Roky Erickson plays Don Quixote’s on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
I just finished The Roky Erickson Story, Jack Ortman’s three-volume, 1000-page collection of clippings of probably everything ever written about Roky Erickson from the ’60s into the ’90s. Admittedly, no one wants to read this, unless they are Erickson’s mom, or totally obsessed with the former frontman of the 13th Floor Elevators.
The craziest thing is that enough people fall into one of those two categories—and no, I am not going to tell you which one I am in—that a limited-edition box set of this project (featuring Erickson’s pyramid-meets-the-eye emblem on the cover, with his signature and those of his Elevator bandmates) still sells on eBay, for a lot of money.
One thing I learned from Ortman’s collage-a-thon is that most people who wrote about Erickson were big fans of the Elevators, who came out of Texas in the mid- ’60s and can legitimately claim to be the first psychedelic band. Others were obsessed with the lurid details of Roky’s life—his time in an institution for the criminally insane after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to a drug bust, his one-time claim that he was from Mars, his mental-health struggles in the ’80s, his ridiculous bust on mail-theft charges, etc. (for a complete rundown of tragedy and surprising salvation in Roky’s life, proceed directly to You’re Gonna Miss Me, one of the best music documentaries ever made).
I’ll admit, I’m not a big fan of the Elevators. The only song from that band that was really Erickson’s was their unforgettable hit “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”
Nearly everything else suffered from god-awful lyrics by jug player/guru Tommy Hall, who brought more LSD to the band than talent. (The Elevators’ two other truly great songs, “I Had to Tell You” and “Splash 1,” were written by Hall’s wife and Erickson.)
To most of the writers in Ortman’s collections, most of Erickson’s solo work is no more than a footnote. It’s written off as “horror rock” and “B movie stuff.”
But to me, it’s simply incredible. Other than Danzig’s songs for the Misfits, I can’t think of any songwriter who’s delivered such an intricate, fascinating and powerful mythology to rock music. Much like Danzig mixed epic, gory visions of pop-culture monsters with an almost doo-wop air of teen romance,
Erickson brought lyric poetry to slashing-guitar assaults on subjects like the Bermuda Triangle, demons, zombies and two-headed dogs. He also wrote some beautiful love songs, especially “Starry Eyes” and “Nothing in Return.”
Like fellow musical cult figure R.L. Burnside, Roky’s body of songs is fairly small, and some of them have several versions circulating. After his long absence from music, it’s surprising how good they still sound live. We’re lucky to have him back, delivering the unique Gospel of Rok.
Roky Erickson plays at Don Quixote’s on Aug. 21.
