SONG OF THE DAY
“True Love Will Find You In The End” by Daniel Johnston (Retired Boxer, Stress Records, 1984). Written by Daniel Johnston.
AS HEARD ON
This song was ironically featured in the recent Weeds episode “Fran Tarkenton”.
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– Retired Boxer is the seventh self-released music cassette album by singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, recorded in 1984.
– Beck recorded a cover of the song “True Love Will Find You in the End”, which appeared on the Daniel Johnston tribute album, The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered.
– The discography of Daniel Johnston consists of seventeen studio albums, three live albums, two compilation albums, and seven tribute albums.
– Daniel Dale Johnston (born January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist.
– Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
– Johnston has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder which has been a recurring problem throughout his life.
– One critic from Pitchfork Media writes that Johnston’s recordings range from “spotty to brilliant.”
– He began recording Beatles-inspired music in the late 1970s on a $59 Sanyo monaural Boombox, singing and playing piano and chord organ.
– Johnston’s musical work gained some notoriety when he moved to Austin, Texas. Johnston began to attract the attention of the local press and gain a following augmented in numbers by his habit of handing out tapes to people he met.
– Live performances were well-attended and hotly anticipated.
– His local standing led to him being featured in a 1985 episode of the MTV program The Cutting Edge featuring performers from Austin’s “New Sincerity” music scene.
– Subsequently he performed at the 1985 Woodshock music festival in Austin, where he was featured in a short documentary of the festival, Woodshock.
– In 1988, Johnston visited New York City and recorded 1990 with producer Kramer at his Noise New York studio. It was released in 1990 on Kramer’s Shimmy-Disc label. This was Johnston’s first experience in a professional recording environment after a decade of releasing home-made cassette recordings. His mental health further deteriorated during the making of 1990.
– Interest in Johnston increased when Kurt Cobain was frequently photographed wearing a t-shirt featuring the cover image of Johnston’s album Hi, How Are You which music journalist Everett True gave him.
– In spite of Johnston being resident in a mental hospital at the time, a bidding war to sign him ensued. Atlantic Records won and released Fun, produced by Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers in 1994.
– Johnston contributed two songs to the soundtrack for Larry Clark’s controversial 1995 film Kids, produced by Folk Implosion and Sebadoh’s frontman, Lou Barlow.
– Johnston later covered Schoolhouse Rock!’s “Unpack Your Adjectives” for a compilation of the popular education songs called Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks in 1996.
– In 2004, he released The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered, a two-disc compilation. The first disc featured many artists, such as Jad Fair, Eels, Bright Eyes, Calvin Johnson, Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips and Tom Waits covering songs written by Johnston. The second disc featured Johnston’s original recordings of the songs.
– In 2005, Texas-based theater company Infernal Bridegroom Productions received a Multi-Arts Production/MAP Fund grant to work with Johnston to create a rock opera based on his music, titled Speeding Motorcycle.
– A 2005, Dutch documentary about Johnston for the TV series R.A.M. was followed in 2006 by The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary, four years in the making, collated some of the vast amount of recorded material Johnston (and in some case, others) had produced over the years to portray his life and music. The film won high praise, receiving the Director’s Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The film also inspired more interest in Johnston’s work, such as the film’s theme song, I Had Lost My Mind, and increased his pull as a touring artist.
– In 2006, Johnston’s own Eternal Yip Eye Music label released his first greatest hits compilation, Welcome to My World.
– He also appeared as musical guest on The Henry Rollins Show on which he performed “Mask” and “Care Less” (the latter was exclusive to the internet).
– Through the next few years Johnston toured extensively across the world, and continued to attract press attention. In 2008, Dick Johnston, Daniel’s brother and manager, revealed that “a movie deal based on the artist’s life and music had been finalized with a tentative 2011 release.” As of June 2010, a biopic about Johnston’s life featuring Gabriel Sunday of My Suicide is in production.
– He also said that a deal had been struck with the Converse company for a “signature series” Daniel Johnston shoe. Later, it was revealed by Daniel’s brother Dick Johnston that Converse had dropped the plan.
– In late 2008, Adjustable Productions released Johnston’s first concert DVD, The Angel and Daniel Johnston – Live at the Union Chapel, featuring a 2007 appearance in Islington, London.
– On January 31, 2009, Daniel Johnston joined the band The Swell Season on a broadcast of Austin City Limits (previously recorded on September 28, 2008) to perform the song “Life in Vain”.
– Daniel was chosen by Matt Groening to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival he curated in May 2010 in Minehead, England.
– In 2010, he was also invited by rock band Cage the Elephant to appear at Starry Nights Fest, an upstart music festival in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Johnston performed a brief solo set before being joined on stage by Cage, who backed performances of several songs, including “Speedy Motorcycle” and “True Love Will Find You in the End.”
– His artwork is shown in galleries such as in London’s Aquarium Gallery and New York’s Clementine Gallery, in both the 2006 and 2008 Liverpool Biennial.
– Daniel Johnston worked with Dr. Fun Fun and Smashing Studios to develop an iPhone platformer game called “Hi, How Are You”. The game is similar to Frogger, but features Johnston’s art and music.