Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1 [Original recording remastered]

Amazon.com
Back in the early 1980s, when the punk-rock DIY spirit was going strong, emerging artists found a cheap and efficient way of distributing their music--the homemade cassette. Sometimes very crude and low-fi, the tapes became a hallmark of instant "indie cred." The erratic, troubled, and startlingly talented Daniel Johnston was one of the first musicians to really make a name for himself in this medium, and his first two tapes, 1980's Songs of Pain and '81's More Songs of Pain make up this collection, re-mixed but retaining their rough edges. The anger and sadness of "An Idiot's End," the wry twist of "Joy Without Pleasure," and the resignation of "More Dead Than Alive" exemplify the genius of his carefully chosen words. His lyrics can sting as well as delight, and his piano playing resonates with emotional depth. Hearing these songs makes one long to hear Beck doing a rendition of "Urge" or Johnny Cash taking on "Wild West Virginia." --Lorry Fleming

Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1,Daniel Johnston,Dualtone Music Group,Alternative Pop/Rock,Indie Rock,Lo-Fi,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop,Singer/Songwriter

Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1 [Original recording remastered]

Average customer rating:

Songs of Pain.....Songs from the Heart
Now, without any further ado, I'm gonna do a little softshoe and a little boogaloo.
Unbelievably great
Songs of pain
Why would anyone Remaster this stuff?

Songs of Pain: Early Recordings Volume 1
Daniel Johnston
Manufacturer: Dualtone Music Group
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Lo-Fi | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
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Continued Story/Hi, How Are You
Welcome To My World
Yip/Jump Music: Summer 1983
Fun
Fear Yourself

ASIN: B00008W2PF
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Tracks:

Grievances
A Little Story
Joy Without Pleasure
Never Relaxed
Brainwash
Pothead
Wicked World
Lazy
I Save Cigarette Butts
Like A Monkey In A Zoo
Wicked Will
An Idiot's End
Wild West Virginia
Since I Lost My Tooth
Urge
Living Life
Tuna Ketchup
Premarital Sex
Don't Act Nice
Hate Song

Tracks:

Phantom Of My Own Opera
Man At War
Only Missing You
More Dead Than Alive
I Will
Poptunes
You Put My Love Out The Door
You're Gonna Make It, Joe
Never Get To Heaven
Follow That Dream
Pow
For The Love Of Pete
Blue Cloud
Grievances Revisted
True Grief
My Baby Cares For The Dead
Mabel's Grievances

Amazon.com

Back in the early 1980s, when the punk-rock DIY spirit was going strong, emerging artists found a cheap and efficient way of distributing their music--the homemade cassette. Sometimes very crude and low-fi, the tapes became a hallmark of instant "indie cred." The erratic, troubled, and startlingly talented Daniel Johnston was one of the first musicians to really make a name for himself in this medium, and his first two tapes, 1980's Songs of Pain and '81's More Songs of Pain make up this collection, re-mixed but retaining their rough edges. The anger and sadness of "An Idiot's End," the wry twist of "Joy Without Pleasure," and the resignation of "More Dead Than Alive" exemplify the genius of his carefully chosen words. His lyrics can sting as well as delight, and his piano playing resonates with emotional depth. Hearing these songs makes one long to hear Beck doing a rendition of "Urge" or Johnny Cash taking on "Wild West Virginia." --Lorry Fleming

Customer Reviews:

Songs of Pain.....Songs from the Heart.......2007-03-30

Daniel Johnston was born on Jan. 22 1961 in Sacramento Cal. Not only an artist of creative cartoonish creatures, but by the late 1970s he was writing and recording Beatles inspired tunes. He was also diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and stayed in a mental hospital later on in 1990 after his private plane was successfully crashlanded by his father.
This, "Songs of Pain, & More Songs of Pain" (1980-1983);double album, is some of his best work. Extremely lo-fi, singing in a high pitched voice and sounding a lot like a little boy. Very simple yet heartful songwriting. You can really feel this connection of PAIN he felt and shared w/ all of us. He was quite a unselfish young man handing out home-made cassettes of his music, and asked for nothing in return, just for them to listen. Many people say Daniel Johnston began the Lo-Fi movement. Considered an "outsider musician" Many of his songs in many of his works are set to a Christian theme. You can really tell he has the Fear of God in his songs which range from - incoherent throwaway ditties to brilliant, hopeful melodies. At times his songs are also painfully spooky singing about the same lost love, and on "Yip Jump Music" - He sings about Rocket Ships, Casper the Friendly Ghost, King Kong & of course The Beatles. - That album is good too, but "Songs of Pain..." - I play MOST often of his.
If you are interested in the sound of early lo-fi, or brillant songwriting craftmanship you can't go wrong w/ Daniel Johnston's earliest works. It does eventually grow on you, is catchy and gets stuck in your head. 4-stars

Now, without any further ado, I'm gonna do a little softshoe and a little boogaloo........2007-01-27

Daniel Johnston is an American singer, songwriter and musician. Johnston suffers from bipolar disorder with psychotic features and religious preoccupation. He has been hospitalized intermittently throughout his adult life and his attempts at independent living have been largely unsuccessful. This two CD sets features two of his early albums, Songs of Pain (1980) and More Songs of Pain (1983). Both of these albums were recorded in his parents' basement, on a cheap home tape recorder. As you might suspect, the sound quality is pretty bad. The music features Daniel singing and accompanying himself on piano. Sometimes you can hear the TV playing in the background (usually turned to an Evangelical Christian program). A few times you can hear his mom yelling at him. As for the music itself, it's actually rather charming. Strange, but charming. Songs of Pain is a better album than More Songs of Pain, but they are both good. If you are interested in "outsider" music, you should give this a listen.

Unbelievably great .......2005-10-11

Daniel Johnston is one of the world's undiscovered treasures. If things were perfect, his songs would be as widely covered, his life would be as intensely studied, and his work would be as revered and celebrated as the songs and albums of Bob Dylan.
Seriously.
Bob Dylan's voice isn't exactly conventionally good, but people have slobbered over him for decades. And Daniel Johnston's voice...well..you could say it's not conventionally "good" either, in the same way that Dylan's isn't, but like Dylan's, it gets better with every listen, and like Dylan's, it contains more real emotion, more real humanity, and earns more feelings of sympathy and love than any of the lame, slick, polished Michael Bolton-type voices that can hit every note exactly as their voice instructors taught them to.
At times, I've sworn off all music but Daniel Johnston. Nothing has seemed good enough in comparison. His piano is inventive and rockin'. It's a heckuvalotta fun. His use of television as an instrument, his sampling of TV evangelists ("This is an ELECTRIFYING(!) time...for believers!") and of his mother yelling at him, his occasional spooky organ, his blithely unconventional rhyme schemes, his wide (yet obsessively focused) range of topics, his whining and cracked little voice, and above all his lyrics, his lyrics, his lyrics, make him, and these two CDs in particular, classics for all time and space, for all humanity everywhere.
Daniel Johnston is a diagnosed manic-depressive with delusions of grandeur, and his highs and his lows show in these songs. He's also spent much of his life obsessed with a girl who could have cared less about him and who later married a prosperous undertaker and (I've heard) filed a restraining order against Daniel Johnston despite all the great songs he had written about her.
In one song he tells the girl that he'd die without her love, and she says "Too bad about that."
In another, the terrifying "My Baby Cares for the Dead," he sings about the girl marrying the undertaker and about the only way she'll ever care for him (Daniel Johnston) again.
"I know someday my baby
Will care for me.
She'll bleed and dress me, Momma,
Real fancy....
And she'll lay me
In a coffin,
Put marbles in my eyes...
Eyes!
I know someday my baby
Will care for me.
I know someday my baby
Will care for me.
I know someday my baby
Will care for me.
My baby...cares...for...the...dead."
These songs are absolutely genius. They're funny, dark, sad, twisted, happy, joyous, and wonderfully human. You will feel that Daniel Johnston is your friend, as if he's opened himself completely to you, and he has. The recordings are lo-fi, but at times that lo-fi quality even accents and helps the songs: high piano notes are transformed into a different instrument entirely just by the recorder being placed right next to the keys. The barely noticeable background hiss (and the genuiness of the songs themselves) gives the music an old-time folk feel. And Daniel's mother occasionally bursting in while he's playing...well, that's just hilarious.
If you like music, you will probably like this album. This is music for people who love music, who love the way that music sometimes skips the brain completely and goes right to the heart, right to the soul. This is what music was supposed to be: unique, heartfelt, real, and exciting.
Daniel's influence on modern music--on Nirvana, The Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Tom Waits, The Butthole Surfers, Beck, and others--is immeasurable, and he could have an immeasurable influence on you as well.
If you let him.
You should let him.

Songs of pain.......2005-05-11

The guy's life story is definately interesting, and so is his music. Johnston has an ear for great melodies, and though his lyrics are somewhat simplistic, they are quite unique.

In the end this won't be a record I'll put on very often. His high-pitched voice is too irritiating, the vast amount of songs spunds too much alike, and the overall sound quality is too poor.

Why would anyone Remaster this stuff?.......2004-12-12

I own the originally released recordings, and I must be honest, I do not own the new "remastered" version... but for me, part of the charm of Daniel Johnston has been the crude lo-fi quality of his emotional song gems. I have found myself disliking his later recordings with professional musicians, because it tends to cast him as a "freak" heading a "real band."

I would love to hear someone review the sonic quality of these particlar recordings.

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