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Some chose to write their own remembrances of the cultural phenomenon, while others relayed their memories by phone.
I closed the door and went back to work, but the shuffling continued.
I gave that for you to listen to it!
I started playing it for anybody who would listen.
I wasnt sure exactly what it was, but it was really impressive.
Daniel was like ten people at any given time in his head.
All those voices were in the room, and talking at once.
One minute he was totally innocent, and the next, a con artist.
Hed have no idea what was going on, ormoreof an idea of what was going on than anybody.
Hed manipulate, then be in awe of you, all at the same time.
It was hard to read him, and I dont think he was ever entirely in control.
Our relationship progressed because I was a fan, and I was at a lot of the early shows.
He liked to drive me crazy, and Id be banging the phone on my desk.
He would push, and he was brilliant about knowing what buttons to push.
I would get calls from Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ, but I always knew who it really was.
Daniel was definitely a hustler, and loved pissing people off.
We were all upstairs in the office, when suddenly Daniel remembered how he used to drive me crazy.
He was old Daniel again, and I hadnt seen that for a while.
Mischievous, sweet, and a pain in the ass.
Toward the end, he was old Daniel again, too, and it was great.
My housemate got a couple cassettes directly from Daniel.
I was hearing those sometime around 1986, and Daniel wouldnt charge anything for the cassettes either.
You just went into McDonalds and hed give them to you.
Theyd order a Big Mac and find a Daniel tape in there with their fries.
About a year later, Daniel still only had these cassettes out, with nothing on any other format.
TheVillage Voicewas the weekly paper in New York City, and everybody read it.
He played Dont Play Cards With Satan, and after his three songs, he just kept going.
Daniel kept right on going, so then the DJ turned down Daniels volume.
That didnt stop him, so then the guy just put on a record to drown him out.
Daniel stopped, but didnt appear to be in any hurry to leave the stage.
He finally stormed out of there, and I believe that was his first NYC show.
We did a set of our songs, and then Daniel called in and sang.
But Speeding Motorcycle was just a magical moment.
It was just incredible.
Daniel was at the studio and he and I became friends.
Daniel recorded two songs with lyrics I wrote.
He recorded Do It Right for Moes album, and Some Things Last a Long Time for his album1990.
I just remembered another phone call I had from Daniel.
Dan called me and told me that he was going to have all of his teeth removed.
I told him that I was sorry to hear that he would have to have it done.
The Wiremagazine arranged for a photo shoot in London.
A photo of Daniel and me was to be used on the front cover.
The photographer took three photos and Daniel said, Thank you, got up, and left the room.
I went after him and reminded Daniel that it was for the cover.
I asked him to have more photos taken.
He went back and after two photos he said he was going to get a hamburger.
He left the room, and I couldnt talk him into going back.
Attempting to work directly with Daniel was difficult.
Climb Mount Everest difficult.
Land on Mars difficult.
He was often obstreperous and hostile to the filmmaking process altogether.
This came to include Daniels lethargic and disoriented appearance onThe Toasty Show, a local morning connection entertainment program.
), just his normal street clothes.
We had taken an artistic risk and failed.
Now, I believe that every gentleman should own his own tuxedo and his own gorilla suit.
Striving for exceptionalism, I own two of each.
It was beauty killed the beast.
Imagine Charlie Chaplin, the innocent, naive wisdom.
My friend Dan Johnston was a trickster, coyote, and like all tricksters, he sometimes tricked himself.
(Hello, Shirley whatever-your-last-name-was.)
Oh, Dan, you should have been excused, exempted from having to grow old and die.
But I loved you.
Thank you for that.
Everything was great; Thats great!
Id hear so often about everyone elses art efforts.
You were so generous with your support and praise.
Making all kinds of art was fun and you wanted everyone to have fun.
Mischievous, irritating, hilarious, exhausting, deeply talented.
You just wanted to create.
You were an animal, pure and intuitive and singularly focused.
You knew that you would be famous, that youd someday be John Lennon.
I like your songs better than Johns.
And finally, without you in my life, Dan, Id never have met or married Kathy McCarty.
You saved my life.
You showed me what my life could be.
You validated Artlife for me, for thousands of lost and confused creatives in the world.
For all the joy you gave me and gave the world.
I love you and Ill miss you forever.
I discouraged him from this because it just seemed so dumb to me.
Why play guitar in a town with a zillion amazing guitarists?
And Daniel was so bad at playing the guitar.
I can actually tune a guitar if I really set my mind to it, and he simply could.
It) and was horrible at playing even the simplest chords.
Unlike many other people, I am not going to sugarcoat it.
Daniel was a dreadful guitarist.
But one thing that Daniel had right about being an artist was not caring what anybody else thought.
He did what he wanted to do.
He never ever did anything he didnt want to do, as far as I know.
So Daniel switched from piano (which he played beautifully) to guitar (which he did not).
But he would still play the piano for me.
It took about two hours, and I would stack the crepes on cardboard bakery circles.
I would have three crepes pans going at once.
(It was piecework though, so it paid well!
I think I made $15 an hour doing it.)
While I would make crepes, he would play all my favorite Daniel Johnston songs for me.
It was absolute bliss.
These were probably the best times we had.
Daniel went on to win the Best Guitarist Award in the AustinChronicleMusic Poll.
There are hot-shot Austin guitarists who still feel the burn of that one, because yikes!
It was like a Three Stooges slap in the face to a long line of guitarists.
Like a hand trailing down a line of people slapping one after the other with the same motion.
Like someone dragging a stick across a picket fence.
This was in 1988.
Hed just arrived at my recording studio, Noise New York.
Jad Fair was with him.
I said, Hi, Daniel.
Im so happy to finally meet you.
Do you believe in the Devil?
Better than the Beatles!
Better than the Beatles!
Songs of the Devil.
He also brought two love songs.
He was having a great day.
But then, the day began to change.
Daniel started to behave oddly.
He started hearing voices.
I could almost hear them myself, ricocheting around inside his head, his body, his soul.
A sense of urgency soon flooded me.
And then the world would change.
This was one of those songs.
But Daniel, poor Daniel, he couldnt make it past the first verse.
Thats when I started crying, too.
Dan, you and Jad go get lunch.
God Bless me, he cried, and left for lunch.
But he never came back.
You have to give me some money!
I dont have any money left and Im really hungry!
I havent eaten in days!
This is for you.
This is the very soul of Daniel Johnston, I said to myself.
But just as I was about to tell that story, Don Goede told it himself.
Dan and I used to joke about whod die first.
And that will last forever.
And we quickly learn that Daniel is very difficult to work with.
Were talking Muhammad Ali, the undisputed heavyweight champ when it comes to songwriting and art.
And it should be noted that few others at this time agree with our assessment.
But as the saying goes, If you build it, they will come.
Now how did Henry and I arrive at this at-the-time much-maligned opinion?
(These are now readily available for your appraisal on Spotify and Apple Music.)
The other half features unfiltered biographical chronicles of his manic depression set to a catchy melody.
The latter has been largely overlooked in his story.
He also makes stacks of drawings populated with an imaginary cast of characters hes created.
The guy is the definition of prolific, a one-person art machine.
So we quickly adjust and go with the flow.
And every day is literally like the Harold Ramis/Bill Murray movieGroundhog Day.
What heroin was at one time to Lou Reed, sugar is to Daniel Johnston.
They told me they found its occasional high praise in underground circles puzzling at best.
So despite their own aesthetic opinions, they were very proud of this fact.
Flash-forward to 3 a.m. on one of many all-nighters in Daniels garage.
Its like being back in high school.
The song Number One comes on and Daniel starts dancing.
Inspired, I grab my Bolex and start yelling out direction over the Beatles-esque rock-and-roll melodies of Neil Innes.
Daniel and I are both big fans of dance crazes.
I knew this was the single best piece of film I would ever shoot.
