The Devil and Daniel Johnston

[Amplituden]

Hey there.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is out on Dvd!

I rented it last night and it was amazing.

It made me laugh and if I wasn't mostly a robot, cry.  I highly recommend it.

Jeremy.

[Sploops]

I loved it.  I did cry a little but that's mostly because ... it just hits close to home let's say.  Tragic glorious beautiful  ...  As a documentary I'd say it's almost as good as Crumb, and Crumb is the shit.
I was never a huge Johnston fan, a dilletante with just one cd.  But now I want go buy all those early records. 

SEE IT!

[John Junk]

I just saw this a few days ago and the DVD is great.  I was really impressed with the whole movie.  It was WAY better than I expected.  I've never been a huge fan at all, in fact I have NOTHING recorded by Johnston except for what he's got on the KIDS soundtrack, but I was still way into it.  The WFMU broadcast on the dvd is a huge bonus, and his parents totally almost made me cry.  From watching the deleted scenes, my girlfriend and I were able to deduce that "The Devil" in the title is actually Gibby from the Butthole Surfers.

[bobby.]

my girlfriend and I were able to deduce that "The Devil" in the title is actually Gibby from the Butthole Surfers.

Is that about the acid that flipped him? I haven't seen the DVD yet, so tell what allowed the deduction!

[John Junk]

Yeah, the acid and the butthole surfers concert combined apparently set him over the edge.  But there's a scene where a fairly pompous gibby is getting his teeth cleaned in the present day while he's also talking about how someone gave daniel acid, and he denies that he did it himself (which is believable enough).  But then in the extras Daniel is having like a paranoiac episode that he's filming back in the day and there's an off-camera voice that's kinda baiting him, and then after awhile that person comes on camera and it's gibby drinking something out of a mason jar with this creepy analitical expression on his face and we just thought "evil!"  The swastika in the background helps this deduction as well.

[Emily]

i saw this recently. i really liked it. it made me think about fame a lot. and that guy (sorry i dont remember his name) who still sends out the mix tapes - like his faith in Daniel seriously contributed to Daniel's success. anyway i just started to wonder about how many people can contribute to one person's rise to fame.

it also made me think about being fixated on a concept. like how he was totally fixated on that girl (i forgot her name too) and how that was seemingly the driving force behind his art and music. i dont know, i'm just saying it was interesting. like letting a fantasy carry you through your creative process.

but yeah, that scene in the dentist made me cringe.

it was such a personal story though, i could see it hitting home with many people.

Hey John H: were you completely serious about your interpretation of who the devil is? You make a good argument, but chronologically, i think Daniel was singing about the devil before he went to NY. i could be wrong. not to say the acid didnt flip a crazy switch, but there was also that part where he mentioned being in the carnival & asking some guy to say something 'really messed up' to him & they guy goes "D is for Daniel and D is for the Devil" and then Daniel was like "that totally messed with my head" not to say that was the turning point, but i think it contributed to his huge obsession with the devil. not to mention that his family was ultra religious & he was probably affected by that.

anyway, my point is i think 'the devil' may just be Daniel's demons, or his self torment. that's just how i saw it.

hey sorry for this super long post, but i just wanted to add: i think daniel is freakin hillarious. some of his music is really funny, and i just think that's cool. so listen to the albums b/c its totally worth it.

[John Junk]

My "deduction" is pretty much a joke.  I just meant that gibby can be the surrogate "Devil" figure for the movie but not really for Daniel's life.  Lots of people drop acid, and lots of people can deal with it, and it seems obvious he was already a little off before all that happened, but if it was a fictional movie, I could totally see Gibby pulling a Kaiser Sozhig (or however you spell it).  Not to mention that the butthole surfers clip they show literally looks like a scene from dante's inferno.  It just seems like Daniel found the greatest champions of his life in the Austin scene, but he also fell in or became involved with some people that were interested in him for the "wrong" reasons.  Like the movie about Wesley Willis would be about how basically everyone, across the board, was probably interested in him for the "wrong" reasons.  I CERTAINLY don't think Daniel Johnston was thinking about Gibby when he was obsessing over Satan.

[Emily]

ohh. a joke. i get it. ha.

thanks sorry bout that

[bobby.]

Yeah, the acid and the butthole surfers concert combined apparently set him over the edge.  But there's a scene where a fairly pompous gibby is getting his teeth cleaned in the present day while he's also talking about how someone gave daniel acid, and he denies that he did it himself (which is believable enough). 

Oh yeah.. I've seen the film itself, and I remember Gibby touched his nose when he said that...

[jed]

there's a scene where a fairly pompous gibby is getting his teeth cleaned

i just watched this movie for the first time a few days ago too and that scene was demonic on a couple levels. did you see how disgusting his teeth were? scrub all you want doc., it is waaaaaay too late. "why would this be in a movie?" i kept asking myself. who made that decision?

JF: hi gibby, we want to interview you about daniel johnston for a documentary we're working on.

G: sure, i can do it next monday but my schedule is pretty full so i'll have to squeeze you in with my dentist appointment if we're gonna do it.

JF: I guess that could work.

[Dorvid Barnas]

I thought "The Devil" was supposed to be Ronald McDonald.

Either way, fantastic documentary...

[Emily]

har har

[Emily]

i was just listenting to the "Yip/Jump Music" album and i realized that i can listen to this when i'm happy/in a good mood and also when i'm pretty sad about something. i thought that was weird, or kind of rare. so i was just wondering if other people feel the same way about this album, or any other music (not necessarily daniel johnston).

[Laurie]

i was just listenting to the "Yip/Jump Music" album and i realized that i can listen to this when i'm happy/in a good mood and also when i'm pretty sad about something. i thought that was weird, or kind of rare. so i was just wondering if other people feel the same way about this album, or any other music (not necessarily daniel johnston).

Kimya Dawson makes me feel that way.

[Chris L]

For what it's worth, I love Kathy McCarty's "Dead Dog's Eyeball" cd of "normal" arrangements of Johnston songs, even though she has a sort of breathy, mannered line delivery I'm not normally a fan of. 

EDIT: That might not be an accurate description, as I'm kinda stupid when describing music, but I do like it.