Daniel Johnston -Continued Story/Hi, HowAre You

Mon 8th Mar, 2010 in Music Reviews

Track your mind back to the incredibly moving 2004 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston and remember how you felt after consuming its content. Critiquing this in particular doco or any of Daniel Johnston’s work raises many questions, but provides few definitive answers.

His style of art is frustrating, yet inspiring. He’s quite apt in drawing disturbing images, with his signature Frog Of Innocence and random sketches of his muse Satan in various wretched incarnations being his favourite works. His drawings are explorations of his manic depressive existence (Johnston has suffered from a bipolar disorder for years now) and he channels all the bile, disappointment and surprisingly beautiful and poignant moments into song.

To further set the scene for the uninitiated, Johnston is a Beatles addict, inspired by a girl named Laurie, childhood memories, unrequited love, the forces of good and evil and superheroes. He might well be a lo-fi guru or a complete buffoon – but does it really matter?

Continued Story/Hi, How Are You, is a digitally remastered cut pulled from Johnston’s back catalogue – recorded in stages sometime between September 1983 and December 1985. Allow yourself to dig deep inside the demonic parables of his conflicted life, the bullshit, the tomfoolery, the Francis Black type vocal and Malkmus-esque musical quirks… and, of course the heartfelt and introspective narrative that will inevitably prevail in the end.

The most endearing quality that Daniel Johnston has is that he doesn’t just write songs for the sake of it. He cares little for verse/chorus and that’s his charm. It’s a unique quality, but it’s also his downfall. A flawed genius? Probably.

Whilst Continued Story does have a little more substance to it in terms of song structure and meaning, Hi, How Are You, although pear-shaped little musings, famously recorded when he was having a nervous breakdown is what quintessentially defines this troubled soul.