DEAD DOG’S EYEBALL:
K. MCCARTY SINGS
THE SONGS OF DANIEL JOHNSTON

I think everyone has an alternate history – an imaginary girl or boy they’d be in hindsight – if they’d done things right. If I’d known back in the 80’s what I know now, I’d have gone to the Unioversity of Texas instead of UC Berkeley, and maybe I’d have joined a band. After all, before Seattle swept up the scene in its darker grunge-rock vision, it was deep in the heart of Austin that the spirit of punk-rock reigned supreme, having wafted west from Athens, Georgia, where the sky blue bells rang with rickenbackers and east from Los Angeles, where loud fast punk-rock ruled. I can almost see the teenaged me there, amidst a bunch of guitar slingers, country rockers, sorority girls and freaks.

This is the Texas I know best, not a Texas of gunracks and cheerleaders, but a gentler, smaller state, a land where punk rock bands abound in a bunch of roofless clubs, where black leather and plaid flannel are all but unknown, where every outcast comes together in one drunken musical embrace almost every Saturday night. It is the Texas of Glass Eye, a popular Austin band that transformed the quirky brainwaves of Brian Beattie and the strong cool alto vocals of Kathy McCarthy into a wicked cross between The Talking Heads’ Life During Wartime and ZZ Top’s La Grange. Glass Eye ruled the indie-rock scene for a number of years in the 80s but sadly, the band broke up in 1993. With her new creative independence Kathy decided her next musical venture would be a reinterpretation of the songs of Daniel Johnston, with Brain producing. “Its not instead of writing my own songs, its in addition to” she points out. “I also wanted to do a record of Irish folksongs for sometime.”

Kathy first met Daniel when he came to her at a Glass Eye show and gave her a tape of his songs entitled “Hi How are you.” At the time Daniel had just blown into Austin after having been fired from a circus where he ran the corndog stand. (he was allegedly fired for hogging the port-o-john.) “Daniel’s life”, comments Kathy, “is very colorful, in stark contrast to my own.” A few weeks later, he again approached Kathy at a Glass Eye gig, wanting to hear her reaction to his tape. “He was so eager and innocent” recalls Kathy, “and I felt so guilty that I hadn’t listened to it that I lied, I said it was great and he could open for us. Then I actually did listen to it to see what I had gotten into and I was blown away - I just knew he was a genius.”

Subsequently, Daniel has replaced Roky Erikson in the hearts and minds of Austin’s music scenesters as the resident musical Forrest Gump. His songs – simply rendered in a peculiarly high, flat voice – have gained an international following, especially among musicians. Indie kids of 1987 may recognize “Walking the Cow” a standard encore number for the Austin band The Reivers, and a far more nasal version of “Rocket Ship” appears on The Dead Milkmen’s Bucky Fellini LP.

Daniel’s songs have also been covered by Firehose, Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, while the late Kurt Cobain was often seen sporting a “Hi, How are You” t-shirt. Daniel himself has an upcoming major label debut on Atlantic Records, which is being produced by The Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary. But on “Dead Dog’s Gamble”, Kathy has done more than merely guard Daniel’s fragile music from extiction; she has actually reinvented it. Some how she has created a completely new setting for his insinctivley pure songs without impinging on their heartbreak naiveté. There are places where this music sounds like outtakes from Brian Wilson’s legendary lost LP “Smile” There are places that sound like psychedelic versions of Captain Beefheart done for a cocktail lounge crowd in Vegas and some you’ll have to hear and judge for yourself.

If you’re like me sometimes it seems like eveything’s already happened. When I heard “Dead Dog’s Eyeball”, I was heartened to realize that in Austin the song does not remain the same… It keeps on getting better.
-Gina Arnold, July 1994

INTRO
WALKING THE COW (3:13) from "Hi, How Are You"
ROCKET SHIP (4:09) from "Yip Jump Music"
LIVING LIFE (2:30) from "Songs of Pain"
I HAD A DREAM (4:01) from "Don't Be Scared"
I AM A BABY (IN MY UNIVERSE) (1:47) from "Hi, How Are You"
HEY JOE (3:22) from "Hi, How Are You"
LIKE A MONKEY IN A ZOO (2:39) from "Songs of Pain"
SORRY ENTERTAINER (2:20) from "Yip Jump Music"
DESPERATE MAN BLUES (4:13) from "Hi How Are You"
OH NO! (4:54) from "Retired Boxer"
HATE SONG (2:27) from "Songs of Pain"
GOLLY GEE (2:01) from "Merry Xmas Fan Club Release"
GOING DOWN (3:48 ) from "Don't Be Scared"
MUSEUM OF LOVE (3:26 ) from "Yip Jump Music"
WILD WEST VIRGINIA (2:45 ) from " Songs of Pain"
RUNNING WATER (1:23) from "Hi How Are You"
GRIEVANCES (2:50 ) from "Songs of Pain"
THE CREATURE (2:01) from "Yip Jump Music"
WORRIED SHOES (5:51) from "Sorry Entertainer"
LOVE WHEEL (2:08) from " Sorry Entertainer"
IT'S OVER (4:18) from "Sorry Entertainer"

K. McCarty Vocals, guitar, violin, and steel drums. Brian Beattie Bass, acoustic bass, accordion, guitar, piano, chord organ, lap steel guitar, keyboards, percussion, echoplex on Worried Shoes and backup vocals. Scott Marcus Drums on Living Life, Oh No!, Rocket Ship, Museum of Love, Wild West Virginia and Sorry Entertainer. Singing feedback guitar(s) on Rocket Ship. Guitar solo on Sorry Entertainer. John Hagan Wrote and performed cello tracks on Hey Joe, I Had A Dream and Walking the Cow. Arranged strings and performed cello on Desperate Man Blues. Rich Brotherton Acoustic guitar on Golly Gee and Desperate Man Blues. Electric guitar on Walking the Cow. Backup vocal on Golly Gee. Showed us how to operate the drum machine on The Creature. Soldered chords for us at the last minute on numerous occasions. Bruce Marton Piano on Grievances and Like a Monkey in a Zoo. Arranged and performed piano interludes on the Grievances theme. Craig Ross Helped produce drum track on The Creature. Max Crawford Pfuglehorn on Hey Joe. Mark Rubin Tuba on Hate Song. Bill Jeffery Trumpet on The Creature. Andrea Preisinger Violin on Desperate Man Blues, Worried Shoes and Walking the Cow. Karl Smith Viola on Desperate Man Blues. Peter LaFond Plays guitar on Worried Shoes, Love Wheel and It's Over. John Paul Drums on Worried Shoes, Love Wheel and It's Over. Colette Haney Cello on Worried Shoes. Jyl Hershman Flute on Worried Shoes. Kris Nelson Coronet on Worried Shoes. Marc Plaza Sang about Satan.

Hate Song recorded at the Dog and Duck Pub - Austin, TX. 10/24/93.
Sung by Jake Bohstedt, Alexa Carlson, Shane "El Shanester" Holt, Dave Jungen , Bruce Marton, Amy Morgan, Stephanie Norris, Elizabeth Piedmont-Marton, Marc Plaza, Chuck Scott, Catherine Showacre, Chris Walters, K. McCarty and Brian Beattie. This record was made at home on Craig Ross's ADAT machine. The basic tracks for Rocket Ship, Living Life Hey Joe, Oh No!, Museum of Love and Sorry Entertainer recorded on ADAT it Arlyn Studios - Austin TX. and engineered by Stuart Sullivan. Running Water recorded in a University of Texas bathroom - Austin TX. Strings for Desperate Man Blues recorded at Women and Their Work - Austin TX. Worried Shoes, Love Wheel and It's Over recorded at Raj Studios - Austin TX. Special thanks to Kim Cook. Digitally edited at Fire Station studios - San Marcos, TX. by Mark Erickson.

Correspondence:
K. McCarty
2703 South 2nd Street
Austin TX. 78704

All Songs by Daniel Johnston
and published by Eternal Yip Eye Music.

Special thanks to Craig Ross and Stuart Sullivan, without whose generosity and forbearance this record would not have been possible.

Management: David Reckner/RAW Ltd.

B&W photo by, K. McCarty, Cover Painting by K. McCarty, Photograph of framed picture by Brian Beattie, Drawing of K. McCarty by Daniel Johnston, Typography by Sandy Greene.

Produced by Brian Beattie and K. McCarty

Thanks to Jeff Tartakov, David Reckner, David Lounsbury, all of the musicians and singers, Bug Music and Daniel Johnston.

I did not change the pronouns in songs where I felt it would damage the integrity of the song.