Daniel Johnston - Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1
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CD Details
Artist: Daniel JohnstonEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Music Label: Dualtone Music Group
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Grievances
- Little Story
- Joy Without Pleasure
- Never Relaxed
- Brainwash
- Pothead
- Wicked World
- Lazy
- I Save Cigarette Butts
- Like a Monkey in a Zoo
- Wicked Will
- Idiot's End
- Wild West Virginia
- Since I Lost My Tooth
- Urge
- Living Life
- Tuna Ketchup
- Premarital Sex
- Don't Act Nice
- Hate Song
- Phantom of My Own Opera
- Man at War
- Only Missing You
- More Dead Than Alive
- I Will
- Poptunes
- You Put My Love Out the Door
- You're Gonna Make It, Joe
- Never Get to Heaven
- Follow That Dream
- Pow
- For the Love of Pete
- Blue Cloud
- Grievances Revisited
- True Grief
- My Baby Cares for the Dead
- Mabel's Grievances
Music reviews of Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1
Music Review: Talented, well-crafted pop, often brilliant - but not for everyone.
Rating: 5 Stars
Few could argue that Daniel Johnston is an extremely talented songwriter and a truly original and perhaps even great artist. However, due to his unconventional, childlike singing voice, and his lo-fi homemade recordings, many will find his music to be unlistenable. Others, myself one, find that such qualities only add to the charm of his otherwise Beatles-esque pop ballads.
Accompanied by only a piano and recorded in his basement, Songs of Pain: the Early Recordings, is Johnston is at his very best. , on the two discs included in this collection, is at his very best. The amount of emotion that Daniel pours into his music is unrivaled; Kurt Cobain (a fan of Johnston) occasionally comes close, but Johnston, hands down, has him beat. There are times where you can hear Johnston's voice choke up as if he were holding off tears. After one song he actually does break into sobs.
Johnston's sound is difficult to describe. As I said before, the music is accompanied by piano, and is primitively recorded on his two-track in his basement. It's pop music heavily influenced by the Beatles, show tunes, and ragtime. Sometimes it reminds me of an old Mississippi blues singer, someone like Charlie Patton; only Daniel's lyrics are modern tales of teenage angst.Hhis themes as a writer are--his struggles with his Christian faith, girls, loneliness, mental illness, and music itself.
Songs of Pain is by far my favorite Daniel Johnson album, and really is the only one I would consider as being essential to own. Later in his career, Johnston switched from piano to guitar--a move which I did not appreciate. Also, the lo-fi sound here is, I believe, conducive to the emotionality of Daniel's music; his later albums have been cleaned up somewhat by professional production, while here the sound is raw and heartfelt.
Description of Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1
Back in the early 1980s, when the punk-rock DIY spirit was going strong, emerging artists found a cheap and efficient way of distributing their music--the homemade cassette. Sometimes very crude and low-fi, the tapes became a hallmark of instant "indie cred." The erratic, troubled, and startlingly talented Daniel Johnston was one of the first musicians to really make a name for himself in this medium, and his first two tapes, 1980's Songs of Pain and '81's More Songs of Pain make up this collection, re-mixed but retaining their rough edges. The anger and sadness of "An Idiot's End," the wry twist of "Joy Without Pleasure," and the resignation of "More Dead Than Alive" exemplify the genius of his carefully chosen words. His lyrics can sting as well as delight, and his piano playing resonates with emotional depth. Hearing these songs makes one long to hear Beck doing a rendition of "Urge" or Johnny Cash taking on "Wild West Virginia." --Lorry FlemingGeneral CDs
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