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Customer Reviews:
- Goat Bless You, Roky!: This disc is a "best of" compilation of Roky's hard-rock years from the mid '70s to mid '80s (my personal favorite era of his entire career). In the late '60s he put out the two classic psychedellic rock albums THE PSYCHEDELLIC SOUNDS OF THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATERS (1966) and EASTER EVERYWHERE (1967) two other albums followed but weren't that great. In the '90s there were some acoustic releases. An entire career retrospective can be found on the 2CD: I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE. As for the straight ahead guitar-driven hard rock material, I'd recommend this disc...then buy all the individual albums from these years.
As for the music, it's fairly basic three chord heavy metal (although the majority of his fan base seem to be punk rockers) and may sound cheesey on the first few listens. But due to Roky's LSD use and mental handicaps you realize he's dead serious when he sings, "I Walked With A Zombie" or "The Creature With The Atom Brain". Play it loud and rock out! - Goat Heads & Pentagrams: Mercy me! This was my first introduction to the hilarious yet somewhat disturbing world of Roky Erickson. Sometimes sweet, sometimes possessed by the hoards of Satan, but guaranteed to bewitch, bother, and bewilder. If you're curious yet unfamiliar with this character, let's just say he's a mixture of Screaming Jay Hawkins, Buddy Holly, and a Baptist preacher on acid.
"Don't Shake Me Lucifer" is scary as hell, but once you get over the lyrics, it won't leave your head without a fight. And I will go so far as to say, "If You Have Ghosts" has to be one of my favorite songs of all time (right up there with The Only Ones' "Another Girl Another Planet"). Despite all the horror show theatrics & demonology, there's a couple of good old fashioned love songs that makes you wonder if it isn't all an act. Amid all the fire & brimstone, "Starry Eyes" and "Nothing In Return" come off to striking effect on this particular collection. I have to confess, however, that the novelty of "Night Of The Vampire", "Creature With The Atom Brain" & "I Walked With A Zombie" wear off pretty quick. And though I like all the live tracks, I would have preferred the inclusion of say, "Bloody Hammer" or "Wind & More" over "Leave My Kitten Alone". But why quibble when you have roof raisers like "Don't Slander Me" , not to mention a spellbinding live version of "You're Gonna Miss Me"? For fans, I'd say this is as concise a collection as your likely to find. For tenative beginners, this may be all you ever need. - Excellent introduction to his solo career: Favorites: "The Interpreter," sounding Thin Lizzyish in parts; "Creature with the Atom Brain," awesome guitar solo and "Night of the Living Dead" sound effects; "Starry Eyes," sounding a lot like Robert Plant covering a Buddy Holly tune during his Honeydrippers phase; "Two Headed Dog" has an almost Alice Cooperish sound to it (and I mean the band, not Cooper solo); and "Don't Slander Me," a classic "Don't"-yelling song in a league with Big Star's "Don't Lie to Me."
Not so favorites: the liner notes. Jeez, are these poorly typeset and layed out! Almost impossible to read, and want to read them you will, to find out the story behind these great toons. The designer of this CD's booklet should have been blacklisted from the industry for this. - well, not to sound unappreciative: For the most part, I found this collection to be disappointing, being familiar only with the prime Elevators.
The sound on most of the tracks is of bottom-of-the-barrel session men w/ extremely tacky 80's cheapo production values.
Despite this, many of the songs are more than good enough to overcome this, notably Starry Eyes, If You Have Ghosts, and Click Your Fingers, all of which, in spite of their production, sound remarkably timeless, and show that Roky really was on top of his game at that point.
Other than that, there's The Interpreter, which was recorded in the mid '70's with the real Blieb Aliens, and sounds terrifically gritty when compared to the slicker 80's stuff. And, of course, there's the acoustic tracks I Am and I Have Always Been Here Before, the latter of which is probably the single most affecting piece of music Roky ever recorded, period. Also, it's pretty damn rare and this collection is worth owning for that song alone. Then, we come to the piecemeal pastiche of the last 5 tracks, all demos and live takes, which, for me, comprise the most satisfying stretch of material here. Of course the fidelity is not particularly high but I'll take these over most of the rest of this collection. The version of You're Gonna Miss Me, a live take from 1981, is staggering - Roky announces "this is a brand new one...actually it's not new" before crashing in with the opening power chords and his demonic wail sounding every bit as possessed (more, in fact) than it did in 1967. It's completely confounding, the gall with which he effortlessly transcends everything, the drugs, the intervening years, the tragedy of his life, and delivers the lines "how could you say you miss my love when you never needed it?!?!" with an intensity that it literally heart-stopping. It's not supposed to happen this way, and almost never has...but thank god it did, if only just once. - Where do I start? It's not the easiest thing in the world t: Where do I start? It's not easy giving a subjective opinion about an album that never leaves ones' personal "top three." With that in mind, I'll list some of my favorite moments from this wonderful collection: 1) The first 20 or so seconds of "Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play," which I think very well could be one of the most beautiful intros in rock history. 2) "I Am," which is one of the prettiest, and creepiest, things I have ever heard. 3) "Can't Be Brought Down," and "Don't Slander Me" for rocking as hard as ZZ Top and Motorhead in "Beer Drinkers and Hell-Raisers' mode. 4) "Starry Eyes" and "Nothing in Return" for summoning the ghost (reverently!) of the great Buddy Holly. In short, the whole thing is filled with flashes of brilliance, so just buy th' damn thing. In fact, buy two copies and enjoy it twice as much. Everybody should also run down to the corner store and pick up the equally wonderful albums by Roky's 60's band, The 13th Floor Elevators. At least snap up "The Psychedelic Sounds Of..." and "Easter Everywhere." Classics both! (Avoid "Bull Of The Woods" or any of the crappy sounding "live" recordings unless you are an undiscriminating completist type.) The Elevators were prob'ly the greatest rock band of the 60's, and undoubtedly the greatest psychedelic band ever, bar nothing. I know that both of those statements are pretty stout, and that damn near anybody who reads this (IF anyone reads it) will probably balk. Again, I encourage any naysayer who thinks that The Jefferson Airplane or Santana was the end-all-be-all to LISTEN TO THE MUSIC OF ROKY ERICKSON before they laugh too loudly. The proof's in the pudding! Anybody who would like to discuss this matter further, drop me a line and I'll reply _J. Hoyt
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