DANIEL JOHNSTON '83 MASTER TAPE-UNRELEASED SONGS/ART

$

910

The two items up for bids here combined represent nothing less than a veritable HOLY GRAIL for the truly serious fan of Daniel Johnston history; the first is a UNIQUE, original HAND-MADE and HAND-ASSEMBLED audiocassette; the ONE AND ONLY ACTUAL MASTER TAPE of Daniel's 1983 third album "The What of Whom".

The second item is equally unique and historically valuable. It is a 90-minute TDK cassette entitled "Someday You're Gonna Make It, Joe" aka "New Songs, New Pain". In essence, it is a hand-made prototype of Daniel Johnston's fourth (cassette-only) release "More Songs of Pain"  -- BUT in addition to the familiar recordings that make up that classic  collection, this particular tape ALSO includes almost an entire 45-minute side of rare and unreleased songs from the early 1980s! Both items are reluctantly being sold by their original owner, who received them from the artist nearly 25 years ago.



Returning to "The What of Whom": Daniel Johnston personally created & recorded this tape from start to finish, entirely by hand; he then drew the classic "nude torso" cover with black ink pen, signed it, and presented it to his friend as a gift at the dawn of his musical career in the mid-1980s. (The lyric insert and cassette labels were also personally handwritten by Daniel).

Decades ago, when the search was called for material Dan had otherwise lost or destroyed, this tape turned out to be the only known one of its kind, and so it was immediately adopted by Stress Records as the master for a never-before-released Johnston album: to this day, no further vintage "What of Whom" cassettes have surfaced, and only one or two of the songs here have turned up on any other tape in the Johnston archives. Since all copies of "The What of Whom" in existence were sourced from this exact tape, it goes without saying that there are no unreleased songs on it. That, you see, is where the second half of our auction comes in!

"New Songs, New Pain" does not have a hand-drawn cover, but it contains enough musical surprises to make up for that little oversight: The cassette itself is a TDK AD-90 with white hand-lettered labels affixed to both sides. The Side One label reads "You're Gonna Make It, Ken" and Side Two's declares "You're Gonna Make It, Joe". Both labels are hand-signed by Daniel and dated "Feb. '83". The accompanying insert is a photocopy, but has a hand-written autograph in black ball-point pen, and the case also includes a business card from Austin's "Record Exchange" music store with a hand-written message on the back reading "To Ken from Am (sic) Daniel Johnston".

The track listing for "NS, NP" runs as follows [all known release information is in brackets]:

SIDE ONE [aka "New Songs, new Pain"]
Phantom Of My Own Opera 
Only Missing You
Pop Tunes
Man At War
More Dead Than Alive
You Put My Love Out The Door
Pow/For the Love Of Pete   
Follow That Dream
Someday, You're Gonna Make It Joe [?????]
Surely You Don't Work All Night
True Grief/Greensleeves [Pt. 2 unreleased]
Grievances Revisited
Lend Me a Penny [short/unfinished & unreleased]
You're Gonna Make It, Joe
My Baby Cares For The Dead
Mabel's Grievances

SIDE TWO ["Assorted Stuff"]
Living Life ["Songs of Pain" version?]
A Little Story ["SoP" version?]
I Dream of Jeannie [unlisted original; unreleased]
To The Tune of Leadbelly [unreleased]
Jailbait [unreleased]
Wicked Will [early version]
Parents of Punk Rockers [short/unfinished & unreleased]
And Then She Kissed Me ["Merry Xmas" version?]
Lazy ["SoP" version?]
The River of No Return ["Merry Xmas" version?]
Walking the Cow [early version; unreleased?]
You Could Be My Baby [short/unfinished & unreleased]
Speeding Motorcycle ["Yip/JM" version]
Sorry Entertainer ["Yip/JM" version]
The Beatles ["Yip/JM" version]
The Marching Guitars [Apr. '86 "Letters Tape" version]
Danny Don't Rapp ["Yip/JM" version?]

Everything included in this auction is unconditionally guaranteed to be genuine and hand-made by Daniel Johnston. Each cassette comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Daniel Johnston's former manager Jeff Tartakov and bearing the official Stress Records seal, AND they both can be seen in director Jeff Feuerzeig's award-winning biopic "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" ("The What of Whom" can even be spotted in the film's trailer! Look it up on YouTube if you don't believe me!)

Condition-wise, these items have made it through a quarter-century remarkably well, especially for hand-crafted works that were not created with long-term survival in mind. The acidic "mucilage"-type glue Dan used on his cassette covers has caused some "tanning" of the "What of Whom" cover (as seen in the accompanying scan), but otherwise the cassette and its case both remain in very nice shape. Audio-wise, the tapes play clearly, without any drop-outs or other distractions.

Historical touchstones in an artist's career such as these two precious early cassettes rarely (if ever) become available to the public, on Ebay or anywhere else. If you are a truly serious Daniel Johnston fan, be aware that you may never have an opportunity of this magnitude again.

Good luck!

(NOTE: High bidder on this item pays no postage inside US, and will receive a selection of Johnston-related bonus items. No copyrights are given or implied by the sale of this item.)