Daniel Johnston is a cult figure rather than an artist with a mainstream following for two important reasons: while
Johnston is a truly gifted songwriter, his lyrics are often so painfully intimate and obsessively personal that much of his best work is difficult to listen to without feeling like a voyeur, and his skills as a performer are rudimentary at best, with
Johnston's quavering, tuneless voice and primitive instrumental accompaniment enough to drive away most listeners unless they're determined to listen past the inept technique to hear the songs hidden within. In 1994,
Kathy McCarty, a friend and admirer of
Johnston, stepped forward to address the dilemma of his songs versus his recordings by making the album
Dead Dog's Eyeball, in which she sang 19 of his songs, accompanied by imaginative and beautifully executed arrangements.
The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered attempts to do something similar but with a more ambitious agenda -- disc one of this set features 18 different artists each covering a favorite
Daniel Johnston tune, ranging from
Tom Waits and
Beck to
Bright Eyes and
Death Cab for Cutie, while disc two features
Johnston's original recordings of the same songs in the same sequence. Presumably the idea is that new listeners, once they've grown to appreciate the songs in relatively sugarcoated form, will then be able to move on to investigate
Johnston's songs in their pure form.
There is a flaw in this thinking -- while the covers on disc one range from good to excellent and in the liner notes most of the musicians make brief but coherent arguments in support of their choices, the original versions on disc two don't make for an especially strong
Daniel Johnston's Greatest Hits album, with a number of key songs missing in action. (
Johnston himself has compiled a much stronger overview of his work,
Welcome to My World.) But the tribute disc has enough pearly moments to compensate --
Tom Waits' full brio interpretation of
"King Kong," Calvin Johnson's craggy voice merging with the angst of
"Sorry Entertainer," Sparklehorse and
the Flaming Lips joining forces for a grand-scale cover of
"Go," and
Jad Fair embracing
"My Life Is Starting Over Again" with help from
Teenage Fanclub. Disc two also includes song lyrics, samples of
Johnston's artwork, and a video for the song
"Rock This Town," all of which can be accessed via your computer's CD-ROM drive. As a testimony to the artistry of
Daniel Johnston,
Discovered Covered isn't quite up to the standard of
Dead Dog's Eyeball, but as an all-star (or semi-star) celebration of an often marginalized artist, it's engaging stuff that never loses sight of the beauty and gravity of these songs. ~ Mark Deming