Hi, How Are You
album by Daniel Johnston
Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album is the sixth self-released music cassette album by American singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, recorded in September 1983. The subtitle refers to the length of the album; Johnston had intended to fill out the hour long cassette, as a majority of his earlier tapes had. In 1988, it was the first of Johnston’s albums to be released on vinyl, and reached a wider audience.
Background
Recording
On September 1, 1983, Daniel Johnston was evicted from his brother Dick's home in Houston, Texas. Daniel had been living with Dick throughout the summer and recorded his previous album Yip/Jump Music in the garage. Following his eviction, Margie Johnston, his sister, let Daniel live with her in her San Marcos home, where he worked in pizza delivery. Margie did not have any extra furniture for Daniel, so they bought a mattress which was placed on a floor for him to sleep on. Margie notes that Daniel thrived in this environment because he was allowed to make a mess.
The backing music to the song "Desperate Man Blues" comes from a song by Johnny Dankworth titled "Desperate Dan" from the album England's Ambassador of Jazz, which Johnston owned. The track resonated heavily with Johnston, leading to its inclusion on the album.
The public source identifies “Hi, How Are You” as album by Daniel Johnston. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around album, Daniel and Johnston.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q940532. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hi, How Are You” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.