Mar

22

Daniel Johnston Coming to Cincinnati, Now A Nazi?

Posted by Administrator

March 22, 2007 |

Imagine my excitement to see that Daniel Johnston is slated to be coming to Cincinnati this spring, only to turn a cornerdaniel.jpg and hear about his recent Nazi loving exploits at his show in Austin during SXSW. Daniel’s mental issues are well documented, mostly by himself, and came to the surface in the documentary, “The Devil And Daniel Johnston”, which is still the best music documentary I have ever seen.

But, back to Daniel’s recent antisemitism, here is a quote from IndyWeekBlog that gives a short piece of dialouge from a performance Daniel did last week in Austin.

Today at the Convention Center, Austin icon and OG “outsider artist” Daniel Johnston told two jokes before a jam-packed day stage crowd:

1. “I heard they just sentenced a man to the death penalty… for trying to commit suicide.”

2. “I heard the Jews are having a pajama party… at the concentration camp.”

Daniel punctuated the last one, which drew a pretty uncomfortable silence, with a Nazi salute and a screechy “Heil Hitler.”

Um, what!?!? I certainly hope this is just an matter of Daniel not being properly medicated before a show and not yet another trip into oblivion. And of course, I hope this is not the case when Daniel plays The Southgate House on May 11th. Thanks to KK for the above photo of Daniel playing SXSW last week.

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Related Posts:
Cincinnati Concert Reminder - Daniel Johnston TonightDaniel Johnston - Live @ Southgate HouseThe Devil and Daniel JohnstonMy Top 10 Concerts Of 2007Devotchka - A Mad & Faithful Telling

Comments

7 Comments so far

  1. Jeff T. on March 22, 2007 3:41 pm

    It’s family influenced. Having a father and a brother who are raving antisemites has skewed Daniel’s sense of humor.

  2. Administrator on March 22, 2007 6:07 pm

    Jeff, is that true? If so, I wonder why this is the first time we are hearing of it from him onstage. Im still guessing he did not take the meds he needed and went off the cliff.

  3. Jeff T. on March 22, 2007 6:58 pm

    It’s happened before.

    I saw him a night or two later and he seemed fine.

  4. Greg on March 23, 2007 12:53 pm

    Such a great artist…one of my favorite shows at SXSW. I took it as just a bad attempt at humor during a nervous moment when his band was not ready to play…I think his drummer was not ready or a broken guitar string or something.

    The Nazis and the Holocaust are not open subjects to humor at ANY point…but I don’t think this was anti-Semitism. Just Daniel saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

    His hands were shaking and he looked really nervous.

  5. AgentA on May 6, 2007 9:54 pm

    During a call-in performance to Nick Hill’s show on WFMU (bonus on the dvd) his humor momentarily took an anti-semitic slant while portraying his manager character, Jiffy Tartar Sauce,”… I saw in Daniel, an opportunity to make lots of money, and because I am Jew, I like money a lot..” I cringed to think his mind was polluted as such. However, earlier in the performance, while portraying his character, Louis Black, he did refer to himself with, “This man stands against everything that Hitler stood for.” But now, this is the 2nd blog I’ve come across wondering about his anti-semitic utterings thanks to his stage performances. I think there is some credence to the family influence speculation. Just as an innocent child would, he’s mimicing their viewpoint perhaps? Or maybe he’s aware of how celebrities are getting publicity mileage for public bigoted remarks, re: Michael Richards and Mel Gibson, and is mimicing them?

  6. Louis Black on September 14, 2007 7:24 pm

    Louis Black here — thank God I’m not just one of Daniel’s characters. I’ve known Daniel for twenty years, I’m friends with his father and his brother. Daniel is often intentionally provocative. A few weeks back I was having dinner with David Thornberry, a friend of Daniel’s since they were teenagers. He told a story of being at a party where Daniel was heckling the folks who lived across the street as being white trash red-necks so violently one of them drew a gun on him. Yes he has indulged in anti-Semitic rants though i have never heard him. But what folks miss about DJ is that he is crazy but he is also brilliant and difficult and full of contradictions and coinfrontational and genuine and bogus usually all at the same time. Months back I saw Daniel who seemed poretty clouded over by medication until he began to remember how he used to call me up, push my buttons until I was smashing the phone on my desk. The biggest mistake would be to take him at face value and the second would be to forget that he did really go crazy and he’s been on powerful meds for years.

  7. ponyboy on February 9, 2008 11:59 am

    I saw Daniel last night at First Avenue in Minneapolis and he was in great spirits. He told the suicide joke and did raise his hand in likeness of a nazi salute, but I would like to think that this is not his opinion and perhaps either an innocent wave to the crowd or Daniel’s mischevious demeanor coming out. I don’t believe that he is anti-semetic or of Nazi influence. I believe that he is an amazing artist who exudes his truthfulness in his songs and the pain he feels which is some of the most intimate and vulnerable things one can do in front of a live audience of some thousands of strangers. He is a great guy and a really good sport. I’m amazed to see him in such good conditions on such terms he has been under for such time.

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