Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson (July 15, 1947 – May 31, 2019) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. Called an "outsider genius", he was a founding member and leader of the 13th Floor Elevators, as well as a pioneer of psychedelic rock music during the mid to late 1960s. Additionally, he founded the band Roky Erickson and the Aliens in the late 1970s.
Biography Early life Erickson was born at the Nightingale Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on 15 July 1947 to Roger Laverne Erickson and Evelyn Elaine (Kynard). He had four younger brothers. The nickname "Roky", a contraction of his first and middle names, was given to him by his parents. Though Erickson's father had named his son after himself, Roger did not want Roky to be known as "Roger Junior". His father, an architect and civil engineer, was stern and disapproving of Erickson's countercultural attitudes, once forcibly cutting his son's hair rather than allow him to grow it out Beatles-style. His mother was an amateur artist and opera singer, and encouraged Erickson's musical talent by taking guitar lessons herself so she could teach him.
Interested in music from his youth, he played piano from age five and took up guitar at 10. He attended school in Austin and dropped out of Travis High School in 1965, one month before graduating, rather than cut his hair to conform to the school dress code."The fall and rise of Roky Erickson. Austin American-Statesman, July 12, 2007. p 13 (Xlent section).
He also acted as a child, and was enrolled in the Civic Children’s Theatre School in Austin from an early age. He appeared in several local productions between 1958-59, including roles as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, Sonny in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Indian Joe in a dramatization of Tom Sawyer.
Erickson had an early fascination with horror films, and would make unaccompanied trips to the cinema to watch them.
The Spades Erickson wrote his first songs, "You're Gonna Miss Me" and "We Sell Soul", at age 15. His first band was The Roulettes, later renamed The Missing Links, before joining The Spades when their original singer left. They would travel round Texas performing at frat events on San Antonio and Dallas. The Spades scored a regional hit with "We Sell Soul", released in November 1965.
The song is included as an unlisted bonus track on Erickson's 1995 album All That May Do My Rhyme and was adapted as "Don't Fall Down" by the 13th Floor Elevators for their debut album.
The 13th Floor Elevators
In late 1965, at age 18, Erickson co-founded the 13th Floor Elevators. Electric jug player Tommy Hall had introduced him to guitarist Stacy Sutherland, drummer John Ike Walton, and original bassist Benny Thurman, who were all previously members of Texas band The Lingsmen.
At a party in 1966, Erickson met Janis Joplin who was back in Texas between stints in San Francisco, and wrote the line "I’ve seen your face before, I’ve known you all my life" about her. It would be included in the band's song "Splash 1", which was otherwise written by Hall's wife Clementine.
The band released their debut album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators in 1966. It contained the band's only charting single, Erickson's "You're Gonna Miss Me". A stinging breakup song, the single was a major hit on local charts in the U.S. southwest and appeared at lower positions on national singles charts as well. Critic Mark Deming writes that "If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, "You're Gonna Miss Me", in early 1966, in all likelihood he'd still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work."
In 1967, Erickson appeared on labelmate Red Krayola's debut album The Parable of Arable Land, playing electric organ on "Hurricane Fighter Plane" and harmonica on "Transparent Radiation".
The same year, The 13th Floor Elevators released their second album, Easter Everywhere, perhaps the band's most focused effort. It featured "Slip Inside This House", and a noted cover of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The album Live was released in 1968 by the band's record label International Artists, with little to no input from the band. It featured audience applause dubbed over studio recordings of cover versions, alternate takes, and older material.
Bull of the Woods (1969) was the 13th Floor Elevators' final album on which they worked as a group and was largely the work of Stacy Sutherland. Erickson—due to health and legal problems—and Tommy Hall were only involved with a few tracks, including "Livin' On" and "May the Circle Remain Unbroken".
Mental illness and legal problems In 1968, while performing at HemisFair, Erickson began speaking gibberish. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and sent to a Houston psychiatric hospital, where he involuntarily received electroconvulsive therapy.
The Elevators were vocal proponents of marijuana and psychedelic drug use, and were subject to extra attention from law enforcement agencies. In February 1969, Erickson was arrested for possession of a single marijuana joint in Austin. Facing a potential ten-year incarceration, Erickson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to avoid prison. He was bailed but became a fugitive, returning to Austin to play a comeback show in August, where he was arrested onstage after completing his first set. A riot ensued, during which two police cars were trashed, as enraged fans tried to protect Erickson from the police. After several escapes, he was sent to the Rusk State Hospital in Rusk, Texas, where he was subjected to more electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments, ultimately remaining in custody until 1972.
During his time at Rusk, he continued writing songs and poetry. Family and friends managed to smuggle some of these poems, and in 1972, self-published the book Openers, intending to use the proceeds to hire a lawyer. (Various sources claim approximately 1,000 copies of Openers were printed; how many copies were actually sold remains unknown.) Six tracks from the 1999 Erickson collection Never Say Goodbye were also recorded during his time at Rusk.
Roky Erickson and The Aliens In 1974, after having been released from the state hospital, Erickson formed a new band which he called "Bleib Alien". Bleib being an anagram of Bible, and/or German for "remain", and "Alien" being a pun on the German word ("alone") – the phrase in German, therefore, being "remain alone". His new band exchanged the psychedelic sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators for a more hard rock sound that featured lyrics on old horror film and science fiction themes.
The band's other members were Billy Miller (playing an adapted electric autoharp), Hugh Patton (drums) and Mike Richey (bass). They played their first proper show at the opening of the Austin Ritz on April 25, 1975. The night was also the opening of the Texas Film Festival, with Tobe Hooper as guest and a screening of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
After guesting with The Sir Douglas Quintet for three dates at the Palamino Club in North Hollywood in July 1975, Erickson persuaded their manager Craig Luckin to manage him also. Returning to Austin that August for a four-hour recording session at Pecan Street Studios, the Blieb Alien lineup recorded "Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)" (produced by The Sir Douglas Quintet's Doug Sahm and inspired by Vladimir Demikhov's 1950s head transplant experiments). It was released as a single in 1976.
In San Francisco, where Luckin lived, he and Erickson set about forming a new lineup. This would be Duane Aslaksen on guitar, Morgan Burgess on bass, Jeff Sutton on drums. After five or six shows around the Bay Area, Billy Miller rejoined, and rechristened the band The Aliens. The Aliens released two 7" records in 1977; the single "Bermuda" b/w "The Interpreter" produced by John X Reed, and an EP on the French Sponge label produced by Sutton.
By the end of the year they had begun recording demos with Stu Cook, former bass player of Creedence Clearwater Revival, at his studio space Cosmo's Factory. Jeff Sutton left, to be replaced by John Oxendine, aka Fuzzy Furioso. Recordings produced by Cook would be released in two "overlapping" LPs – Roky Erickson and the Aliens (released in the UK by CBS, 1980) - also called TEO, Five Symbols, or Runes - and The Evil One (415 Records, 1981). In between recording sessions, Erickson was repeatedly slipped drugs by fans at the shows they would play in San Francisco. Luckin had to send Erickson back to Austin where he found himself forcibly hospitalised once again.
Erickson coined the term "horror rock" in 1980, when describing the music of this band.
A year after the release of The Evil One, Erickson's mental health again took a downward turn, believing that a Martian had taken over his body. Peggy Underwood, Erickson's lawyer, had a fake legal contract drawn up for him to sign in public, proclaiming his official status as being an Alien.
In 1984 an observational documentary was produced in Austin for Swedish television, titled Demon Angel: A Day and Night with Roky Erickson. It featured Erickson in plugged and unplugged performances, solo and with local musician/producer Mike Alvarez on additional guitar, in an underground creek beneath the Congress Street Bridge on Halloween. Alvarez later released the film on VHS, updating it with interviews of some of Erickson's friends and relatives; it was toured to several cities including Pittsburgh, where the screening was followed by a set of Erickson covers by Alvarez and others, as well as a performance by the Mount McKinleys with guest vocalist Sumner Erickson (Roky's brother).Sula, Mike (January 5, 1995). "The Original Roky". In Pittsburgh Newsweekly. A soundtrack of the film also was issued on CD, receiving positive reviews.Lieck, Ken (April 23, 1999). "Texas Platters". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved May 14, 2021.Raggett, Ned. "Demon Angel: A Day and Night With Roky Erickson". AllMusic. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
Other backing bands Roky performed with The Nervebreakers as his backup band at The Palladium in Dallas in July 1979. A recording was issued on the French label New Rose and was recently re-issued elsewhere. The Austin-based band the Explosives served as Roky's most frequent back-up band during the early Raul's era, between 1978 and the early 1980s. Billed as Roky Erickson and the Explosives, they were regulars at Raul's, the Continental Club, and other Austin venues. It was this incarnation that contributed two live tracks to the first Live at Raul's LP, released in 1980, with other Raul's top bands: The Skunks, Terminal Mind, The Next, Standing Waves, and The Explosives (without Roky Erickson). The Roky Erickson tracks ("Red Temple Prayer" and "Don't Shake Me Lucifer") were not included on the initial release for contractual reasons, but were included on a later release.interview with Fred Krc, June 17, 2015; Club Calendars of Raul's, Continental Club and Soap Creek Saloon, 1978—1982
First solo albums and renewed interest
In 1986 he released Don't Slander Me, of which his manager Luckin has said "I’ve never seen him be so together and sober during those sessions". The same year Gremlins Have Pictures, a selection of live takes ranging from 1975-82, was released. His mental health declined further, he developed an obsession with collecting and cataloguing junk mail, as well as writing countless letters to people. He was arrested for mail theft in 1989, although charges were dropped.