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Roky Erickson on Road to Rediscovery
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| Dan Clore 2005-05-18, 11:14 am |
| http://www.suntimes.com/output/ente...day-roky08.html
Roky Erickson on road to rediscovery
May 8, 2005
BY JIM DEROGATIS
Pop Music Critic
For decades, Roky Erickson has joined Pink Floyd founder Syd
Barrett and Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson at the top of the
list of rock's most tragic burnouts.
As vocalist for the '60s pioneers the 13th Floor Elevators
and as a solo artist active through the mid-'80s, the
Austin, Texas, native influenced countless bands in the
punk, garage and psychedelic-rock movements. But for 20
years, he has lived in poverty as a virtual recluse, shying
away from the music world as he battled schizophrenia under
the dubious care of his mother, Evelyn, who does not believe
in modern medications.
Now, as his legacy is celebrated with a new two-disc
anthology, two reissues of landmark recordings, and the
brilliant documentary "You're Gonna Miss Me," a seemingly
happy and healthy Erickson is slowly emerging from the
shadows, thanks to a remarkable recovery overseen by his
brother and new guardian, Sumner. And even if Roky's
resurrection never becomes as complete as that of Brian
Wilson -- who not only returned to touring, but completed
his epic "Smile" album in 2004 -- he seems primed to reclaim
his place in the rock pantheon.
Last July, Sumner asked his brother what he wanted for his
57th birthday, and Roky said he'd like to be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Unfortunately, that
birthday has passed," Sumner said recently. "But the point
is that he is very cognizant of his place in history, and he
really wants to be recognized."
Roger Kynard Erickson -- his first two names were truncated
as "Roky," pronounced "rocky" -- grew up in a musical
household. His mother was a locally renowned opera singer,
and Sumner would become first-chair tuba player for the
Pittsburgh Symphony. "I'm lucky that along with my mom, who
had a world-class voice, Roky's voice was one of the first I
ever heard," Sumner said. "What a gift that was."
By his mid-teens, Roky had developed one of the most
distinctive voices in rock, more frightening than the most
powerful screaming by his heroes, Little Richard and James
Brown, and as plaintively beautiful than the most tender
crooning by another Texas great, Buddy Holly.
Erickson had already written "You're Gonna Miss Me" with a
band called the Spades when he was approached to join a new
group formed by poet and lyricist Tommy Hall in 1965. The
13th Floor Elevators re-recorded "You're Gonna Miss Me" with
guitarist Stacy Sutherland's electric riffing, Hall's
frantic blowing on an amplified jug (a relic of the jug
bands on the folk scene) and Erickson's bone-rattling
vocals. It became a hit in 1966, and it ranks with "Louie
Louie" as one of the all-time garage-rock classics.
The Elevators signed to a Houston label called International
Artists, run by Lelan Rogers, brother of
rocker-turned-country crooner Kenny Rogers, and two
extraordinary albums followed: "The Psychedelic Sounds of
the 13th Floor Elevators" (1966) and "Easter Everywhere"
(1967). More than any other American group in the '60s,
including the vaunted San Francisco bands during the Summer
of Love, the Elevators proudly espoused the virtues of
transcending the ordinary via psychedelic drugs, and they
strived to evoke the feeling of an acid trip via the
otherworldly music and visionary lyrics of songs such as
"Fire Engine," "Slip Inside This House" and "Kingdom of Heaven."
As the surviving band members recalled during a panel
discussion at the South by Southwest Music Conference in
March, there was a price to pay for flaunting such
freakiness in Texas at the time. Shortly after the second
album's release, Erickson was busted for possessing a small
amount of marijuana. His lawyers adopted an insanity
defense, calling a psychiatrist who testified that the
singer had taken 300 LSD trips that "messed up his mind."
The ploy backfired when Erickson was sentenced to an
indefinite stay at Rusk State Mental Hospital, a hellish
institution where he was confined with mass murderers,
pedophiles and rapists.
In "You're Gonna Miss Me," Texas-bred rock writer turned Los
Angeles-based documentary filmmaker Keven McAlester tours
the now-empty Rusk, interweaving this footage with
interviews, newspaper clips, performance footage and rare
photographs to bring Erickson's harrowing experience to
life. "I could have made a two-hour documentary about Rusk
itself," McAlester said.
Instead, the film follows Erickson after he surfaced from
Rusk in 1972 as a haunted man. Resuming his musical career,
he worked with a series of bands, producers (including
Creedence Clearwater Revival veteran Stu Cook) and
independent labels, releasing indelible tunes in two basic
varieties: furious rockers dominated by horror-movie imagery
(as evidenced by titles such as "I Think Up Demons"), and
gorgeous love songs such as "Starry Eyes," a tune as
beautiful as any of Buddy Holly's romantic ballads. But
Erickson was slipping away into a troubled fantasy world.
When I interviewed the artist in 1986, shortly before the
release of the album "Don't Slander Me," Erickson chatted
amiably about horror movies, but he dodged every question
about his music. At one point, he said that his "lady" had
just been hit by a car, and she wanted to say hello. There
was a long stretch of silence.
"Lady just said, 'Hi,'" he said. "She liked you." Lady was
Roky's dog.
Erickson stopped performing during the second half of the
'80s. He lived in federally subsidized housing on the
outskirts of Austin, surrounded himself with TVs and radios
turned up full blast to drown out the voices in his head,
and collected his neighbor's junk mail, which he taped to
his walls. This led to another arrest for mail fraud, but
Austin's tight-knit music community banded together and won
his release.
Friends such as Casey Monahan, director of the Texas Music
Office, and King Coffey, of the Butthole Surfers and the
Trance Syndicate label, tried to improve Erickson's living
conditions in the years that followed. But he was still
under the nominal care of Evelyn, who thwarted attempts to
secure mental health care.
Five years in the making, "You're Gonna Miss Me" opens with
Erickson in these dire straits. "Here is one of the most
talented rock singers ever living in something approaching
squalor," McAlester said. "How did it happen? Some of the
reasons why are obviously very complicated, and the reasons
why people aren't doing anything about it are even more
complicated."
The film, which premiered at SXSW in March, not only
documents Erickson's legacy, it tells the broader human
story of his battle with mental illness and its roots in his
troubled upbringing, using a vivid but non-intrusive style
as powerful as Terry Zwigoff's in the award-winning
documentary, "Crumb."
"When we encounter somebody who has Roky's kind of talent
but also has some other thing that they are struggling with,
it makes the story that much more poignant," McAlester said.
"But I don't think there is a de-facto relationship between
the two. One of the things I wanted to avoid was
romanticizing that connection [between Erickson's
schizophrenia and the genius of his music]."
McAlester's camera is present in court when Sumner fights
his mother to assume Roky's guardianship. Sumner, who is 43,
won the case and began the process not only of nursing Roky
back to health, but of helping him regain control of his music.
"When I started this, I just wanted to give my brother a
chance to be on meds, get a physical, get his dental work
done and live in a safer environment," Sumner said recently.
"But when they made me guardian of his estate, that sort of
made me his manager. So now I'm trying to get all his music
accounted for, make sure he was paid and try to address the
people out there who were pirating and bootlegging his music."
Roky stayed with Sumner in Pittsburgh for more than a year,
but now he is living on his own again in Austin. And Sumner
also has returned to Austin after leaving his job with the
orchestra because of a labor dispute. He sees his brother
daily, and the two sat side by side a few rows away from
Evelyn during the screening of "You're Gonna Miss Me" that I
saw at SXSW. Roky and the film both received extended ovations.
For years, Roky resembled a wounded animal whenever he was
dragged into the spotlight for a 30-second appearance at the
Austin Music Awards. In the mid-'90s,
rocker-turned-publisher Henry Rollins arranged a
book-signing during SXSW to celebrate Openers II, a
collection of Roky's poems and lyrics. I watched as a
frightened Roky emerged from the car, then immediately
demanded to be driven back home.
This year, before Sumner could even introduce him, Roky
bounded onstage to sing "Starry Eyes" -- his voice as pure
and strong as ever -- during the annual benefit for the Roky
Erickson Trust (http://www.rokyerickson.net/trust.html ) at
Threadgill's.
Roky and I chatted briefly following the screening of
"You're Gonna Miss Me." He was much more lucid and content
than the troubled soul I had encountered in the past, even
if our conversation was no more relevant than our earlier
interview. Mostly we talked about the weather.
"Roky recently got his driver's license for the first time
in two decades, and that was a huge accomplishment for him,"
Sumner said.
Sumner has evoked the enmity of some Roky fans because of
his efforts to thwart Internet trading of his brother's
music. "If I've overreacted, given the history [of Roky
being ripped off], that is a good thing," Sumner said. He
has also been criticized for performing Roky's songs around
Austin in a new rock band. But there's no denying that
Sumner improved his brother's life, and he may be helping
Roky rediscover his muse.
"You're Gonna Miss Me" -- which will screen at other film
festivals before finalizing a deal for widespread release --
ends with a poignant scene of Roky playing acoustic guitar
and singing a newly written song about the power of love on
the porch outside his therapist's office.
"I hesitate to give any sort of authoritative answer, but
the fact that he is actively engaged, wanting to sing again,
and does look better are all good signs," McAlester said
when asked if his subject is better off now than when the
director started his film.
"It's been a real gradual but steady process, and it is
light years beyond what anybody thought was possible,"
Sumner said. "I told Roky originally that my number-one goal
for him was wellness, but that his wellness would eventually
include being creative and being who he is.
"Right now, nobody is more invested in Roky Erickson's
wellness than Roky is, and nobody is going to pull him off
his path -- nobody, nobody, nobody."
NEW ROKY RECORDINGS (AND ONE CLASSIC TRIBUTE)
The Roky Erickson catalog is daunting for listeners in
search of solid introductions to the work of this rock 'n'
roll great. His solo efforts have been packaged and
repackaged through the years, and there are numerous CD
versions of the 13th Floor Elevators' releases, many of them
shoddily compiled. (Ownership of the band's music remained
hazy for decades, a situation his brother Sumner Erickson is
working to rectify.)
Thankfully, several recent releases, all of them issued with
the approval of the Roky Erickson Trust, provide a prime
introduction to these timeless sounds, especially along with
the epic tribute album that stands as the best testament to
Erickson's wide-ranging influence.
"I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE: THE ROKY ERICKSON
ANTHOLOGY" (SHOUT FACTORY) ****
This comprehensive two-disc, 42-track set charts Erickson's
career via representative classics from his earliest days
with the Spades ("We Sell Soul"), through the Elevators ("I
Had to Tell You," "Reverberation (Doubt)," "You're Gonna
Miss Me") and his solo recordings in the '80s ("I Have
Always Been Here Before," "Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed
Dog)"), up to a sampling of the fragile tunes released in
1995 on the Trance Syndicate album "All That May Do My
Rhyme." Consider it a course in Roky Fandom 101.
"GREMLINS HAVE PICTURES" (RYKODISC) ****
"DON'T SLANDER ME" (RYKODISC) *** 1/2
Originally issued on Pink Dust in 1986, "Gremlins Have
Pictures" stands as the best album from Erickson's solo
career, though it was actually a hodgepodge collection
drawing from sessions with several different bands and
rounding up songs that had been released earlier in other
settings. The album finds the artist indulging his mania for
monster movies with tracks such as "Night of the Vampire,"
"Burn the Flames" and "The Beast," but there is also a
surprising political awareness in the classic "Warning
(Social & Political Injustices)."
Recorded in 1982 in a more focused burst of activity with a
single strong backing band, "Don't Slander Me" is only
slightly less effective. The title track burns with a raging
fury, and "Starry Eyes" is a poignant and beautiful song
that wins an instant spot in your heart the first time you
hear it.
VARIOUS ARTISTS, "WHERE THE PYRAMID MEETS THE EYE" (WARNER
BROS.) *** 1/2
Compiled in 1990 by Warner Bros. exec Bill Bentley (who
wrote the fascinating liner notes for "I Have Always Been
Here Before"), this disc not only serves as impressive
testimony to Erickson's influence, it is widely recognized
as the best tribute album ever. It's still in print 15 years
later, and as much fun to listen to now as the day it was
released. The 19 artists who cover Erickson all rise to the
occasion, with R.E.M. ("I Walked with a Zombie"), Julian
Cope ("I Have Always Been Here Before"), Poi Dog Pondering
("I Had to Tell You") and T-Bone Burnett ("Nothing in
Return") among the highlights.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...edanclorenecro/
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
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