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  • UNCUT

    Not Fade Away

    Oct 17, 2019 5 minutes
    ROB HUGHES

    DANIEL JOHNSTON

    Outsider artist and songwriter (1961-2019)

    “I’M definitely a loser,” Daniel Johnston told Uncut in 2006. “In the course of my life, I’ve lost pretty bad, but I’ve got a lot of great songs to show for it.” Johnston suffered for his art in a very real sense. He was diagnosed with manic depression and schizophrenia as a teenager, and the songs and visuals that poured out of him dealt with inner demons, personal struggle and thwarted love, rendered with the kind of unguarded candour that often made him seem impossibly vulnerable.

    Johnston was prolific from a young age in West Virginia, making surreal home videos, creating oddball comic books and writing songs inspired by his Beatles obsession. “I was a total Beatlemaniac,” he explained. “I used to put on a John Lennon accent at school and came out of my shell. Those were the days, really. And that’s what led to [1981’s cassette-only

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