Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You in the End

This post is a little longer than usual, but this was a unique artist, to say the least. Many musicians like Jeff Tweedy, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Tom Waits, Beck, Lana Del Rey,  Eddie Vedder, and countless others were huge fans. Eddie Vedder spent some time with Chris Cornell listening to Johnston’s music. Eddie Vedder: “We listened for two hours straight, it turned into four hours, and then into six hours, until it was six in the morning, laughing and crying and then smiling so hard that tears were squeezed out of our eyes, and then looking at each other and going, I’ll never forget, we said, ‘He is better than both of us.’”

My friend Ron (Hanspostcard) grew up with this guy, as they met in high school. Ron and he hung out with each other and would visit, and Ron would listen to what Daniel recorded. Johnston was very socially awkward and not really connected to the world as much. He recorded on cassette tapes, very lo-fi. He was a musician and a very good painter as well. It was hard for him to perform in front of people. You can see it on his face when he did live performances. He suffered from different mental issues. 

 The most powerful songs don’t always come from stacks of amplifiers or a room full of seasoned players. This is one of those songs. At just over two minutes, it’s as unvarnished as a song can be and so vulnerable. It was recorded with the kind of lo-fi immediacy that feels more like he was confessing this to a person, and it wasn’t meant to be heard. It was on his 1984 cassette album Retired Boxer.  Underneath the out-of-tune singing and guitars, there are some pure gems. Most people compose songs self-consciously, hence why it is sometimes not very original or good. This guy writes songs so naively, like a child, that it sometimes creates incredibly beautiful songs

He was born in Sacramento in 1961 but raised in West Virginia. He didn’t look like your typical future rock icon. He sketched comic book heroes, taped Beatles songs off the TV, and played on a chord organ in his parents’ basement. When he later moved to Austin, Texas, he began recording homemade cassette tapes, cassette albums like Hi, How Are You, Songs of Pain, and Don’t Be Scared. These weren’t studio-polished records. These were hissing-filled songs, often off-key, but full of heart. He would dub them by hand and pass them out on the streets. Austin didn’t just shrug him off…they embraced him.

In the mid-1980s, Johnston was the local eccentric in the Austin music scene, passing out tapes at gigs and working at McDonald’s, where he’d draw cartoons for customers along with their fries. His break nationally came almost by accident: MTV aired a special on Austin’s underground in 1985, and there was Daniel playing a song called Walking The Cow. Suddenly, he wasn’t just the quirky guy on the street; he was a known musician.

Everything changed when Kurt Cobain started wearing a Hi, How Are You t-shirt in the early ’90s. At the height of Nirvana’s fame, Cobain’s endorsement turned Johnston into a name everyone knew, even if they hadn’t actually heard a single song. Labels arrived, and a bidding war began. But signing Daniel wasn’t like signing Pearl Jam. He was battling severe manic depression and schizophrenia, and his health often made recording and touring a near impossibility. He did sign with Atlantic Records briefly.

As the years went on, Johnston’s health declined, and he lived with his parents in Waller, Texas. He was the subject of the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which told his story.  Artists wore his shirts, fans tattooed his drawings, and a mural of his alien frog (“Hi, How Are You”) became a landmark in Austin.

When Daniel Johnston died in 2019 at age 58, the tributes poured in from artists all over the world. 

I would highly recommend this documentary. 

Here is Wilco doing this song. 

True Love Will Find You In The End

True love will find you in the endYou’ll find out just who was your friendDon’t be sad, I know you willBut don’t give up until

True love will find you in the endThis is a promise with a catchOnly if you’re looking can it find you‘Cause true love is searching too

But how can it recognize youIf you don’t step out into the light, the lightDon’t be sad I know you willDon’t give up untilTrue love will find you in the end

…

.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

32 thoughts on “Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You in the End”

  2. Pingback: Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You in the End – MobsterTiger

  4. The beauty, the tragedy, and the pain of chronic mental illness. I think Kurt and Eddie connected with Daniel’s music for different reasons. Kurt because he recognized his own mental health status and what contributed to it. Eddie because he’s a sensitive soul. I imagine a group of people sitting around would find it child-like and delightful. Watching the video, it seems like there were a lot of contributing factors to why Daniel was like he was.

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    1. I’ve listened to quite a few now…some of his songs…are brilliantly put together in ways that normal songwriters would not think of. Yes the performance is off the wall but when you listen to the song itself…some are quite special.
      Ron was telling me that when Kurt died…he hesitated to bring it up to Daniel but finally did…he said Daniel just said…oh you mean that guy that wore my T-Shirt? The one good thing was that he had a good support system around him…his family.

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      1. Max, I can tell he has affected you. I’m not sure I would have the stamina to listen through the chaff to get to the wheat, but you clearly do. I admire anyone who can maintain as a support system with someone who has serious chronic mental health issues.

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      2. At first I thought…what in the hell do people see or hear? Then…I started to listen with songwriter ears…and yes…I can tell why Eddie and others like the guy’s music…now could I listen to it for hours? No…but I do see why people cover him.
        Yes he was lucky in that regard about his family. Thanks for trying it Lisa!

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  5. very interesting. I’ve heard the name but knew zero about him. Who’d have thought ol Ron would have gone to school with him! Seems like a guy who was made for the Austin scene, I’m glad he got some recognition before he died.

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    1. He did…very child like and he came up with stuff that normal songwriters would never dream of. I was quite impressed listening to his catalog. The performances…yea not the best but the song themselves…I liked.
      He asked Ron to be his manager at one time…he should have done it!

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  9. I’m so pleased you wrote on that song and highlighted Daniel. He’s my songwriter hero. He was first something like a legend in underground magazines I read in the nineties. And I bought on cd the album “it’s spooky”, in collaboration with musicien Jad Fair. And it was a revelation. I remember particularly the song “I met Rocky Erickson”. I found that totally crazy. And After that I listened to his first homemade recordings and discovered his paintings. Since then, life is like a speeding motocycle for me, in a world of funny changes…

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    1. Thank you. It took a while for me to really appreciate him but I’m hooked now. He does things that other songwriters just would not do and makes it work….ah! Speeding Motorcycle!
      My buddy grew up with him in West Virginia, before he moved to Texas. Nice guy and his family as well.

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      2. He has told me some stories about him. From what my friend told me he was a really good guy. A huge Beatles fan, that is how they got to be friends because of the Beatles. He was inducted into their music hall of fame.

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    1. Yes it is…and his songs Christian…very child like and innocent…but he does things in his songs that normal songwriters would not do…and gets by with it. It’s not something you would like at first listen…but after going over his songs…I’m amazed. Now I know why all of those artists like him.

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  11. I first heard of him via Wilco’s version. Child-like, naive, yes it’s all that but the sheer gut-level genius shines through in places. When Daniel sings ‘the light, the light’ it is intuitively absolutely perfect. No songwriters course or any amount of tutoring can do that. That said I can’t listen to him for too long. It feels as if the whole song is on the edge of sliding slowly off the edge.

    (Funny thing, your other post about the Okies/ Do Re Me put me in mind of Wilco/Billy Braggs ‘Mermaid Avenue’ with some real gems, ‘Airline To Heaven’ ‘At My Window’ ‘California Stars’ ‘Joe DiMaggio Done It Again,’ good stuff.)

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    1. Thats the problem I have listening to him a lot. Like I told Lisa…at first I thought…who in the hell would listen to this? I then started to pay attention…as a songwriter…I’m floored at times. Lets take this song…not many songwriters would use the word “until” in there…it doesn’t belong the way it’s used in the sequence but…I wouldn’t want it without it. To me anyway…maybe someone else thinks differently…but yea…you cannot be taught some of the things he does.

      Oh yes…I love those…I also like Secrets Of The Sea…don’t know if it is on the first or second one…but it’s what got me to Wilco.

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      1. Yep, I get what you mean. the puint of difference hasn’t been smoothed out as so happens in Production when the Producer buffs and shines ‘the product’ to a perfect but palatable blandness. Quirkiness works, not all the time, but enough. ‘Secret of The Sea’ ‘Stetson Kennedy’ too. I never quite gelled with MA3 somehow.

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    1. Thanks…this is the one I was wondering if you knew much about. He was an interesting songwriter. People get turned off by the low fi recordings and his voice but his songs are interesting and good.
      I’ll check out Jandek

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  13. Badfinger

    I plan to write a blog post about the Platters song, My Prayer, and looked up your blog for some background info.

    For some reason, you don’t list any of their songs even though they used guitars in their band.

    ????

    Regards and goodwill blogging.

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