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WELCOME
Welcome to
RejectedUnknown.com's "MEMBERS
ONLY" area. We hope you will be surprised and even amazed at the
volume and value of the material available here.
If you're reading this, it is some
indication you are more than a casual listener of Daniel Johnston. It
is likely that you share an
enthusiasm for Daniel's art and music, so you searched the internet closely,
and you ended up here.
Daniel's commitment to creative expression
through years of difficulties and mental illness makes him
a more fascinating object of our admiration. Today you can count
THIRTY (31) albums he has to his name, counting the most recent "Discovered
Covered" Tribute album and the recently compilation of old finds:
"White Magic". If you look around, you'll find his material
"all over", scattered on singles or compilations, movie sound tracks and
radio programs.
But that is just the "tip of the iceberg"
of the truly "worthy" material that has oozed out of Daniel's inventive
expression. Since Daniel draws and writes songs
"compulsively" and continuously, he has actually produced far more
than is immediately apparent.
It was recently (2003) discovered that over
1,000 cassette tapes exist that chronicle events in his life and are jam
packed with "never-before-heard" material. Daniel does not save
his songs in musical notation, but writes the words and chords in spiral
notebooks, and then captures the song on a cassette. There is an
undetermined number of these notebooks in existence - probably from thirty
to sixty, maybe more. But with each notebook, and MANY that do not
match a notebook, there are cassettes where Daniel chronicles his "finished"
product in a song.
The
DISCOGRAPHY
section of RejectedUnknown
lists over 600 published songs. It is probably fair to say that
four, five, or six times that many complete songs have been written and
recorded. Frankly, we really don't have a complete handle on just how
many there are on these cassettes.
In ADDITION to his song-documentation,
Daniel made it a habit to carry around a cassette tape recorder just about
everywhere - to school, to church, on trips, phone conversations,
interviews, and even stopping to make music with strangers on the street.
In all this, he has captured an incredible amount creative material that is
"far outside" the scope of "music alone." He also routinely
captured telling and crucial events AS THEY OCCURRED with his tape recorder.
To address all the potential of this
material, we have solicited the help of HIGHLY EXPERIENCED
musical historians to work our way through this
material, and the current plan is to "share" as much of the material as we
can with anyone who will listen.
Listening to this material is like buying a
book by an author you've always enjoyed. You don't really know what to
expect. You are always surprised in the varied content from the same
writer. And you've never been disappointed. That's that
way we feel about this material.
We ask your patience and cooperation with
this site, as it is updated on a "as-can-do" basis. But we don't mind
if you tell us we aren't getting something right, or what your preferences
and suggestions are. We need a
kick in the pants every once in a while.
We also ask you to HELP US by SHARING with us
your copies of BOOTLEGS of live performances or recording sessions - audio / video /
pictures. / or stories - To the extent that is humanly possible, we will try
to make as much of it available here as possible.
We don't have "unlimited storage", so at
some point the older material posted will be pulled down to make room for
new stuff. Because of that, you're going to have to return
regularly is you don't want to miss anything.
YOU MAY NOT CARE FOR some or much of the material
you find here. In that case, please accept our apologies. If you aren't
as shocked and surprised and delighted as we are, we'd still like to hear
from you WHY you don't like it.
EMAIL US HERE
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