01-1990 / Melody Maker / Daniel Johnston - Yip Jump Music

Daniel Johnston
Yip Jump Music
Homestead
Admittedly Charlie Chaplin came first, and I'm not saying he wasn't a genius within his own field, but what with one thing and another, the homemade cassette medium was to remain for him an exciting but unexplored medium. It was tough too that he missed out on Daniel, cos he'd have been sure to recognise something of his younger self in him; awkward, beautiful and kind of pathetic. Just waiting to destroy your heart.
In 1983, the original year of "Yip Jump Music", we could've tracked Daniel down to his local MacDonalds, where at least one employee's distant and vaguely psychotic glare might've suggested something more serious on his mind than serving up hamburgers to meat lovin' Texans. His intentions though were pretty much friendly; yes Daniel wanted to blow them away, but only with his songs.
Yip Jump Music is probably Daniel's best collection of songs and the minimal presentation works just fine. Mostly it's just a beat box and a chord organ which he plays in a weird kind of lo-fi religion style; part Brian Wilson, part Jesse Yates. Over this you get the most incredible plaintive soulful voice (occasionally punctuated with sad Michael Jackson-like baby hollers) saying "Thank you, God", and "King Kong's a tragedy" but only a minor one compared to Casper The Friendly Ghost. Casper, it turns out, was a real sweetie, "Smiling through his own personal hell" that no one liked him. Once he died he suddenly became an okay and well-loved guy, cos "everyone respects the dead". This is music with a moral, kind of like Oscar Wilde's fairy stories; listen carefully and you could become a better person.
I've no idea what a pre-conceived ideas you might have about Daniel Johnston, probably the same ones you'd have about anyone that puts their music out via homemade cassettes; that they must be untalented, unmusical and pretty much f***ed-up. While the latter isn't exactly conspicuous by its absence, you better forget everything else, because these are songs of intensity and passion with some of the prettiest melodies you'll ever hear. Granted, the primitive recording doesn't make for easy listening, but if that's all you want from music, you better stick with the new House Of Lump or next lump of House. Me, I'm just hoping Homestead release Daniel's entire back catalogue on vinyl.
Stephen McRobbie