It has had a profound impact on me. I think about his songs often. They are simple, almost to a fault, but from the heart. Today it finally dawned on me why I can't get his story out of my head. He's the ultimate underdog! He has pursued his art for many, many years in the face of brutal torture from within. Each man's hell is different, but his is up and behind his face. At one point in his life, while riding as a passenger in his father's small airplane, he turned the engine off and threw the keys out of the window forcing his father to make a crash landing into the forest below. But through it all he has expressed himself. The beautiful bits as well as the ugly ones. Just as Bukowski said of Fante, his "pure and magic emotions hang on the simple clean line." This one is my favorite, although it's a little late for Valentine's Day.
He recorded his early songs with nothing more than a dictation tape recorder placed near his keyboard or guitar. You can hear how raw these recordings were in 'Story Of An Artist', for example.
The courage of this man is what gets me. Most people don't understand the courage it takes for people with his affliction just to get out of bed in the morning, shave, pay bills, sit in traffic, much less stand up in front of a crowd of people and share their art. And yet he has, and he's created something timeless, with the crudest of tools.
Thank you for the inspiration Daniel Johnston.
No comments:
Post a Comment