prolific American singer, songwriter and artist. Johnston, who suffers from bipolar disorder and often writes surreal songs about his hallucinations and mood swings, has been classified as an outsider musician. He currently lives in Waller, Texas.

His songs are typically painfully direct, and often display a disturbing blend of childlike naïvete with darker, "spooky" themes. Johnston's singing voice is rather high-pitched, and his performances often seem faltering or uncertain; one critic writes that Johnston's recordings range from "spotty to brilliant". He also draws and paints; his illustrations have been featured with most of his albums.

Johnston was born in Sacramento, California and grew up in rural West Virginia.

In the late 1970s, Johnston began recording his songs on a $59 Sanyo monaural Boombox, singing and playing either guitar, piano or harmonica. He gave tapes of his music to anyone who would take them. Johnston created the comic book-inspired art that usually accompanied his recordings.

His early songs established a number of themes that would persist through Johnston's career: Unrequited love, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and comic book superheroes, especially Captain America and Jack Kirby's other works. "Joe" - a partly autobiographical character - has been featured in a number of songs. Johnston has cited The Beatles as a prime influence.

Johnston spent his first year away from home at Abilene Christian University, where his manic-depression became more evident and problematic. He then left West Texas and attended a college closer to his hometown. A sizable proportion of Johnston's songs throughout the years have dealt with his unrequited love for "Laurie," a girl he became friends with in college, who was the first to encourage him to record his music. The Laurie character quickly assumed the role of the idealized female muse. The real life Laurie Allen married an undertaker, prompting Johnston to write lyrics in which the Laurie figure becomes strongly associated with the imagery of death in addition to her original role as a muse. For example, the song "Funeral Home" in which Johnston sings that he's "going to a funeral home" represents both the foreknowledge of death and Johnston's desire to be reunited with Laurie, who at the time worked at a funeral home. Laurie Allen has since divorced and filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig arranged a meeting between Allen and Johnston.

Music career

Johnston gained a cult following in Austin, Texas. Some regarded Johnston as little more than a quaint curiosity, but others recognized a genuine talent: Johnston has a knack for creating great, catchy melodies, while his lyrics are evocative and often use clever wordplay. His songs have been covered by a number of admirers. K. (Kathy) McCarty, formerly of the Austin, TX band Glass Eye, recorded an entire CD of Johnston's songs for the Bar/None label in 1994, titled "Dead Dog's Eyeball: Songs Of Daniel Johnston"

A 1985 MTV special on Austin brought Johnston wider attention, and a number of record stores outside Texas began selling his cassettes.

His music has been acclaimed by David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder, and Matt Groening. Kurt Cobain praised Johnston's work, and often wore a t shirt with a Johnston illustration and a caption reading, "Hi How Are You?"

1994 saw the release of Fun on Atlantic Records, his only major-label release. The record was produced by Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers, a group who had long supported Johnston, even inviting him to open a number of concerts for them. The record only sold a little over 5,000 copies and Johnston was later dropped by the label.

Johnston covered Schoolhouse Rock's well-known "Unpack Your Adjectives" for a compilation of the popular education songs called Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks in 1996.

In 2005, Texas-based theater company Infernal Bridegroom Productions received a Multi-Arts Production/MAP Fund grant to work with Johnston to create a rock opera based on his music, titled Speeding Motorcycle.

Art career

In 1993, Johnston painted a mural of the "Hi, How Are You?" frog, also known as Jeremiah after the Three Dog Night song, on the side of the Austin Sound Exchange music store. The site was converted into a Baja Fresh franchise in 2004. Although initial plans called for the mural to be torn down, public outcry caused restaurant owner John Oudt to let the mural stay, at a price of $50,000 in additional costs and lost revenue.

Johnston's drawings were featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. His artwork continues to be shown in galleries around the world, including exhibits in London's Aquarium Gallery (April 28-May 20, 2006) and New York's Clementine Gallery (March 16-April 15, 2006).

Recent news

The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005) is a documentary by Jeff Feuerzeig about Johnston's life and music, and won the Director's Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

In August 2005, it was reported that Johnston has been experiencing mood swings requiring medical attention . This led to cancellation of his touring schedule.

On November 25, 2005, Johnston was hospitalized for what appeared to be lithium poisoning (Johnston takes lithium to control his bipolar disorder). His father had found him in an incoherent state and unable to walk.

On December 8, 2005, it was reported that his condition remained "very serious" , but on 23 December, Johnston was released from the hospital. Johnston's family had been told that "Daniel would require long-term medical care and permanent dialysis for kidney failure," however his health dramatically and unexpectedly improved.

In 2006, Johnston collaborated with Osaka Popstar, supplying backing vocals on their upcoming album. They also covered his song "Wicked World."

In April 2006, Filter Magazine reported that the Johnston family's Eternal Yip Eye Music label would soon release Johnston's first greatest hits compilation, Welcome to My World.

In May and June 2006, Houston-based theater group Infernal Bridegroom Productions created and performed the rock opera Speeding Motorcycle, based on Johnston's music and in partial collaboration with Johnston; his late-2005 health crisis limited his input, however.

Johnston's life and recording career have many parallels with that of outsider musician Del Rivers. The similarities include their ages, lyrics of unrequited love, their unconventional singing voices, and debilitating episodes of illness.

Discography

• Songs of Pain (Stress Records cassette, 1980)
• Don't Be Scared (Stress Records cassette, 1982)
• The What of Whom (Stress Records cassette, 1982)
• More Songs of Pain (Stress Records cassette, 1983)
• Yip/Jump Music (Stress Records cassette, 1983; CD issued on Homestead, 1989)
• Hi, How Are You (Stress Records cassette, 1983; issued with Continued Story on Homestead, 1989)
• Retired Boxer (Stress Records cassette, 1984)
• Respect (Stress Records cassette, 1985; 10" on Spain's Munster label)
• Continued Story with Texas Instruments (Stress Records cassette, 1985; reissued with Hi, How Are You on Homestead, 1989)
• Merry Christmas (Stress Records cassette, 1988)
• Live at South by Southwest (Stress Records cassette, 1990)
• 1990 (Shimmy Disc, 1990)
• Artistic Vice (Shimmy Disc, 1991)
• Frankenstein Love recorded live in 1992 (Stress Records cassette, 2000)
• Fun (Atlantic, 1994)
• Why Me recorded live in Berlin in 1999 (Trikont, 2000)
• Rejected Unknown (Gammon Records, 2001)
• Fear Yourself with Mark Linkus (Gammon Records, 2003)

EPs and singles:

• Casper The Friendly Ghost (1988)
• The River Of No Return (1991)
• Big Big World recorded 1986 (Seminal Twang, UK, 1991)
• Laurie (Seminal Twang, UK, 1992)
• Happy Time (1994)
• Dream Scream (Pickled Egg Records, 1998)
• Impossible Love (2001)
• Sinning Is Easy (Pickled Egg Records, 2002)
• Mountain Top (Rough Trade, 2003)
• Fish (Sketchbook Records, UK, 2003)

Side Projects/Collaborations

• with Jad Fair: It's Spooky (50 Skidillion Watts, 1989; reissued on Jagjaguwar, 2001)
• with Yo La Tengo: Speeding Motorcycle single (1990)
• Danny and the Nightmares (Eternal Yip Eye Music, 1999)
• with Ron English and Jack Medicine: Hyperjinx Tricycle (Important Records, 2000)
• with Chris Bultman and Jad Fair as The Lucky Sperms: Somewhat Humorous (Jagjaguwar, 2001)
• Danny and the Nightmares: Natzi single (2001)
• with Hyperjinx Tricycle: Long Lost Love single (2002)
• with Hyperjinx Tricycle: Alien Mind Control 3" CD (Important Records, 2003)
• Danny and the Nightmares: The End Is Near Again (Cool Beans, 2003)
• Danny and the Nightmares: Freak Brain (Sympathy Records, 2005)
• with Jack Medicine: The Electric Ghosts (Important Records, 2006)

Compilations and tribute albums

• The Lost Recordings (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
• The Lost Recordings II (Stress Records, 1983) cassette
• Please Don't Feed The Ego (Eternal Yip Eye Music, 1994)
• Dead Dog's Eyeball by Kathy McCarty (1994)
• The Early Recordings of Daniel Johnston Volume 1 (Dualtone, 2003) - Reissue of Songs of Pain and More Songs of Pain
• The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (Gammon Records, 2004) - Tribute album along with disc of original versions plus one new song
• White Magic: From The Cassette Archives 1979-1989 (Eternal Yip Eye Music, 2004)
• Welcome To My World (2006)