Daniel Johnston’s music is the anthem of the old, weird Austin — the kind of weird that existed before Californians, yuppies and millennials (sorry!) came in, commercialized everything and screwed it all up.

Sure, if you ask anybody who’s lived in Austin for five minutes, she’ll drone on about how back when she moved here, she knew a much cooler, much weirder Austin. Older generations are always going to claim that they knew the “real Austin,” so people before Johnston’s time may discount his music as meaningless; but something seems special about the Austin where Johnston lived in the ‘80s, and his music reflects that. 

It also reflects his long, painful journey living with mental illness; he’s diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar and has endured years of manic depression, according to the documentary on his life, ”The Devil and Daniel Johnston.”

Johnston’s music is for those who’ve found themselves in hysterics over nothing, realized that their thoughts aren’t “normal” or died a little inside when told to “just get over it” or “just be happy.” People who’ve endured any mental illness will get goose bumps listening to his stuff — especially his 2006 album “Welcome to My World,” in which many of his songs sound like they were made by a person with frontotemporal dementia just banging the same organ chord over and over.

Nah, most of Johnston’s music isn’t catchy or well-produced, and the lyrics aren’t profound. And yeah, he may have been praised a little too much in his day, having been called the Brian Wilson of the ‘80s.

Still, his music is beautiful and noteworthy, and the newer generations should give it a listen.