My Take On Daniel Johnston
I liked this film, but while I was watching the movie I hated Daniel's music. Since there seemed to be all these Danielheads, I figured there must be something to his music that I wasn't getting. So I decided to delve a little more into his music and I listened to a lot of his work.
My final take is that he is 'not' a good songwriter. Though he sometimes writes interesting lyrics, other times the lyrics are amateurish and too 'on the nose.' But songwriting encompasses musical composition as well, and not just lyrics. Even if he were a brilliant lyricist, without good melodies and music the songs are not really songs. People who like DJ's music usually cite his lyrics. But without music, lyrics are not songs, they are poems. It seems like DJ is more of a poet who set his poems to awful melodies. Any child could come up with 99% of Daniel's melodies.
I think Daniel is more of a novelty, which explains his appeal. There also seems to be a little 'Emperor's New Clothes' element which has contributed to his notoriety (people feel cool because they see something others don't).
Daniel Johnston is an intriguing character with a fascinating history. And perhaps because of this his music has a haunting quality. But people who call him a songwriting genius are really the one's who don't understand music.
Now, having said all this, I will say that I found two of Daniel's songs which I thought worked both musically and lyrically, and I'm quite a fan of both. They are 'True Love Will Find You In The End,' and 'Worried Shoes.'
PS. I am musically trained, so I know what I'm talking about, and no, I do not like Justin Bieber.
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