Meeting With An Alien
We've already seen a couple of acoustic performances by Roky Erickson, now we are going to know the electric and wild side of his music. Like Demon Angel, Meeting With An Alien is a low budget movie about Roky, produced by the University Of Texas in Austin, Roky's hometown, and broadcasted by a local cable TV channel. 1980 is the year on which his first solo LP had finally been released. The seventies had been a very troubled period on which he had been even interned in a state mental hospital. A terrible experience, but also a very creative period during which he wrote a lot of songs, about the evil creatures that seem to obsess his mind: zombies, aliens, demons, vampires...
The fact that he has some mental health problems makes his music probably even more attractive to many of his fans, but the simple truth is that he has a very special talent as a songwriter and a magnetic charisma as a performer. Am I the only one who prefers his solo works to the 13th Floor Elevators' records?
On Meeting With An Alien Roky is interviewed and plays some acoustic stuff in a studio, but the movie also offers parts of a compelling concert with his band, the Explosives, in a club called The Lone Star. I've read somewhere on the web that this was a place in New York City...but isn't Texas the Lone Star state?
One years ago he re-appeared for a short but amazing concert in Austin, he looked in great shape. It seems that there is a group of fans/friends that takes care of him there and helps him to pay the bills. Now that Syd Barrett and Arthur Lee have just died, is somehow a comfort to know that Roky is still with us, and maybe his life is not so bad.
I wish the quality of these clips was a little better, but here they are anyway.
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Ciao
Mirco
posted by Mirco @ 12:17 AM
5 Comments:
Not the only one. I prefer the latter to the former Roky also. The first time I heard "Two Headed Dog" I said 13th FE, your gonna miss me.
Thanks, Dave K.
Okay,I was gonna say yes you are the only one, but Someone beat me to it. So you are the only two. But Roky's stuff with The Aliens is awesome too.
Roky's solo stuff is definately more interesting than the Elevators. And these 2 live cuts are better soundwise than most of the live recordings I have heard. And with Duane Aslaksens guitar (it must be him!) and pictures to boot it's a gem!
BrunoSt
...then we are already three at least ;-)
i can't help but feel myself that comparing roky and the elevators is like comparing two things that are equally amazing but equally divergent. but you know, i totally understand why people would prefer roky solo. the evil one is a truly unique rock album.
those clips are on youtube, i love this stuff, the documentary sounds fascinating.
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