Movie Review: Devil and Daniel Johnston

Ok, I watched this last night. A good documentary, not great. But I think Mr. Johnston is an example of when self-important hipsters deem someone as the greatest thing ever and that momentum just carries on strictly by word of mouth and legend. If this documentary was supposed to show me his genius…it didn’t. I would assume his finest music was featured but the comparisons to him and Dylan or that he was better than Dylan were laughable. His music is incredibly basic and his lyrics are childish in their simplicity. The rhymes were so often forced, but reminded me of the lyrics of an awkward teen. There was no genius in the words. Sorry. Musically he doesn’t hold Dylan’s jock (listen to Dylan’s guitar instead of the words some time)

I’ve said this before but the guy from DiG (Brian Jonestown Massacre) was a genius. A very similar documentary on the descent into madness that creates great art, but just b/c you’re crazy doesn’t make you great. When the claims that Johnston ’s work are better than “Pet Sounds” are made people lose credibility. Daniel Johnston ain’t Brian Wilson.

At one point, his manager compared his early work to that of Dylan’s first five albums. That’s where they lost me. Dylan’s early work is possibly the greatest streak of music in rock history. (this conversation came about with a former co-work as we tried to come up with a string of albums by any artist that was better than the Stones streak of Beggar’s Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street . Other than Dylan, the Beatles, there really wasn’t anyone else in that neighborhood). Sorry, songs about Casper the Friendly ghost just don’t approach “Highway 61 Revisited” or a “Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”.

Sharpton doing his best to fan the flames, not finding solutions

Reason 213 why Sharpton’s an idiot:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22556443/

If the guy she said it about is ok, then Sharpton should shut the hell up. Apparently, not enough people were paying attention to Al, so he’s got to make sure he gets in the news. I would think he would serve his constituency better by working at the local Rescue Mission as opposed to getting “outraged” over a poorly chosen phrase about a multi-millionaire. Obviously real racism exists in this country, but every time he makes up these “issues” it diminishes instances of real racism. It does a disservice to his cause for the sake of his vanity.