Psychedelic music godfather Roky Erickson has died, bringing an end to a long but often-interrupted career in rock music. He was 71.
Erickson died Friday, May 31, in his hometown of Austin, Texas.
“It’s almost unfathomable to contemplate a world without Roky Erickson,” said ZZ Top star Billy Gibbons. “He created his own musical galaxy.”
Erickson was best known for his work with the 13th Floor Elevators, a garage band he co-founded in 1965. The group soon released “The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators,” a seminal work in 1960s underground music. It contained the regional hit single “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” one of the first radio-friendly songs to include psychedelic elements.
While “You’re Gonna Miss Me” saw modest national chart action, the blistering track’s popularity continued well into the new century, thanks in part to its appearance on the compilation “Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era” and in the hit film “High Fidelity.” It served as Erickson’s signature song throughout his career.
The band released four albums of psychedelic Texas rock. The last came in 1969, shortly after Erickson began displaying signs of serious mental illness. He spent the next three years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, where he received shock therapy and Thorazine treatments. Erickson’s schizophrenia was linked to heavy drug use, including the taking of LSD and other psychedelics.
The 2007 documentary film “You’re Gonna Miss Me” detailed Erickson’s struggles with mental illness and his various comeback attempts over the decades. A 1990 tribute album featured fans such as R.E.M., Doug Sahm and ZZ Top. In 2015, he reunited with the surviving 13th Floor Elevators for a show at the Levitation festival in Texas. In recent years he often was backed by fan-led bands the Black Angels and Okkervil River. Other bands he fronted after the Elevators included the Aliens and the Explosives.
The musician’s management confirmed the death and said: “Erickson had a visionary zeal rarely seen in 1965 when he co-founded the 13th Floor Elevators. The band’s original songs, many written with lyricist Tommy Hall, coupled with Erickson’s super-charged vocals and guitar, sparked the psychedelic music revolution in the mid-1960s, and led to a new role of what rock could be.
“Erickson never wavered from that path, and while he faced incredible challenges at different points in his life, his courage always led him on to new musical adventures, one he continued without compromise his entire life.”
As a teen, Erickson played piano, guitar and harmonica. His first Austin band the Spades featured an evolving version of Erickson’s “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”
The 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me” is often cited as the first psychedelic song, although that’s debatable. The number’s warped excellence isn’t. It was built around crunchy garage chords and a sci-fi sound poured from an electric jug. Erickson sings from a place of pain and hostility, delivering a classic garage band kiss-off to an oh-so-deserving female.
The 13th Floor Elevators liked to perform under the influence of LSD, and co-founder Tommy Hall used the first LP’s liner notes to urge fans to try mind-expanding drugs. The album’s psychedelic artwork of a pyramid and an eye proved influential in the 1960s underground aesthetic.
The Elevators’ second album, “Easter Everywhere,” contained the key track “Slip Inside This House.” The album usually is cited as the band’s best, even though it achieved scant commercial success. The first two Elevators albums remain regarded as essential; the two follow-ups saw limited input from Erickson and Hall.
The Elevators underwent various personnel changes and struggled to complete the final studio album, “Bull of the Woods,” in 1969. Erickson had stopped performing with the group by this point and was arrested for marijuana possession, his legal woes leading to a stays in various mental institutions, including the notorious Rusk State. (The L.A. Times would later describe Erickson in these years as “Biblically troubled.”)
Erickson made on-and-off attempts to build a solo career in the 1980s and ’90s. He released about a dozen indie albums, some of the fare written in institutions and concerning aliens, creatures with atomic brains and zombies. Key tracks included “Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog),” “Night of the Vampire” and “Cold Night for Alligators.” (Producers of the time included fellow Texas icon Doug Sahm and ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival member Stu Cook.) At one point, Erickson signed a document saying a Martian had taken over his body. He became obsessed with junk mail. He would perform, but handlers found he was in constant danger of being dosed by fans.
Erickson continued to struggle on all fronts until 2001, when his younger brother, Sumner, was awarded custody of the singer-songwriter. Sumner Erickson sorted out his brother’s legal affairs, established a trust and arranged for consistent medical care.
Erickson’s wobbly career received an unexpected boost when “You’re Gonna Miss Me” opened the 2000 film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” starring John Cusack. “I Have Always Been Here Before,” a 43-track compilation highlighted by Erickson’s most coherent post-Elevators music, followed in 2005. In 2007 and 2008, he made appearances nationally and internationally, including a high-profile slot at the Coachella festival. 2009 saw the release of an acclaimed Elevators’ box set, “Sign of the 3 Eyed Men.”
In 2010, Erickson released a final album, “True Love Cast Out All Evil.” The L.A. Times called it “a staggeringly life-affirming work that sticks to your soul long after the final notes ring out.”
THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL MUSIC!!