Daniel johnston who is laurie

Some would consider 58 a relatively young age at which to pass. But Daniel Johnston was always old, in some way. While his lyrics conveyed a childlike view of the world in many aspects, in interviews, he was wry and self-aware. Even the most well-produced recordings of his career have a sprinkle of entropy in their rhythm, weird pauses before or after notes, no use for a metronome or a tuner. His illustrations, too, are imprecise and bizarre—many feature aliens, boxers, mythical creatures, and all means of anthropomorphized blobs—but compelling.

Local fandom and infamy in Austin quickly spread to music nerds and arty types beyond, and cemented him as a figure that continued to generate more and more curiosity and praise for both his songwriting talent and fascinating eccentricity.

Indie rock and grunge gods, record-bin spelunkers, skaters, filmmakers, weirdos, and art brut enthusiasts alike all seemed to agree that Johnston was exceptional.

For the last decade and a half, a still-growing fan base has learned of Johnston a number of other ways, too—all of which prove that, by the 90s, his underground influence preceded him: One was by hearing other, more mainstream artists cover his songs.

With cameras rolling, they gave each other multiple hugs and Allen was visibly moved. The documentary features grainy film of Allen smiling at his camera. I always will. It was a meaningful moment that meant a lot to the singer. So did Johnston and Allen keep in touch after that? I think that was the culmination of that relationship. Newswire Powered by. And similarly one wonders how much he has befriended his mental illness over the years, whether it has now been with him so long that he has learned how to make it work for him.

I know the darkness. Befriending it, knowing the darkness, was perhaps the best option for Johnston. His time on medication and in institutions has frustrated him enormously. They just kept me like a zombie. They just said take these pills. But the worst thing was runnin' out of cigarettes," he continues, taking a swig of cola and sparking up again.

Never enough. And I'd get a carton of cigarettes and I'd give everybody cigarettes and then I ran out and they wouldn't give me any of their cigarettes. And then if we had some money, there was a soda-pop machine and we'd always split up the soda pop with little cups and take shots of soda. But it was just like endless melodramas, like being in a movie or something, sometimes horror, sometimes a surrealistic dream of being in a mental hospital with a bunch of crazy people.

Johnston's anecdotes are all delivered like this - in frantic scrambles that somehow take a circuitous route via soda-pop machines, MTV and Marilyn Monroe, before reaching their final destination.

At one point, in the middle of detailing the delights of his older brother's record collection Elton John, the Who, Jesus Christ Superstar , he begins a story of a car journey they once took together: "He had a Duster, a Plymouth Duster.

And we would be drivin' somewhere and I remember we were playing Seals and Crofts and we were drivin' real far to go somewhere and the song was goin', 'We may never pass this way again. It was a lot of fun. The recurrent anecdote in the story of Johnston is that of Laurie, the girl with whom he tumbled head-over-heels in love when she walked into his classroom at art college. Laurie was engaged to a local undertaker, and she and Johnston were never more than friends, yet in her memory he has found inspiration for dozens of songs.

Wanna know about Laurie? When I found her, she already had a boyfriend. But it was just magic.