yip/jump music

Daniel Johnston recorded these sweet and tender songs of pain and passion  on a $59.00 Sanyo mono boom box in his brother's garage.  Johnston had recorded a series of cassettes while at community college with piles of songs inspired by God, the Beatles, Casper the friendly ghost, and a girl named Laurie.  Beginning with his 'Songs of Pain' in 1981, and continuing with 'Don't Be Scared' and 'The What of Whom' in 1982;  Johnston battled with manic depression within the songs even as he struggled with it (and the devil) in his personal life.  The rudimentary instrumentation and his tremulous warble combine to create an otherworldly effect that is compelling and confounding.   Johnston reveals:    "Yeah, I believe in spiritualism. It's like, when you listen to music or something and then you're sort of primed. If you're an artist, you're sort of primed and inspired, and you start drawing, you sort of have the spirit of what you're listening to, still in you. You just have sort of an inspiration. Or a feeling, would probably best describe it. You have a feeling from the music, so you start drawing and it's an influence. That's spiritualism."

 In 1983, he recorded and released three more cassettes; and, sandwiched between 'More Songs of Pain' and 'Hi, How Are You?', is 'Yip/Jump Music'.  Johnston says:  "Well I worked in AstroWorld in 1983, I was writing  'Yip/Jump Music' on a chord organ because I didn't have any instruments, I didn't have a piano, I didn't really play guitar yet, so I borrowed my nephew's chord organ. I know it's ridiculous, but that's all I had to play. That's silly. And my tapes were made originally just for my friends. But I didn't take it ever so seriously. You know, I never really thought that it was going to be an album that was going to be sold to the world—I thought it was just another tape for my friends."

The cassettes were eventually put out on Jeff Tartakov's  Austin, Texas based Stress Records; but before that, Johnston was a one-man marketing machine, handing out copies of his tapes to anyone he met.  In 1988, 'Yip/Jump Music' was released on CD and double LP by Homestead Records.  Songs from the album have been covered by Mike Doughty, Karen O, Tom Waits, and Yo La Tengo; and Kurt Cobain put it on a list of his favorite albums.







http://www.hihowareyou.com/


http://www.rejectedunknown.com/


http://www.museumoflove.com/



@danieljohnston








'The Devil and Daniel Johnston' documentary trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qtFPOxDMs4





Speeding Motorcycle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zojEIR_SGSk





Casper The Friendly Ghost






Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ZiZmQ5V2s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg-EAYkoLyU





King Kong





God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dut9qPAjR3o







 'Yip/Jump Music'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5hVsTXJ-yo



1-Chord Organ Blues
2-The Beatles
3-Sorry Entertainer
4-Speeding Motorcycle
5-Casper The Friendly Ghost
6-Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances
7-Danny Don't Rap
8-Sweetheart
9-King Kong
10-The Creature / Third Chair
11-I Live For Love
12-Almost Got Hit By A Truck
13-Worried Shoes
14-Dead Lover's Twisted Heart
15-Rocket Ship
16-God
17-Love Defined (the Bible)
18-Museum Of Love
19-Rarely
20-I Remember Painfully