The musicians who made Daniel Johnston: “I knew all their songs”
“Daniel Johnston reminds me of aspects that made me love art in the first place,” David Bowie once opined, referring to Johnston’s innate ability to create art that was driven by authenticity alone. As one of the biggest names in the realm of outsider music, Johnston’s music embodies every aspect of its appeal, from the sincerity of realism to the boundless possibilities of rejecting the mainstream.
Johnston was perhaps most prolific during the late 1980s and 1990s. His sheer artistry captured the attention of trailblazers like Bowie and grunge and punk icons like Kurt Cobain, who once dubbed him “the best songwriter on Earth”. But Johnston didn’t exactly try to appeal to such heroes. He simply followed whatever intuition guided his mind at any given time.
In fact, Johnston’s impact on the music scene occurred due to the unsuspecting power of permeating the spaces around it, rejecting the zeitgeist and unintentionally creating a new one. Even when he worked at McDonald’s, he unknowingly planted the seed for the forthcoming New Sincerity movement by handing out tapes that demonstrated his ability to venture out of common expectations.
Although Johnston’s work experienced a significant resurgence when Cobain was spotted wearing a T-shirt sporting the art piece Jeremiah the Innocent, it’s likely that his artistry would have naturally caught the attention of many artistic wordsmiths who desired greater realism in the music scene. While it’s easier to look back and name all of those who became influenced by Johnston, looking into his own musical fixtures reveals a rich tapestry of raw emotion and unfiltered expression.
Immersing himself in the world of drawing before music, Johnston idolised figures like John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, David Bromberg, Queen, Neil Young, the Sex Pistols, and, above all, The Beatles. “When I was 19, I wanted to be The Beatles,” Johnston once said. Although he felt he couldn’t sing, he went on to manifest their impact in various ways, including the heartfelt tribute in ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll/Ega’.
While Johnston became drawn to Queen before discovering The Beatles, the Fab Four encouraged him to overcome a significant blocker in his songwriting. “It was just a phenomenal theory for me,” Johnston explained, noting the way the group would reshuffle certain chord progressions to create new sounds. “I knew all their songs, and I played them,” he continued, “And then I kept writing with The Beatles theory over and over again. Millions of songs.”
Many artists inspired Johnston, whether or not he became aware of it, but what’s most endearing about his artistry is how unforced his creativity was: if he became drawn to a specific song or album, he let that guide him, but he didn’t actively go looking for any particular direction. In a way, that is a fact that supports the theory that Johnston was the ultimate outsider. After all, maybe it’s not about existing solely outside of the mainstream; perhaps it’s the approach you take when faced with an overwhelming surge of muses that truly defines your creative journey.
