Roky Erickson

dave q's roky erickson t-shirt seconded: It only sez roky erickson but it has a pic of him as a vampire but i might be wrong.

YOU'RE GONNA MISS ME
Keven McAlester
USA, 2005, 88 minutes

Many former rock stars crave a comeback and the glory of the spotlight. But Roky Erickson, credited as the creator of psychedelic rock, struggles just to stay afloat after a stint in a Texas mental institution.

Thursday 6/16 at 6:45 p.m.

I THINK UP DEMONS

FOR YOU!

He's playing at the Portland (OR) Garage Fest in a couple weeks. Heard several people have mention that he's the only performer they're really excited to see. Which is cool, but a bit surprising. Didn't know he'd become such a draw.

Anyway, I've never seen him before, so I'm pretty excited myself. Anybody seen him lately? I mean, I'm expecting rock stuff from The Evil One, since that seems to be his most popular album, but I'd be happy with All That May Do My Rhyme folk.

I listened to the Mogwai song with him recently and was really moved by his vocal. His growl on this song ("Devil Rides") sorta purrs in a lower register that sounds to me like crying, hence the emotional response. I don't have any reason to think he's trying to sound like that, though. Plus, it's a typical Mogwai "crushing bleakness of existence" melody. It's a pretty good song.

I've been wanting to pick up that DVD for ages, but it hasn't (to my knowledge) been released in Europe. Only available as US import in NTSC format. Pity

by "that DVD" I mean the "You're Gonna Miss Me" film

It's pretty intense. Some great bonus stuff, too. Performances from all over his career, in various states.
And this spoken word thing called "I know the hole in babys head" (I think) that really puts the edge on.

Roky is playing the El Rey tomorrow night and I'm wondering... What are his recent-ish shows like? I want to go, but am a little wary of just how much these shows are Roky and how much are his backing band. (this show isn't with Okkervil River)

I saw him back in October. His road band is pretty good. The set was mostly The Evil One-era material, but this last time they threw in "Roller Coaster" and "Reverberation" along with "You're Gonna Miss Me" as bonuses.

I've seen him 3 times in the past 3 years, and this last one was easily the sloppiest (missed lyrics, guitar issues). On the other hand, at the same show, during a run of (IIRC) "Bloody Hammer"/"The Wind & More"/"Creature With The Atom Brain" he turned in some of the most intense performances I've ever seen. Really felt the possession.

He's touring again

I saw him a week ago in Mpls, it was good. His band was okay and he seemed to kind of tune in & out, focus wise, but when he was on it was pretty great. This

"I've seen him 3 times in the past 3 years, and this last one was easily the sloppiest (missed lyrics, guitar issues). On the other hand, at the same show, during a run of (IIRC) "Bloody Hammer"/"The Wind & More"/"Creature With The Atom Brain" he turned in some of the most intense performances I've ever seen. Really felt the possession."

is pretty much what the show I was like.

he's playing here this saturday, would like to see him before the great inevitable. avoided his SXSW perf back in 2010 due to a distaste for his loathsome backing band at the time.

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/262788_10152556432283625_1797485046_n.jpg

I liked him on Austin City Limits a while back, with "two bands put together plus Billy Gibbons," as Roky summed up.

And those Light In The Attic reissues we were talking about on Rolling Reissues 2013---the link to that LITA page with all the details, vids, etc. still works too:
ight in the Attic is reissuing three 80s Roky Erickson albums - The Evil One, Don't Slander Me, and Gremlins Have Pictures. Bonus tracks in all cases, 2LP or CD, lavish booklets, etc. I'm pretty excited about the first two - the Evil One reissue has all the tracks from both the US and UK versions, and Don't Slander Me just fucking rules.

― 誤訳侮辱, Thursday, June 27, 2013 4:41 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh cool! The Sympathy For The Record Industry edition of Evil One is long oop and expensive. Also, Roky himself might actually see money from these editions.

― Mr. Mojo Readin' (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, June 27, 2013 5:38 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh yeah, and here's their edition of The Evil One (all 15 tracks). Can read all about it, listen to clips, watch a vid: http://lightintheattic.net/releases/889-the-evil-one

― dow, Thursday, June 27, 2013 5:51 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LITA promo art:

http://lightintheattic.net/system/product_images/0000/1468/RokyErickson.jpg?1368565898

http://s3.amazonaws.com/light_in_the_attic/artist_press_images/1664/Roky_EvilOne.jpg

Those Light In The Attic reissues are great. There's almost 100 pages of (cd size) liner notes between them!

I saw Roky again last year right before Halloween. His current backing band, the Hounds of Baskerville, is led by his son and are very good. They've been digging deeper for set lists, addressing a fair amount of Elevators stuff in addition to less traveled solo gems ("JOHN LAWMAN"!!!!!). Roky himself is still inconsistent song to song, although at the show I saw his amp only worked about half the time and that clearly was throwing him more than usual.

yeah, those LITA reissues are such an amazing gift. snapped all three up as soon as i saw 'em, as much to support roky as to satisfy precious-hoarding gollum urge. an expanded remaster of all that may do my rhyme and i'm set...

Hitting Easter Everywhere at the w/end

Sounds like an amazing exp live - just as you'd expect from the recs but up close.

anyone see him on this tour? how was it? it's coming here tmrw

maybe she thought they'd meant erick erickson

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXAFvaKVoAAtjs1.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DXAFvaKVoAAtjs1.jpg

That's uh something. I also saw someone retweet her tweets grumbling about a certain Neil Young song she doesn't like-- "Downtown" from his Mirror Ball"

honestly, i wouldn't be super shocked if those ol texas hippies in the elevators owned guns back then

the dead's guys def were into that gun totin' cowboy shit

Tommy Hall was a campus Young Republican prior to the Elevators.

As for the guns, two words: Stacy Sutherland.

woah i did not know this!!!

Stacy Sutherland formed his own band, Ice, which performed only in Houston and never released any material. In 1969, after a battle with heroin addiction, he was imprisoned in Texas on drug charges, the culmination of several years of drug-related trouble with the law. After his release Sutherland began to drink heavily. He continued to sporadically play music throughout the 1970s, occasionally with former members of the Elevators. Sutherland was accidentally shot and killed by his wife Bunny on August 24, 1978 during a domestic dispute, and is buried in Center Point, Kerr County, Texas.[14]

Sadly, Roky has passed.

https://www.austin360.com/entertainmentlife/20190531/reports-roky-erickson-texas-psychedelic-music-legend-has-died

Thought he'd go on forever!

Rip the original dude.

Awwwwww, man.

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJ6gtcKeoA

fuck no

RIP

gonna miss him

I used to say I wanted "You're Gonna Miss Me" played at my funeral, the ultimate passive-aggressive self-pitying gesture imaginable. Love this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn9ui8PTwj0

RIP Mr. Erickson

I can hear your voice
Echoing my voice softly
I can feel your strength
Reinforcing mine

what an absolute legend
really sad about this
what a triumph over some hard circumstances

those solo records are a real miracle

It seems like a bell rings
time and deja vu
Everything is familiar
I been here with you

A zombie walks with him

^Good one.

RIP

We’ll never see his kind agains

(again, goddamnit)

The mythmaking got a little creepy at times (see also: Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis), but The Evil One and Don't Slander Me are fucking great records.

RIP

Bedoin tribes ascending
From the egg into the flower,
Alpha information sending
State within the heaven shower
From disciples the unending
Subtleties of river power
They slip inside this house as they pass by
If your limbs begin dissolving
In the water that you tread
All surroundings are evolving
In the stream that clears your head
Find yourself a caravan
Like Noah must have led
And slip inside this house as you pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
True conception, knowing why
Brings even more than meets the eye
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
In this dark we call creation
We can be and feel and know
From an effort, comfort station
That's surviving on the go
There's infinite survival in
The high baptismal glow.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
There is no season when you are grown
You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
There is no reason to rise alone
Other stories given have sages of their own.
Live where your heart can be given
And your life starts to unfold
In the forms you envision
In this dream that's ages old
On the river layer is the only sayer
You receive all you can hold
Like you've been told.
Every day's another dawning
Give the morning winds a chance
Always catch your thunder yawning
Lift your mind into the dance
Sweep the shadows from your awning
Shrink the fourfold circumstance
That lies outside this house don't pass it by.
Higher worlds that you uncover
Light the path you want to roam
You compare there and discover
You won't need a shell of foam
Twice born gypsies care and keep
The nowhere of their former home
They slip inside this house as they pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
You think you can't, you wish you could
I know you can, I wish you would
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
Four and twenty birds of Maya
Baked into an atom you
Polarized into existence
Magnet heart from red to blue
To such extent the realm of dark
Within the picture it seems true
But slip inside this house and then decide.
All your lightning waits inside you
Travel it along your spine
Seven stars receive your visit
Seven seals remain divine
Seven churches filled with spirit,
Treasure from the angels' mine
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
Slip inside this house as you pass by.
The space you make has your own laws
No longer human gods are cause
The center of this house will never die.
There is no season when you are grown
You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
There is no reason to rise alone
Other stories given have sages of their own.
Draw from the well of unchanging
Its union nourishes on
In the right re-arranging
Till the last confusion is gone
Water-brothers trust in the ultimust
Of the always singing song they pass along.
One-eyed men aren't really reigning
They just march in place until
Two-eyed men with mystery training
Finally feel the power fill
Three-eyed men are not complaining.
They can yo-yo where they will
They slip inside this house as they pass by.
Don't pass it by.

https://youtu.be/hMfL9Yx7Xlk

<3

RIP Roky ;_;

Gonna miss him. Was obsessed w his music in my 20s

To live underground you must be a mole

RIP

RIP

The Evil One might be the best guitar record ever

Never listed to Easter Everywhere before, my god what an amazing album

Wow, I envy anyone just discovering Easter Everywhere.

apparently i am blocked from reading austin360 by the "security rules"

bloky erickson :(

RIP :-(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FkiPAxpLIA

^^The Austin City Limits w/The Explosives and Billy Gibbons, for thos w/images and/or youtubes blocked.

this makes me very sad.

i reckon roky’s voice saved my life on more than one occasion. will always be grateful he was here.

Never listed to Easter Everywhere before, my god what an amazing album

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, June 2, 2019 12:52 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wow, I envy anyone just discovering Easter Everywhere.

― The Guts of Duran Duran (Tom D.), Sunday, June 2, 2019 5:34 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the definitive version of Dylan’s “(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue.”

agreed

my all time favorite cover version.

made the trek up to amoeba hollywood yesterday. made a shopping list, but still ended up in that idle "big record store" saunter that we kind of fall into from time to time in those places. just finding that momentary sanctuary in the perfect type of place for me to have one of those moments.

they were playing jimi's first rays of the new rising sun in the store. 'drifting' came up mid-idle saunter for me and i found myself —obviously by total coincidence— directly in front of the roky erikson section. as a i looked up, this album was at the front of the bin and his image made eye contact with mine.

and, so it was, as jimi sang about sailing home, i silently wept in front of the roky erikson section.

much to my delight, the section was mostly empty. didn't take folks long to remember why he was so remarkable.

The Evil One has been blowing my mind again all week.

For all the weird, occult feeling it has, something very "other" at the same time it's a phenomenally well written and produced hard rock record.

It's weird and yet completely un-murky at the same time. Guitars and drums both mixed loud, yet don't overwhelm the vocals. It sounds like Only Ones or Television or Saints but gone psychic.

The Only Ones is exactly who I thought of when listening to it!

I wonder if he was even aware of that stuff or it was just him hanging out w ex CCR dudes and doing what came natural?

I think the latter... LITA version has pretty extensive liner notes, I will try to remember to take a look

I doubt he was aware of it, the Only Ones comparison is about well written catchy rock songs with a lot of fluid/melodic lead guitar on it. Also kind of reminds me of the first (pre-Helios Creed) Chrome album, an underrated record!

ooh that IS a good call re: The Visitation, same time/place too

Haven't heard this one! How is it? https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/roky-erickson-never-say-goodbye/

I wonder if he was even aware of that stuff or it was just him hanging out w ex CCR dudes and doing what came natural?

Some of this might have been purely homegrown. Roky was part of the whole late '70s Raul's (a New Wave Club near U.T.) scene. Even if he wasn't, those groups were most certainly aware of what was going on overseas. Unfortunately, very few of these Austin bands ever got to record much, if at all. Roky's sometime live backing group at the time, the Explosives, was a full-on Power Pop/Garage Revival band that would do their own opening sets of original material prior to Roky taking the stage.

FWIW, the guy who signed the Only Ones also signed Roky to the UK Branch of CBS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSyA1AzssIY

Stu Cook produced this shortly after The Evil One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=wPNN5AhN0uU

Light In The Attic to issue a new tribute LP for RSD (CD coming later)

https://pitchfork.com/news/new-roky-erickson-tribute-album-features-jeff-tweedy-margo-price-neko-case-and-more/

Would rather have Nels Cline, but can actually see Tweedy maybe doing okay by some of the relatively mellow songs on 90s collectionsAll That May Do My Rhyme and Never Say Goodbye, and the 2010 True Love Cast Out All Evil, with material spanning 40ss, and, wiki notes,members of Okkervil River on most songs as Erickson's backing band. The album also includes field recordings of songs from Erickson's time in a Texas insane asylum. (Good, more rockin' Roky collections:ou're Gonna Miss Me[Restless, 1991], and I Have Always Been Here Before [Shout! Factory, 2005]

Neko Case! That might work, whatever song she chooses.

Been a long tyme since I listened, but Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye seemed like a pretty good tribute, with ZZ Top, Doug Sahm, Butthole Surfers, blues-rocker Chris Thomas King + his swamp pop Dad Tabby Thomas, and, since I had it on cassette, with more songs on the CD, I got to hear the Angry Samoans and some others.

And if I didn't mention it, upthread, the DVD of 2007 doc You're Gonna Miss Me is an improvement on the original screen version, for illuminating/intriguing bonus material (don't know if biographers have ever adequately dealt w family situations, for better and worse, but we get glimpses here, among other things).

material spanning 40 *years*, I meant to say. Cassette had more songs *than* the CD.

"family situations, for better and worse": classical musician brother seems helpful, mother not so much, though she tries (eerie home movies of her from way back too)

Oh yeah, Richard Lloyd is on Where The Pyramid... too, doing "Fire Engine"---think Television used to cover that.

Neko Case! That might work, whatever song she chooses.

She's doing doing "Be and Bring Me Home"

The full tracklisting (from the link):

01 Billy F Gibbons: “(I’ve Got) Levitation”
02 Mosshart Sexton: “Starry Eyes”
03 Jeff Tweedy: “For You (I’d Do Anything)”
04 Lyyn Castle / Mark Lanegan: “Clear Night for Love”
05 The Black Angels: “Don’t Fall Down”
06 Neko Case: “Be and Bring Me Home”
07 Margo Price: “Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)”
08 Gary Clark Jr. / Eve Monsees: “Roller Coaster”
09 Ty Segall: “Night of the Vampire”
10 Lucinda Williams: “You’re Gonna Miss Me”
11 Chelsea Wolfe: “If You Have Ghosts”
12 Brogan Bentley: “May the Circle Remain Unbroken”

Oddly enough, Billy Gibbons is covering the same track he handled with ZZ Top on the earlier tribute.

Oh wait, my bad. That was "Reverberation (Doubt)", another parenthetical Elevators title.

Holy Shit

actual Golden Age of TV was 1990
Bongwater w/ Screamin' Jay Hawkins singing Roky Erickson on David Sanborn's Night Music https://t.co/FSe7lVQWLg

— Emmet Matheson (@emmetmatheson) February 12, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glYVGKMTAD0

That's neat! Viewers beware that YT apparently muted the last minute or so of the video for copyright reasons.

Also cool seeing what Waterloo Records looked like back then. Not sure if they'd yet split off the vinyl to a separate shop around the block in '90, as they definitely had by '92, when I first visited (the vinyl shop) as a tyke, tagging along with my older sister. Obviously they eventually brought the records back to the main store, which during the separation was known as Waterloo CDs; Waterloo Video took over the space vacated by the vinyl store.

..The records back to the main store, which during the separation was known as Waterloo CDs; Waterloo Video took over the space vacated by the vinyl store. Waterloo Sunset? Now the vinyl could have taken back over, like Napoleon's return (for a while, of course).
Prob mentioned it way upthread, but don't miss the DVD edition of Roky doc You're Gonna Miss Me, with updates and misc. bonus video short subjects....just step inside this house---dunno if any of that made it to blu-ray, don't suppose somme streams incl. all that, but hopefully they do (I've reached my own Waterloo Sunset of onlife, but glad for others to go furthur).

https://michaelcorcoran.substack.com/p/rokys-return-to-the-river-of-golden

"if the blues are empty/hell is filled"

Is it pronounced Roe-key or Rock-ee?

It's a contraction of his forenames, Roger Kynard, so it's Rocky, I suppose.

Ah, ta.

yup