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Track of the Day - 11/08/2006
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Roky Erickson - Night of the Vampire Listen to Night of the Vampire on Rhapsody A lot of artists may incorporate the horror theme into their music, but few have actually lived it quite like Roky Erickson.  He first broke on to the scene with The 13th Floor Elevators with the album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators.  They not only established themselves as one of the first "psychedelic" bands, but also became the first to use the word "psychedelic" in reference to music. In 1969, Roky Erickson was arrested in Austin, Texas for possession of marijuana.  Reportedly on the advice of his attorney, Erickson plead insanity rather than face a lengthy prison term.  He was admitted to a state mental hospital, where he was subjected to electroshock therapy and thorazine treatments.  When Erickson was released in 1975, his songwriting material took a dark twist with demons, gods and many horror film elements with his new band, Bleib Allen. Erickson hooked up with Stu Cook (from another personal favorite - Creedence Clearwater Revival) to produce the band's (who were now known as Roky Erickson and the Aliens, which is somewhat appropriate considering that Erickson once declared that he was an alien) 1980 album, The Evil One.  While Night of the Vampire appears on this album, it is also chock full of various other horror tunes as well and is considered one of the best works ever made by Roky Erickson.  The recording above is actually a live recording done in Texas on Erickson's album, Gremlins Have Pictures. I've always thought that Erickson always sounded a little bit like Neil Young, if Young ever decided to start singing about The Creature with the Atom Brain.  Some of his songs are fairly simple (I Walked With a Zombie basically features that line over and over again) though still manage to be quite good, while others twist your head in knots trying to figure them out.  Night of the Vampire rates as one of the easier tunes. If it's raining and you're running, don't slip in mud Because if you do, you'll slip in blood Or He never sleeps in the night He comes out when the moon is bright Tonight is the night of the vampire For years afterward, Erickson's mental health deteriorated as legal complications brought his royalty payments down to basically nothing.  He lived with his mother and shunned the medication he needed to treat his diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.  Fortunately, his brother stepped in and was awarded legal custody of Erickson and immediately set up a trust fund to help him out.  He is now getting the medical and legal help he needs and has even started to perform again. The tragic life of Roky Erickson has recently been looked at in the documentary, You're Gonna Miss Me by Keven McAlester, which started making the rounds in the film festival circuit earlier this year.  Hopefully this sad tale will have a very happy ending and we'll be seeing Erickson back on the stage or recording again soon.  In the meantime, you are interested in helping, you can access the trust fund at Roky's official website. This entry was edited on December 13, 2007, 8:18 pm.
Filed under: Music, Track of the Day	November 8, 2006, 3:24 pm | Permalink | 0 Comments
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