Today, American singer, songwriter, musician and artist Daniel Johnston is one of the most significant figures of the lo-fi and alternative music scenes whose talent has been championed by an extensive list of musicians from Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, Built To Spill to Mac Miller, Lana Del Rey and Cage the Elephant.
After his 2019 passing, Johnston‘s work still resonates in the highest reaches of pop culture with his music and artwork recently featured in two of the biggest Hollywood films of 2024 Joker: Folie à Deux and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Johnston‘s song “True Love Will Find You In The End” is performed by Joaquin Phoenix for the Joker film and several pieces of his artwork adorn the bedroom walls of one of the characters in Beetlejuice. These subtle reminders of Johnston’s impact on the artistic community arrive in time for the upcoming collector’s edition reissue of his 1991 album, Artistic Vice, due out October 18 through Eternal Yip Eye Records / Thirty Tigers.
Johnston‘s friend and producer Kramer remastered the record to give it extra sonic love and rock n’ roll power, just the way he would have wanted it. Today, SPIN Magazine is premiering one of Johnston’s previously unreleased tracks, “All Good Children Got To Die,” alongside a visual produced by Fly Eye Media.
As a whole, “All Good Children Got To Die” is wonderful ditty because of how the instrumentation brings a rock and country vibe, while Johnston uses his harmonic voice to describe what he is feeling. “All Good Children Got To Die” sees the artist reflecting on his life through a series of memories.
Johnston has spent the last 30 or so years of his life exposing his heartrending tales of unrequited love, cosmic mishaps and existential torment to an ever-growing international cult audience. Initiates, including a healthy number of discerning musicians and critics, have hailed him as an American original in the style of bluesman Robert Johnson and country legend Hank Williams.
Leave a Comment