Roky Erickson: Exploding Into New York
Our friend Danfun wants to school you on some cool shit…I’d let him.
You’ll usually catch nothing but blank stares if you mention Roky Erickson’s name. But the Texan’s story, his music and his behavior are the stuff that legends, and they’ve transformed him into a rock ‘n roll cult icon with an outlaw persona.
So I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see Roky’s first ever New York City appearance, and especially not one on a Friday the 13th. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Roky’s show, since I had heard rumors that he still suffered from mental health issues (read on for more about that).
But the concert delivered way more than I ever could have expected. Roky and his band, The Explosives, just flat-out destroyed Southpaw. The band was tight, Roky’s vocals were awesome and the crowd loved every minute…
Read on for more of Roky Erickson’s story and Danfun’s photos from the show
In the early 1960s, Roky formed the 13th Floor Elevators, and in 1965 the band released its first album — that’s when the psychedelic sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators and psychedelic rock were born. The band’s sound was a mix between rock and roll and rhythm and blues, but with one distinct difference: the addition of an electric jug player gave the band their signature sound.
The 13th floor Elevators continued to record music until 1969, when Roky was arrested for the possession of one “majauna cigarette” and accordinglt sent to the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where according to one source, ”he was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments and held until 1972.” I’d like to see Jagger or Sting bounce back from that…
I remember the first time I ever heard the 13th Floor Elevators. It was about 10 years ago, when I listened to the first of the Nuggets boxset discs that feature the classic Roky-penned track You’re Gonna Miss Me. I was immediately blown away. The music was so raw and compelling, and like nothing I’d ever heard.
Soon after I discovered Roky’s solo material, and in my mind, the myth of this cult figure continued to grow. In his solo material, Roky’s fixation with Devil and aliens became more apparent, and as such his lyrics became more powerful.
And so I went to Southpaw, and so I left amazingly happy. Roky and his band played through such classics as Don’t Shake Me Lucifer and Mad Dogs, and they also broke out a few choice rhythm and blues covers for a crowd hanging on his every note. I left incredibly satisfied, to say the least, having seen one of the most mythic figures in rock ‘n roll play — how exactly did this happen? — his first ever gig in New York City.
And since documentaries about troubled Texan musicians are all the rage these days, this year will also see the release of a new documentary film about Roky entitled You’re Gonna Miss Me. Here is a link to the trailer:
Roky will also be back in New York on June 2 at Castle Clinton.
[...] The 13th Floor Elevators emerged in 1965-66, an amazingly fertile period of rock- ’n’roll—when, under the influence of psychedelic drugs and Bob Dylan, bands were beginning to write more complex lyrics and play more experimental, chaotic music without losing the drive, directness, and structure of the three-minute pop song. “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” the Elevators’ first single and a minor national hit, was a classic of the style, a four-chord riff of the kind that anyone can play but it takes brilliance to write, pushed along by mysterious burbling noises from an amplified jug. “Slip Inside This House,” from their 1967 second album, was an eightminute marathon with lyrics like “Bedouins in tribes ascending/From the egg into the flower,” but the beat never let up. Janis Joplin sang with them for a couple shows before she moved to San Francisco. The Elevators fell apart after Erickson was busted for pot in 1969. Texas law enforcement was not friendly to countercultural stoners; the year before, Houston black activist Lee Otis Johnson had gotten 30 years for one joint. Erickson, who had already had a nervous breakdown and taken copious amounts of LSD, pleaded insanity. He was sent to an institution for the criminally insane, where he was given shock treatment and Thorazine and played in the house band with three psycho killers. He came out severely damaged. In 1975, he went to a lawyer to have himself declared “not an earthling,” hoping it would “prove to the person who is putting electrical shocks in my head that I am an alien.” His songs reflected his obsessions with horror movies, evil, and the Soviet Union: “I Walked With a Zombie,” “Two-Headed Dog” (“two-headed dog, two-headed dog, I’ve been working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog”), and “Bloody Hammer,” a wounded brain’s scream of protest against psychiatric torture. Over the next decade, he played those songs around Texas, backed by bands called the Aliens, the Explosives, and Evil Hook Wildlife E.T., and recorded several albums. Live, they played brilliantly dense, fiery rock- ’n’roll; on record, he mixed in softer love songs and hippiefied acoustica. [...]
[...] http://www.newsday.com http://www.glidemagazine.com [...]
[...] Nedan kan ni läsa hur Roky tagits emot på sin turné i New York City. RollingStones rubrik lyder “Psych-Rock Icon Roky Erickson Makes Triumphant Return to NYC “. - http://www.nypost.com - http://www.nytimes.com - http://www.rollingstone.com - http://www.nysun.com - http://www.newsday.com - http://www.glidemagazine.com - http://www.villagevoice.com [...]