Thursday, December 4, 2008

Madness That Somehow Perseveres: Austin's Own Roky Erickson

By Manifesto Joe

By the way, it's pronounced "Rock-ee," not "Roak-ee." (His given name was Roger, so I can understand why he lost it.) The singer/guitarist who fronted the Texas late-1960s psychedelic cult band the Thirteenth Floor Elevators has been back on stage in recent years. By all accounts, he still gives a great show for a dude who is diagnosed as schizophrenic and likely did way, way too much acid back in the day. Roky spent long stretches in mental hospitals. He is reported to still need his meds and lots of supervision.

Here are three videos from YouTube:







The more popular California-based psychedelic bands of the '60s had nothing on this one. Groovy, Roky. Your comeback is an inspiration.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

1 comment:

Marc McDonald said...

Bill Hicks once summed it up well: musicians who shun drugs and are outspoken against their use often produce shit music. (Ted Nugent, take a bow: not only is your turgid, second-rate, jock-strap rock lame, but you're a dick as well---you boasted about avoiding the draft in the 60s, but today, you're a flag-waving, jingoistic, Iraq War-supporting buddy of fellow chickenhawks like Bush, Cheney, and Rove).

Hicks pointed out that if you really believe drugs have never inspired anything positive, then you need to throw away all your Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, and Grateful Dead albums. (Not to mention most of your blues, jazz, soul, funk, and reggae albums).

Hicks said that our media always churns out endless stories of how drugs are so horrible. And yet, he said, you never see a single MSM report that discusses anything good that drugs are responsible for.

At the end of the day, the "War on Drugs" is nothing more than an attack on personal freedom, Hicks said.