Roky Erickson

something I wrote elsewhere:

I just started crying when I was trying to elaborate on my deep love for this guy's work, I was talking to my wife about how "Easter Everywhere" was my literal favorite album of the 60's and how the cracked, desperate, deeply longing sound of Roky's voice totally sold the whole package but then you also had to consider the profound lyrics, the beyond-rooted guitar sound and overall harmonic/melodic/chordal structure of their whole deal, plus yeah tragic backstory and a lifetime of struggle, and well yeah it's kinda cliche to tear up about a dead rock star but I have so many powerful memories in my personal life related to this band and everything they represented and influenced, and I'm just really feeling it. I've been posting the "Slip Inside This House" lyrics everywhere (P.S. read them), but "You're Gonna Miss Me" has never sounded more appropriate than right now.

RIP

Austin Chronicle obit, with links to 15 prior Roky stories: https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2019-05-31/roky-erickson-ascends-to-the-13th-floor-1947-2019/

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