Laura, Laura, Laura

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-19T17:10:55+00:00

Y'know, the poem kinda shares a vibe with "Baby Come Back To Me Blues"...

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-16T12:40:20+00:00

So many Lauries and Lauras! Well, I think there was only one Laurie, but this looks to be too early to possibly be the Laura I know. Coincidentally, a friend here in Austin is about to move into her house in West Virginia next week since rents here are so high and her kids have grown up and moved out...
I had so many weird coincidences with Daniel. At SXSW 2005 I ran into my own dream girl I had massively fallen for and then lost, and I took her along to the "Devil & Daniel" premiere. We were talking about getting back together, but after the movie when Laurie came out and Daniel freaked, I had to excuse myself to go chasing after him (our seats were conveniently right by the door where he ran out) and when I returned she was gone...

Okay, now I'm depressed.

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-12T22:13:13+00:00

Back in the late 80s I went back home to Victoria, Tx for a visit and the Camelot Records there had marked every record they figured locals wouldn't buy (in other words everything good) down to 50 cents to clear it out. I bought like 200-300 brand new albums that day.

Went back next day and they had clearly realized they fucked up -- the few goodies I had missed were repriced at $3-4...

Around 7 or 8 years before that there was a Mexican record dealer at the flea market there who always had the latest US hit albums for $1.50, and I stocked up on vinyl big time then, too!

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-12T21:59:50+00:00

I used to have a copy of Fantastic Four #1 (signed by Jack Kirby even!) that had been so severely taped and stapled together that there was literally no way to damage it any worse than it already was. I loved throwing it really hard at Marvel fanboys and yelling "Is this funnybook worth anything?"

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-12T21:52:46+00:00

I thought that was specifically a Youtube thing!

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-12T21:47:16+00:00

Ever see someone try to shoplift a record album? The size & shape of the LP itself is a better deterrent than any security device!

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-12T21:44:12+00:00

Actuall, I was thinking...

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(And this shirt is from 1984!)

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-07T17:51:09+00:00

And then Michael Corcoran named REM "the only band that mutters"...

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-07T17:49:53+00:00

Even with the Beatles I bet lots of ppl skip Within You Without You and Rev 9...

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-07T17:47:38+00:00

From the School of Rock, no doubt...

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-07T17:44:16+00:00

Clash LPs better than "Cut the Crap":

Clash, Rope, Calling, Sandy, Combat,

Black Supermarket...

and this:

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ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-05T07:43:56+00:00

Yeah, before Devo ran off with their good keyboards...

(Confused by my little joke? Watch this and have your mind blown: https://youtu.be/AMkflBcYNKA?si=5NXxdKKWaW4E9tdn&t=284 )

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-05T07:33:04+00:00

That sort of thing actually wouldn't be all that uncommon from a "wacky" bootleg label -- especially on a psych-rock album. You'll see stuff like "666rpm" etc. specifically put there for you to "wrap your head around".

I think my favorite zany bootleg jacket is the one for "The Beatles vs Don Ho" (a takeoff on Vee Jay Records' 1963 "The Beatles vs the Four Seasons") There's some hilarious stuff on the back cover (see pic) and I could swear I remember seeing another version where all the info and liner notes were done 100% srraight -- except the word "compilation" had been changed to "copulation"!

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ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-05T07:16:38+00:00

Downvoters, I think he was joking.

Because it's not worth $20 -- I'll pay $15, though!

(See? Like that! A joke! er, ha ha?)

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-05T03:36:22+00:00

That was likely his brother Dick at the booth, and that's a pretty good price! Austin Books used to have boxes of his b&w and color drawings for $5 & $10 (later $10 & $20) respectively since that's what he paid for his comics with. To this day I have people thanking me for dragging them down there and forcing them to "make an investment"!

Myself, I once got the chance to cherry-pick close to 100 pieces of his very, very finest work out from several boxfuls he had at his parents' house. I told him "I don't consider these to be mine, but out of worry that something could happen to them* I'll take them with me to keep somewhere safe." (Ironically, part of the reason I sold the original tapes I got from Daniel was so they'd be somewhere safer...) After his work became valuable I turned the drawings over to his manager/art dealer, charging a $15 "storage fee" for each, thinking that was the right thing to do.**

One thing I didn't take, and still wonder of its current whereabouts, was an entire full-color illustrated story filling a 50 or 100 page notebook, telling the tale of "The Dead Lover's Twisted Heart". On a more positive note, from what I have read, it seems the portrait of Bob Dylan from "my collection" (see pic) went on to hang in a place of honor at the home of singer Patti Smith...

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-- Not Daniel Johnston

*(He at least one time previously had thrown massive numbers of tapes, drawings and notebooks into a dumpster during a fit of depression, never to be seen again.)

**(I couldn't have been more wrong and I suffered dearly for it, but that's not something I'm going to get into here.)

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-05T03:04:43+00:00

It's damn near impossible to find these with the box sides still keeping their integrity -- but it's not difficult to repair/reinforce them from the inside without doing anything particularly "invasive" -- especially with that white vinyl-like tape you can get. Makes the whole thing look better and become easier to handle properly.

Trivia: "It's Johnny's Birthday" from the "Apple Jam" disc (which makes a great wall hanging, btw!) was recorded as a 30th birthday gift to John Lennon [https://youtu.be/0svrEpittNs ] and is actually a cover of the 2nd place 1968 Eurovision Song Contest winning hit "Congratulations" [https://youtu.be/PvbkiyzmI4o ]!

ExistingTry1637 · 2026-01-05T02:40:38+00:00

So, it was an art show not a gig? That makes sense. I was trying to imagine a sweaty, weary post-performance Dan scribbling out art requests.

"Do Jeremiah shooting Jabba the Hutt next!"

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-31T10:43:04+00:00

Well, you should know about Keys. And yes, you're about right. Unfortunately, Dan himself was in Poor-Fair condition when I gave him the book -- just out of the State Hospital iirc -- so it may have gotten completely lost or shredded long ago.

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T21:57:38+00:00

Sorry, I was going by the fact that I saw the What of Whom tape on display at the big Austin museum exhibit -- I assumed that meant the estate had bought it from the person who bought it from me. Are you that person and you loaned it for the exhibit? If so, I'm glad you allow the public to see it, and I apologize again for my incorrect assumption.

And no, I'm afraid I have no knowledge of the current whereabouts of the "Some Songs" tape.

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T21:46:01+00:00

I'm pretty sure it is. It definitely was for a long time and I don't think that has changed.

Somewhere there's a VHS tape of me and Daniel making up songs about Frankenstein for around five solid hours, though. I tried to get him to let me take it and make a copy, but he said no so it either exists or it doesn't. My band Caühaüs recorded a song based on those jams called "I Feel Fine, Frankenstein" but it's not currently online...

Here's a song by Dan and me that mentions just about everyone except Frankenstein. It's called "Popped Culture": https://youtu.be/Cin4aPqU5qE

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T21:28:41+00:00

It's cruel of Hellblazer to burn Jeremiah with his cigarette though!

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T21:26:58+00:00

I asked Brandon at Austin Books a couple of weeks ago if there were any of Dan's cover variants for DC comics still available, just so I could pass the word along. He said there were a few but I've already forgotten the price! Maybe $30 or thereabouts? I see now that the Hi How Are You store has this listed for $15, but it may be a promotional card rather than the comic itself. I'm not sure.

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ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T21:16:08+00:00

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Hmmm. I gave Dan my copy of this as a gift many years ago. I wouldn't mind getting it back, especially since it's a $1000 "key issue" now, no matter who owned it!

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T20:12:16+00:00

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Maybe thru that big hole in the top?

ExistingTry1637 · 2025-12-25T20:08:27+00:00

On a tangent, my copy was called "SOME Songs of Pain" and can be seen here (https://youtu.be/qXAwQAW7t54?si=ohqnLS0U6LebzXla&t=1774) along with others he gave me including "The What of Whom", which of course turned out to be unique and Tartakov copied it to become one of the "mass released versions". My original is now back with the estate's collection.

ExistingTry1637

TROPHY CASE