The What of Whom is the third self-released music cassette album by singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, recorded in 1982.
The album was released on cassette in 1988 by Stress Records, made available in downloadable mp3 format by Emusic in 2000, and re-released on CD-R by Eternal Yip Eye Music in 2004. In between some songs, Daniel has little snippets of himself talking, or small skits of background noise concerning his everyday life.
Background
The album was recorded in August of 1982 between Johnston's Junior and Senior years studying at Kent State University, East Liverpool, Ohio .The album, like Songs of Pain and Don't Be Scared before it, was recorded in his parents' basement in West Virginia, where the 21 year old Johnston was living at the time.[2] A guest writer for Atwood Magazine noted influences from Elvis Costello and The Beatles (particularly young John Lennon) on the track 'Man Obsessed.'[3] During this same time, Johnston recorded an unreleased tape known as 'Ugly Music' for his friend John Fair. The tape was largely made up of material written for Songs of Pain, but also included Don't Be Scared and What of Whom songs, as well as 3 unreleased songs.[4]
Artwork
The cover artwork is a drawing by Johnston of a woman's torso, inspired by Venus de Milo and Venus of Willendorf. The torso represents sex[5] and the objectified, mystified, and dehumanized way women are portrayed in his lyrics and artwork.[6]
Legacy
In 2010, when Douglas Wolk reviewed the album for Pitchfork as part of the 'Story of an Artist' box-set, he described both it and Don't Be Scared as 'lacking in quality control.'[7]
In the months following Johnston's death, several retrospectives on his career were published. New York Times' '12 essential Daniel Johnston tracks' article written by David Peisner features the first two tracks from The What Of Whom .[8] Atwood Magazine's retrospective called Man Obsessed 'A darkly comedic inversion of 60s beat era pop'.[3] When reviewing the album. Alison Alber (writing for Mxdwn) mentioned the song as an example of Johnston's lyrical talent.[9]
A 2023 exhibit of collage artwork by Daniel and his sister Marjory Johnston at the Street Gallery in Austin was titled after the album.[10][11][12][13]
