R.I.P. Roky Erickson.

R.I.P. Roky

It would be great to have The Sonics albums in better recorded sound too. I didn't manage to see them in their mid-60's heyday (I did have their records, though, and they sound SO bad), but I did see The Lyres in the 1980's, about as close as you can come. Three great Garage Bands, and I mean that as a compliment. ;-)

I was fortunate enough to hear the original Elevators live twice when I was in high school.  Later I heard other versions of the Elevators (with Roky) that were less inspiring and later still I heard Roky with one of his "solo" bands.  Not always great live, but he sure wrote some fantastic songs and made some great records.  The first two 13th Floor Elevator albums are like nothing that came before or since.  It's a real shame the recording/production quality is not better.

there's an excellent roky tribute album called "where the pyramid meets the eye", which features zz top, rem as well as less celebrated acts. what's surprising is how broad his range was as a writer--he could pen a really pretty, conventional love song as well as his usual odes to zombies and two headed dogs.

I don't know about that, what got Roky institutionalized were archaic and abusive drug laws which equated simple pot possession TO A LIFE SENTENCE in a Texas hell-hole prison.

The choice was prison or a mental institution.

To hell with Texas.

One of the infamous acid casualties of the late 60's, along with Syd Barrett, Skip Spence, and Peter Green. I've known a few myself. Very potentially-dangerous drug. Timothy Leary was a very irresponsible man, imo.