― nathalie, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Search: _The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators_. Garage becomes psychedelia in a weird mutation of electric jug and fuzz guitar. Especially URGENT and KEY for the classic pseudo-hippie liner notes on that back. I keep flipping back and forth between this and _Easter Everywhere_ as to which is my favourite album. Psychedelic sounds errs on the punk side, Easter errs on the hippie wibble side, (Slip Inside This House... 8 minutes of CLASSIC hippie wibble) but they're both classics. God, I need to listen to these records again, for things like "Let me take you to the empty place on myyyyyy... fiiiiirrre en-GINE!"
By Bull of the Woods, (Destroy!!!) they've gone over totally to the hippie wibble side of badness, and the whole thing is drenched in an echo chamber that would make a shoegazer blush. There was some nonsense with lineup changes and principle songwriter changes, as well, but I'm not too knowledgable about that sort of thing. Much is made about Roky Erikson's "mental illness" trying to make him some sort of martyr. I think mythologising him makes the lyrics less powerful, but maybe that's just me.
You might almost be better off getting one of the myriad compliation albums. Their songs are so varied from the aforementioned garge punk of "Miss Me" to the out and out psychotic psychedelic hippie wibble of Slip Inside and She Lives. I'm not helping matters, am I?
― Kate the Saint, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Roky didn't actually write a lot of the lyrics, it was the jug player who was responsible for the famous pseudo-mystical words on Slip Inside this House and most of the other classics. (that last sentence sounded like something from "the Rutles"). I think setting Roky apart from the rest of the group is a wrong turn - they all contributed something great. He had the voice, though.
I agree with Kate otherwise. my favourite is Easter Everywhere, but you shouldn't completely destroy Bull of the Woods, the last song "may the circle remain unbroken" is one of the most eerie and beautiful things I've ever heard.
― Alasdair, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Maybe I've just made up an imaginary CD of bands I would *like* to see do versions of it... Low, Yo La Tengo, Bowery Electric, Windy & Carl...
As much as I like what I've heard, I can't help but notice that Roky is a shadow of himself after the 1st album. That hellacious screech of his (most apparent on "You're Gonna Miss Me") gets replaced by a stoned sort of yip.
― David Raposa, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― don't shake me lucifer, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Patrick, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tim, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Oh, and my BIG problem with the Elevators (which is minor, yes) - electric jug = ANNOYING. TURN IT OFF. NOW. No whoop-whoop-whoop- whoop. TURN IT OFF.
Solo Roky = pretty damn good. The subject matter, however, gets tiresome. I can only take so much 50s B-Movie horror nostalgia. "Creature With the Atom Brain", "I Walked With a Zombie", "Two-Headed Dog" - if only William Castle could've hired him for some soundtrack work. However, the songs themselves (outside of the Ray Harryhausen lyrical fetish) are damn fine rock music, and when Roky stops babbling about creepy crawlies (as on "Starry Eyes"), you're getting the good stuff.
― David Raposa, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― pauls00, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
With regards to "Circle" - the differences between the traditional song and the Elevators song is what caused me to say "version" rather than "cover".
― Kate the Saint, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Best Elevators cover version - Television doing 'Fire Engine'.
― Andrew L, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 18:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
I said i would buy it and tell him. so i have and i think Kate does a good description of both in this thread and I'd say that if you like Easter than get it. both are similar soundwise (but they had a unique sound and that is what's important) and the songwriting is strong on both.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 18:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
Roky's solo albums are REAL spotty. The compilation "Your Going to Miss Me" is not bad, but the real good album is the one on Trance Syndicate "All That May Do My Rhyme", which has actually has good sound and is put together well, unlike most of those shoddy records.
I also really like that cover of "Baby Blue", his voice fits that song quite well.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 8 October 2002 21:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 8 October 2002 21:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― willem (willem), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 12:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 16:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
the production is really, really lo-fi but the sound of that band! what a feel they had! it's that seemingly lazy and relaxed groove that the early 70s Stones had too. And even the lyrics are great - 'Dear Dr. Doom' , a letter to Bob Dylan, that song about being in a thunderstorm and hearing your name called from an alley..... wow!
― Dave Amos, Monday, 10 May 2004 08:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 10 May 2004 08:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 10 May 2004 09:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dave Amos, Monday, 10 May 2004 10:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 10 May 2004 10:08 (nineteen years ago) link
Good short podcast episode by Andrew Hickey.
― My Little Red Buchla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 29 July 2022 15:49 (one year ago) link
Which alb is 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue' on? 'Cos that's one of the greatest Dylan covers of all time.Best Elevators cover version - Television doing 'Fire Engine'.― Andrew L, Friday, July 27, 2001 8:00 PM (twenty-one years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Andrew L, Friday, July 27, 2001 8:00 PM (twenty-one years ago) bookmarkflaglink
Still think Vince Gillian dropped the ball and should have used that floor the Breaking Bad finale.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Friday, 29 July 2022 15:52 (one year ago) link
'It's All Over Now Baby Blue'
Wish they'd learned the chords before playing it, though. Every other song on Easter Everywhere is great though.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 30 July 2022 01:27 (one year ago) link
Fuck learning chords, it's brilliant.
― Let's Get Ready to Trimble (Tom D.), Saturday, 30 July 2022 08:05 (one year ago) link
^new borad description
― My Little Red Buchla (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 July 2022 12:20 (one year ago) link
Seriously though the fact that they're not sticking slavishly to the original and are kind of winging it is one of things that make it so great. I'm sure Bob would agree!
― Let's Get Ready to Trimble (Tom D.), Saturday, 30 July 2022 12:23 (one year ago) link
They play the "yonder stands your orphan" chords over nearly the entire song, it's maddening! A waste of a nice, evocative arrangement.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 30 July 2022 13:00 (one year ago) link
Thanks, good caveat. This is concise, in-depth roadmap, up through early years of thee final flowering:https://michaelcorcoran.substack.com/p/rokys-return-to-the-river-of-goldenfrom main Roky thread: Roky Erickson
― dow, Saturday, 30 July 2022 16:58 (one year ago) link
Yeah I've never been bothered by the liberties they take with the chords on "Baby Blue". Anyway the "yonder stands your orphan" bit of the original chord progression (ii IV I, I believe) is my favorite part of it, so I dig that they "zoomed in" on that part.
Anyway I'd just like to mention how amazing "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)" is. I guess on the album with "Slip Inside This House", "Postures" has to be considered the "other epic" but it's such a soulful, uplifting song about surrendering your mind to the psychedelic void. That whole album is utter perfection imo
― J. Sam, Saturday, 30 July 2022 19:46 (one year ago) link
Oh yeah, soulfulness could seep in at any tyme, if you held on through tumult---also in some I mentioned on the xpost main Roky thread:
..the relatively mellow songs on 90s collections All That May Do My Rhyme and Never Say Goodbye, and the 2010 True Love Cast Out All Evil, with material spanning 40 years, and, wiki notes, "members of Okkervil River on most songs as Erickson's backing band"
In 2010, Erickson made his first album in a decade and a half, backed by Austin indie-rock darlings Okkervil River. It seemed an odd musical coupling at first- Austin's mystical madman and its articulate Pitchfork band. Erickson’s triumphant return to performing was based on his ability to rock hard on such setlist exclamations as "Don’t Slander Me," "Two-Headed Dog" and "Slip Inside This House," so it was assumed that his comeback album would be one of screeching vocals and big sonic strokes.But producer Will Sheff, the Okkervil River guide, had a different idea. True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti Records) was a record of tattered little songs that had practically been abandoned, brought back in a spiritual whirl of dust and hope. "I obsessively listened to about 60 songs that Roky had written, that were either never recorded or minimally released," Sheff said. Although he's a fan of Erickson's "horror rock" material, Sheff found himself drawn more to the songs of simple grace. "Roky was in a prison for two years and he had to come to terms with the thought that his musical career could be over," said Sheff. Such freshly recorded songs as the title track, the delicately moving "Forever," the haunting "Goodbye Sweet Dreams" and the album's hinge "Please Judge" were the soundtrack to the years when he went from Austin's golden child to its most notorious recluse. “These songs were written to serve the immediate purpose of keeping him sane,” said Sheff. “They're so powerful.""Roky's one of the greatest rock 'n' roll singers of all time and a completely unique guitar player,” said Sheff, who earned a Grammy nomination for his liner notes. “But I think the way I've most been influenced by working with him is in his lyrics, the way he puts words together in a totally jarring way. He's created his own private vocabulary.”
But producer Will Sheff, the Okkervil River guide, had a different idea. True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti Records) was a record of tattered little songs that had practically been abandoned, brought back in a spiritual whirl of dust and hope.
"I obsessively listened to about 60 songs that Roky had written, that were either never recorded or minimally released," Sheff said. Although he's a fan of Erickson's "horror rock" material, Sheff found himself drawn more to the songs of simple grace. "Roky was in a prison for two years and he had to come to terms with the thought that his musical career could be over," said Sheff. Such freshly recorded songs as the title track, the delicately moving "Forever," the haunting "Goodbye Sweet Dreams" and the album's hinge "Please Judge" were the soundtrack to the years when he went from Austin's golden child to its most notorious recluse. “These songs were written to serve the immediate purpose of keeping him sane,” said Sheff. “They're so powerful."
"Roky's one of the greatest rock 'n' roll singers of all time and a completely unique guitar player,” said Sheff, who earned a Grammy nomination for his liner notes. “But I think the way I've most been influenced by working with him is in his lyrics, the way he puts words together in a totally jarring way. He's created his own private vocabulary.”
― dow, Saturday, 30 July 2022 20:50 (one year ago) link