It was reported yesterday that beloved indie musician Daniel Johnston (a name very close to mine) died from a heart attack at age 58. If you’re not familiar with the gifted, but somewhat strange singer-songwriter, I would recommend Jeff Feuerzeig’s excellent 2005 documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” and many of his albums including 1981’s Songs of Pain, 1983’s Hi, How Are You, and 1986’s Yip/Jump Music for starters.
As Wilco and founder/front man Jeff Tweedy have covered one of Johnston’s best known tunes, I am presenting this entry covering it from the Wilco (The Covers) chapter of my book Wilcopedia (releasing September 17; pre-order it here):
“True Love Will Find You In The End”
Daniel Johnston’s 1984 song “True Love Will Find You In The End” is the fringe indie singer-songwriter’s most-covered composition, having been performed by such artists as Beck, Yo La Tengo, Spiritualized, The Low Anthem, and Matthew Good. Wilco’s studio version of “True Love” was released as a B-side to “A Shot In The Arm” in 1999, while they have played the song live a known twenty six times (Tweedy solo, and with his side project Tweedy have performed it a documented twenty times).
Although there were no documented performances of it between 2000 and 2013, the band resurrected it for three concerts in 2014, including an airing at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago on December 6 (Roadcase 41). In the liner notes to Alpha Mike Foxtrot, Jeff Tweedy calls “True Love” one of his favorite songs, adding, “Wilco played it a lot live, and this is the only version we ever did in the studio. It’s not perfect, but the song is so beautiful, it’s hard to mess up.”
In a series of shows billed as his final tour in 2017, Johnston was backed by Jeff Tweedy and Friends (as they were billed) for two nights at Chicago’s Vic Theatre on October 18 and 20. You can watch their version of “True Love” from the first of those engagements below.
R.I.P. Daniel Johnston (1961-2019)
More later...
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