The Evil One, also known as Roky Erickson and the Aliens or I Think of Demons officially, and as TEO, Five Symbols or Hieroglyph in some circles, is the first album by American psychedelic horror rock band Roky Erickson and the Aliens. The album was Ericksn's first after his time with the band the 13th Floor Elevators and several years of personal problems. The recording sessions took place in 1978 and 1979, with 15 songs completed. A U.K. version was released in 1980, followed by a U.S. version in 1981, each with a different 10-song track listing. Subsequent digital releases and expanded vinyl editions of the album comprise all 15 songs.
Roky Erickson wrote much of the material that would make up The Evil One during his incarceration at the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane between 1969 and 1972. Friends would visit him at Rusk, bringing him musical instruments, and with fellow inmates he founded a band called the Missing Links. On visits to his incarcerated friend, Golden Dawn guitarist George Kinney collected Erickson's lyrics, often smuggling them out in bits, and published them as a book called Openers in April 1972. This first edition was full of references to love, peace, God, and totems of Christian mysticism that Kinney hoped he could use as evidence that Erickson was fit for release and able to pursue gainful employment as a poet.[2]
After his release in November 1972, Erickson attempted to reunite his psychedelic rock band the 13th Floor Elevators. After rehearsals and a handful of gigs, the partial reunion soon dissolved. Wanting to distance himself from his hippie-era associations, Erickson turned to his fandom for B-movies as source material and dubbed his new music horror rock.[2] When asked about his departure from the 13th Floor Elevators' material, he told the Fort Worth Star Telegram:
I have good memories of those days. But that really wasn't my bag. I'm a horror lover and that's what I'm into now. I'm trying to horrify them, demonize them, and “possessionize” them. I guess that would be a really good way to describe what I do. All my life I've run into people who said, "If you read too much of that horror, it's going to hurt you." They were always trying to take it away from me. But people love monsters. They love horror movies and I just figured it would be kind of neat to put it all into music.[3]
Erickson began to edit the lyrics he had written in Rusk, reshaping their Christian overtones as horror-themed lyrics by swapping out any mention of God and Jesus for Satan and Lucifer, explaining that God and the Devil were two sides of the same coin. He assembled a band with the help of electric autoharpist and Elevators fan Billy Miller, naming the group "Blieb Alien" from the pairing of an anagram for "Bible" with Erickson's claim that he was from outer space. The first lineup of Blieb Alien featured members of Miller's previous band Cold Sun and played their first gig as the opening act for the world premiere of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at 1974's Texas Film Festival. The set debuted Erickson's horror rock songs "Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog)," "The Wind And More" and "Stand For The Fire Demon," among others. Blieb Alien continued to gig into 1975 playing Erickson's new songs with occasional dips into hits from The 13th Floor Elevators’ repertoire.[2]
Early recordings of songs that would later make up The Evil One saw release on singles and EPs from various sessions between 1975 and 1977. The first of these was "Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog)" recorded with Blieb Alien and issued in 1975 by Mars Records, a label run by Sir Douglas Quintet frontman Doug Sahm who also played lead guitar on the A-side."[4] While the single's B-side, the Buddy Holly-inspired "Starry Eyes", enjoyed airplay on local country music stations, Rolling Stone's review of the record paired its A-side with the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." to define the emerging punk rock subgenre.[2] Writing for NME, Nick Kent called it “A vision of psychotic dread."[5]
At this time, Craig Luckin became Erickson's manager, bringing in a new rhythm section and co-publishing the songs that would make up The Evil One through his company Orb Productions. Doug Sahm's guitar tech, Duane Aslaksen, took up lead guitar as well as musical arranging duties for the band. This new incarnation of Blieb Alien dropped the "Blieb" part from its name in order to be more accessible to radio DJs, and simply became "The Aliens.[6]
Various Aliens lineups featuring Aslaksen on lead guitar and Miller on autoharp continued to record demos, copies of which traded hands around North America and Europe.[7] "Bermuda" and "The Interpreter," two songs that would feature on Roky Erickson's LP Don't Slander Me a decade later, were recorded in 1976 and released on both sides of the Atlantic by a handful of labels in 1977. Another session from 1976 was picked up by French journalist Philippe Garnier of Rock & Folk magazine for a release on his short-lived Sponge Records label. In 1977, Sponge issued debut versions of "Mine, Mine, Mind" and "Click Your Fingers, Applauding The Play," and a new recording of "Two-Headed Dog" as a 7" EP along with the quieter "I Have Always Been Here Before" that Erickson recorded solo.[2] The EP would later be issued on 12" format as Two Head Dog in 1988.
Erickson further developed material for The Evil One while fronting live gigs with Austin punk band the Explosives. Much of his work with the Explosives has surfaced on live albums and video footage in the years since.[4]
Album recording
The recording sessions began in December 1978 with producer Stu Cook, former bass player of Creedence Clearwater Revival, who would end up overdubbing bass parts on the songs "Sputnik" and "Bloody Hammer". In addition to Aslaksen and Miller, Cook and Luckin brought in Moby Grape drummer John "Fuzzy Furioso" Oxendine, bassist Steven Morgan Burgess, and Motown keyboardist Andre Lewis. The band recorded basic tracks and overdubs in a Marin County studio called The Church interspersed with rehearsals at Cook's Cosmo's Factory warehouse.[8]
Over the course of the month, Erickson's mental health began to deteriorate, often exacerbated by drug use, and his ability to sing, play guitar, and cooperate in recording became unreliable. With the rest of the band playing well but Erickson's performance being erratic in the studio, Cook had to resort to "wild-synching" vocal tracks—capturing what he could of Erickson and then splicing tape to make it match up with what the Aliens has already recorded. In this way Cook, with the help of Luckin, ended up helping arrange songs into verses and choruses when Erickson's lyrics did not fit into a conventional rock music structure.[8] Shakeups in the band resulted in various session musicians playing on different songs.[2]
Roky Erickson playing with The Explosives
During this time, Erickson's first wife, Dana, left him. Erickson had been dividing his time between California where his manager, producer, and bandmates were based, and his home state of Texas. The album's recording process was ultimately interrupted when police arrested Erickson during a psychotic episode near his mother's home in Austin and he was sentenced to 90 days of incarceration in the Austin State Hospital. Erickson regained some faculties under treatment and called Cook and Luckin, saying that he was ready to finish the album. Flying to Texas in April 1979 with the unfinished 16-track reels, Cook and Luckin took turns signing Erickson out of the hospital on day passes and brought him to Austin's Hound Sound studio so that he could complete his vocal tracks.[8] Some songs, like Erickson's "Can't Be Brought Down," were worked on but unfinished for The Evil One, appearing instead on later releases.[9]
After serving 90 days at Austin State Hospital, Erickson moved on to enlist Texas punk bands Reversible Cords, the Explosives, and the Nervebreakers to perform as his backing group for live gigs around Texas.[10] Meanwhile, the album was finished in its author's absence. Producer Stu Cook later told historian Joe Nick Patoski, “By the time the record came out, Roky was gone. I never got to say, ‘Heres the album.’ We never really said goodbye.”[8]
Releases
CBS Records' UK A&R representative Howard Thompson signed Erickson for a one-record deal.[7] A 10-song album was released in early 1980 by CBS in both the United Kingdom and Netherlands. The original front cover design by artist Captain Colorz, an abtract painter from California who had been the Aliens' defacto artist during Erickson's time in the Bay Area. Colorz's cover art bore no words on it and came with a removable sticker that titled it eponymously as Roky Erickson and the Aliens. The band had wanted to name the album The Evil One, but CBS executives dismissed the idea and the only reference on the U.K. release appears in the album’s liner notes, announcing the album's title by the acronym TEO. The original UK vinyl editions also present five rune-like symbols (revealed, at a later date, to spell out the word ALIEN in some other alphabet[11]) under the band's name on the LP's labels and more prominently on the cover of the album's cassette version, causing many to refer to the album as Five Symbols[12] or Hieroglyphs.[13][2]
To support the LP, CBS UK issued the singles "Creature with the Atom Brain" b/w "The Wind and More" in August 1980, followed by "Mine Mine Mind" b/w "Bloody Hammer" in October. These singles' A-sides appeared on the LP, while the B-sides did not, despite A&R rep Howard Thompson's wishes.[3] Other unreleased material from the Stu Cook session, such as the song "Sputnik", appeared on a different 10-song LP released in 1981 by San Francisco label 415 Records after Epic Records passed on the option to sign the Aliens.[8] This US edition was more clearly titled The Evil One.[2]
In 1987, Edsel Records reissued the CBS album under the title I Think of Demons and expanded its track listing to 12 songs from the original 10.[12] In the US, CD reissues through Restless Records and other labels stuck with The Evil One as the album's title and included all 15 tracks from the 1979 Stu Cook session. Many other reissues have followed on various formats, often rearranging the album's track order. The 2002 version released by Austin label Sympathy for the Record Industry spread the 15 tracks over four sides of a double LP and issued its CD version with a bonus disc packaged as The Evil One (Plus One) featuring a 48-minute appearance of Roky Erickson and the Aliens from August 1979 on San Jose radio station KSJO's The Modern Humans Show. In addition to interview clips and listener phone calls with Erickson talking about music and horror films, the Modern Humans disc features many of The Aliens’ earlier demo recordings of songs from The Evil One..[14]
Songs
Poster for I Walked with a Zombie (1943), one of many films that inspired Roky Erickson's songs
Many of The Evil One's songs, such as "White Faces" and "The Wind and More", evoke Erickson's fandom of vintage horror movies in general,[15] while others refer to specific films. 1943's I Walked with a Zombie and 1955's Creature with the Atom Brain—both screenwritten by Curt Siodmak—provided titles for songs on the album. For the latter song, Erickson recites patches of dialogue from the film.[2] Other song titles were lifted from different media: "Night of the Vampire" is a slowed down and lyricized reimagining of The Moontrekkers' 1961 instrumental hit of the same name, produced by Erickson's hero Joe Meek.[2] Erickson also sings that his vampire was born on Saint Swithin's Day (July 15), which is also Roky Erickson's date of birth.[16] More obtusely, the song "Sputnik" aligns its name with Erickson's quasi-acronymical subtitle, "Spelling Your Theory, Alien I Creator," along with the Soviet Union's first man-made satellite.[15]
Erickson's horror rock lyrics are also layered with the personal horror he endured while locked up and subjected to electroshock and drug therapy at Rusk. "Don’t Shake Me Lucifer" and "I Walked with a Zombie" describe Erickson's experiences being dosed with Fluphenazine and Thorazine. The song "Bloody Hammer" evokes "Doctors and psychiatrists / Demons and vampires" in the same list while Erickson insists repeatedly, “I never hammered my mind out / I never had that bloody hammer" in an indictment of a certain Doctor O'Chane.[2]
In interviews, Erickson told differing versions of what his songs were about, often claiming they were based on true stories. In a 1979 appearance on the The Modern Humans radio show, he attributed the narrative of "Bloody Hammer" to a fraternity hazing ritual gone awry from a story published by Bennett Cerf in the 1944 Random House anthology Famous Ghost Stories.[17] In the same Modern Humans interview, Erickson explained his impetus for writing "Two Headed Dog," saying, "I found this article about this little girl who'd been nailed to a cross by her father."[18] Aliens autoharpist Billy Miller claims that the song was about atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers during the Viet Nam War, saying, "Roky saw a picture of a little girl that had been crucified by American GIs, and that’s what inspired him to write that song."[2]
A year before The Evil One's release, there was already a buzz among the music press about the album. Austin American-Statesman music writer Joe Nick Patoski sat in on one sessions at Hound Sound in April of 1979 and praised what he heard.[9] Erickson and his handlers made numerous radio appearances and offered listeners snippets of the album through demo tapes that were also trading hands amongst fans and the press.[18]
Upon the album's U/K. release, CBS allocated a scant press budget to support it, affording Erickson a trip to England for some 20 interviews, but not enough to fly a supporting band over for a U.K. or European tour. A trip to Stonehenge left Erickson in a weird headspace and these meetings with the press did not go as hoped by the label.[2][24]Tom Hibbert's transcript of his interview depicts Erickson turning every question around on his interviewer:
hibbert: You once wrote a song called "President Ford is a Square Queer."
erickson: No, I think you did.
hibbert: I did?
erickson: Yeah.
hibbert: Did I?
erickson: Yeah.
hibbert: Oh, well, you once wrote a song about Bo Diddley.
After meeting with and attempting to interview Erickson on two separate occasions during the singer's visit to London, Nick Kent wound up subtitling his article for New Musical Express "I Talked with a Zombie."[25] Kent, a fan of all the 13th Floor Elevators and Blieb Alien material, had been privy to the demo tapes that preceded the album. Soured by Erickson's erratic demeanor, Kent reported that whereas the demos "sound alive with menacing magnificence," he called the album "tame and rather insignificant" in comparison, having "production that makes Erickson sound like a side-show freak spewing forth Hammer-horror mind-scrambles."[7]
Botched interviews notwithstanding, the album received some favorable reviews upon its release. Sandy Robertson of Sounds called it "Led Zeppelin for psychotics." Closer to home, Dallas-based disc jockey George Gimarc hailed the UK edition as an "album of swamp-riddled songs" while praising CBS's two Aliens singles with their non-album B-sides as well.[3]
Retrospective
Though not widely heard at the time of its release, the album grew to be an eccentric cult classic in the following decades. In retrospective journalism, Pitchfork reviewer Jason Heller called the album "brilliant. ... In a spasms of feral, lip-twisted fury, he snarls about demons, zombies, vampires, ghosts, and demons again with all the intensity of a rabies victim." Heller noted that Erickson's interest in horror and sci-fi imagery drew comparisons with the progressive hard rock of Blue Öyster Cult and Alice Cooper, as well as punk rock.[23] Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote that "The Evil One shows just how strong a rocker (Erickson) could be – and how good a band he could put together. Great stuff, and certainly the best representation of Roky's "latter-day punk" period."[19]
Austin Chronicle writer Scott Schinder called Erickson's 1980s albums, released after his half-decade involuntary stay in a Texas psychiatric hospital, "the clearest glimpse into his raging musical soul." He described The Evil One as "the mother lode. It's the disc on which Erickson comes across most clear-eyed, and the source of many of his best-loved solo songs."[20] Tony Bennett of the Duluth News Tribune noted that Erickson's personal troubles did not diminish the passion and intensity of his music, saying that "while his songs are unusual, indeed, the man could sing like a banshee. ... His voice possesses the traits that the greatest rock singers own. Energy, passion, good pitch, soul – he's got it all."[26]
On its website, Trouser Press sorts out the particulars of the album's various additions, saying, "The Evil One ... takes five tracks from the UK release (overlooking the awesome 'Two-Headed Dog') and adds five more, including the ghastly (that’s good) 'Bloody Hammer.' Which LP is better? They’re both wonderfully ominous and frightening splatter-film soundtracks done with real rock’n’roll conviction. The best bet, however, is the Pink Dust CD, which collects the contents of both albums. I Think of Demons, created as an expanded reissue of the first LP, is another fine choice, as it contains a dozen of the CD’s fifteen songs."
Posthumous
When Erickson died in 2019, his life's work garnered an outpouring of praise. Both longtime Aliens devotees and publications who had snubbed or overlooked Erickson in the past wrote lovingly about The Evil One.
Billboard writer Morgan Enos said that The Evil One "brims over with propulsive bangers about harrowing visions. ... Every moment slams with a galvanic precision."[27]Rolling Stone writer Hank Shteamer called the album "soulful and assured," noting that Erickson seemed fully at home even on the darkest material.[28]
In an obituary for Erickson after his 2019 death, British music magazine Kerrang! singled out The Evil One as perhaps Erickson's most influential album, calling it "an important precursor to the psychobilly and horror metal genres" for its "strange, cinematic approach to psychedelia." The magazine also praised "Night of the Vampire" as "easily the greatest vampire song in history. ... Roky paints on the vampire as he lives in the cultural subconscious, a being of film, literature, and ancient myth all at once."[29]
Track listings
1980 CBS Records LP
Titled as Roky Erickson and the Aliens†
All tracks are written by Roky Erickson
Side one
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Two-Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)"
3:18
2.
"I Think of Demons"
2:44
3.
"I Walked With a Zombie"
2:47
4.
"Don't Shake Me Lucifer"
2:50
5.
"Night of the Vampire"
4:16
Side two
No.
Title
Length
1.
"White Faces"
2:34
2.
"Cold Night for Alligators"
3:02
3.
"Creature with the Atom Brain"
4:12
4.
"Mine Mine Mind"
2:34
5.
"Stand for the Fire Demon"
5:25
†Though a removable sticker on the 1980 U.K. release read "Roky Erikson and the Aliens," its lyric sheet was titled "TEO" for "The Evil One." Pressings of the original LP and cassette also featured five rune-like symbols below the band's name, and for this reason many official listings call the album "Five Symbols" while some fans call it "Hieroglyphs."
1981 415 Records LP
Titled as The Evil One
All tracks are written by Roky Erickson
Side one
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Don't Shake Me Lucifer"
2:49
2.
"Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play"
2:31
3.
"If You Have Ghosts"
3:08
4.
"Cold Night for Alligators"
3:00
5.
"Stand for the Fire Demon"
5:23
Side two
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Sputnik"
4:36
2.
"I Think of Demons"
2:43
3.
"Creature with the Atom Brain"
4:10
4.
"The Wind and More"
3:57
5.
"Bloody Hammer"
4:19
Edsel Records 1987 I Think of Demons LP and CD reprises the CBS UK tracklist with the insertion of CBS's two non-album B-sides—"Bloody Hammer" and "The Wind and More"—at the end of each album side.[30]
1987 15-track combined release
Titled The Evil One with artwork from the 1980 Roky Erickson and the Aliens LP. First released by Restless Records on CD, comprising all tracks from both the CBS and 415 releases.
All tracks are written by Roky Erickson
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)"
3:20
2.
"I Think of Demons"
2:47
3.
"Creature with the Atom Brain"
4:13
4.
"The Wind and More"
4:00
5.
"Don't Shake Me Lucifer"
2:53
6.
"Bloody Hammer"
4:22
7.
"Stand for the Fire Demon"
5:26
8.
"Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play"
2:34
9.
"If You Have Ghosts"
3:11
10.
"I Walked with a Zombie"
2:49
11.
"Night of the Vampire"
4:19
12.
"It's a Cold Night for Alligators"
3:04
13.
"Mine Mine Mind"
2:34
14.
"Sputnik"
4:39
15.
"White Faces"
2:34
Subsequent digital releases have featured these 15 tracks in varying order. Expanded vinyl reissues also contain all 15 songs with varied track sequences spread over three or four sides of a double LP. Light in the Attic Records' 2013 edition of the double-LP features the U.K. LP as its first two sides, the remaining five songs on the third side, on an etching of a two-headed dog by artist Travis Millard on its fourth side, as well as a 20-page booklet with liner notes by Texas historian Joe Nick Patoski.[31]
2002 "Plus One" bonus disc
The second disc from The Evil One (Plus One) released by Sympathy for the Record Industry. The interview with Roky Erickson and the Aliens, interspersed with songs and Erickson fielding calls from radio listeners, originally aired in 1979 while The Evil One was still in production. The song versions here predate the 1979 Stu Cook studio sessions and had been circulating as demos.
Andre Lewis: Synthesizers and electronic keyboards on "Night of the Vampire," "I Think of Demons," "Mine Mine Mind," "Stand for the Fire Demons," "Cold Night for Alligators" and "I Walked with a Zombie"
Jeff Sutton: Drums on "Bloody Hammer" and "Sputnik"
Scott Matthews: Drums on "White Faces"
Brian Marnell: Background vocals on "Creature With the Atom Brain" and "I Walked With a Zombie"[32]
Production
Stu Cook: Producer
Duane Aslaksen: Musical director
Sessions appearing on the Plus One disc
Additional musicians
Jeff Sutton: Drums on "Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play," "Cold Night for Alligators," "White Faces," "Bloody Hammer," "Sputnik," "Two Headed Dog" and "Mine Mine Mind"
John Maxwell: Bass on "Cold Night for Alligators," "White Faces," "Bloody Hammer" and "Sputnik"
Chris Johnson: Bass on "Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play," "Two Headed Dog" and "Mine Mine Mind"
Randy Thornton: Backing vocals on "Sputnik"
Production
Duane Aslaksen and Jeff Sutton produced the 1976 session that yielded these versions of "Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play," "Two Headed Dog" and "Mine Mine Mind."
Aslaksen acted as producer on the 1977 session that yielded these version of "Cold Night for Alligators," "White Faces," "Bloody Hammer" and "Sputnik."[24]
Legacy and influence
In the years after The Evil One's release, many musicians began paying tribute to Roky Erickson and recording cover versions of his songs. One the first bands to do so were the post-punk neo-psychedlia act from France called Vietnam Veterans, recording "I Walked with a Zombie" for their 1983 album On the Right Track.[33] Los Angeles punk denizen Jeff Dahl covered "Two Headed Dog" on his band's 1989 album Scratch Up Sonic Action.[34] These two songs would grow to be the most popular with artists excavating Aliens material.
The 1990 release of Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson featured 22 artists playing Erickson's songs including five that appeared on The Evil One.[35] Several other tribute compilations to Erickson followed in the next decades, including Children of the Night: What Music They Make (Elsound, 1997),[36]Scandinavian Friends: A Tribute to Roky Erickson (Big Dipper Records, 2007),[37]I Think Of The Demon (Horror-Punks, 2011),[38]We’re Gonna Miss You: An Aussie Tribute to Roky Erickson & 13th Floor Elevators (Third Eye Stimuli Records, 2020),[39]May The Circle Remain Unbroken: A Tribute To Roky Erickson (Light in the Attic Records, 2021),[40] and I Think Of Demons: A Tribute to Roky Erickson. (Gruselthon, 2024),[41] adding to the massive catalog covering songs by Roky Erickson and the Aliens.
The song "Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)" inspired the name of 1980s Los Angeles psychedelic/post-punk band Red Temple Spirits.[42]
In 2016, "Creature with the Atom Brain" topped Rob Zombie's "5 Songs I Wish I’d Written" list that appeared in Rolling Stone. "It's a very big-sounding rock song," he wrote, saying that Erickson had "a really big voice," and added that "The song itself isn't particularly creepy – it's the lyrics and delivery."[46]
Below is a partial listing of artists covering songs from The Evil One:
The 13th Floor Elevators was an American rock band from Austin, Texas, United States, formed by guitarist and vocalist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland. The band was together from 1965 to 1969, and during that period released four albums and seven singles for the International Artists record label.
Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member and the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre in the 1960s, as well as horror rock in the 1970s and 80s.
Rob Zombie is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have been praised for their elaborate shock rock theatricality. He has sold an estimated 15 million albums worldwide. He rose to fame as a founding member and the frontman of heavy metal band White Zombie, with whom he released four albums.
Dream Evil is a Swedish heavy metal band, assembled by producer Fredrik Nordström in 1999.
Stuart Alden Cook is an American bass guitarist, best known for being a member of the rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), for which he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Joseph Michael Poole, better known by his stage name Wednesday 13, is an American singer and musician. Apart from his solo career, he was the frontman of the horror punk/glam metal band Murderdolls and has also played in several other bands, including Maniac Spider Trash, Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, Bourbon Crow, and Gunfire 76.
The Black Angels are an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. Formed in May 2004, they took their name from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song." They have released six studio albums and one compilation album.
Witchcraft is a Swedish doom metal band founded in 2000.
Witchcraft is the debut album from the Swedish doom metal band Witchcraft. The album was released in 2004 by Rise Above Records. "Please Don't Forget Me" and "Yes I Do" are both covers of 70s-era Pentagram. "Yes I Do" appears on the original LP version and the Japanese press; it does not appear on the picture disc. "Please Don't Forget Me" is credited to Bobby Liebling on the sleeve and is often mis-accredited to Liebling's pre-Pentagram outfit, Stone Bunny. The cover image is a slightly altered version of a print called Merlin, a pen-and-ink drawing by Aubrey Beardsley for an 1893-94 edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Additionally, the band formed to be a one-off tribute band to both Bobby Liebling and Roky Erickson and only intended to make one song however, they continued and are now an original band.
Southern Pacific was an American country rock band that existed from 1983 to 1991. They are best known for hits such as "Any Way the Wind Blows" (1989), which was used in the soundtrack for the film Pink Cadillac starring Clint Eastwood and Bernadette Peters, and "New Shade of Blue". Southern Pacific was named New Country Group of the Year when they debuted and have been honored by having their name added to the Country Music Association's Walkway of Stars in Nashville, Tennessee.
Anders Manga is an American recording artist best known for his solo darkwave work and with his wife Devallia in the heavy metal band Bloody Hammers. His first release was under the name "Coffin Moth" in 1997, a deathrock music project. In 2012, Anders' song "Glamour" was featured in Season 4 Episode 04 of The Vampire Diaries.
"You're Gonna Miss Me" is a song by the American psychedelic rock band the 13th Floor Elevators, written by Roky Erickson, and released as the group's debut single on Contact Records in 1966. It was reissued nationally on International Artists, in May 1966. Musically inspired by traditional jug band and R&B music, combined with the group's own experimentation, "You're Gonna Miss Me" with its Stacy Sutherland and Tommy Hall-penned B-side "Tried to Hide" was influential in developing psychedelic rock and garage rock, and was one of the earlier rock compositions to use the electric jug. Accordingly, critics often cite "You're Gonna Miss Me" as a bona fide garage rock song and a classic of the counterculture era.
Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye is a 1990 tribute album to singer-songwriter Roky Erickson, founder of the 13th Floor Elevators and solo artist, whose career was subject to significant periods of challenge from schizophrenia. The album was released by Sire Records in the United States, and by WEA International in Europe. The album was produced by Bill Bentley, who also produced a 1999 tribute album to Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence, who, like Erickson, was subject to the challenges of schizophrenia. The album's title is said to be Erickson's definition of psychedelic music.
Bill Bentley is an American music industry executive, particularly notable for having produced tribute albums of the music of significant cult artists Roky Erickson (1990), Skip Spence (1999), Doug Sahm (2009) and Lou Reed, in addition to other recording projects.
Bloody Hammers is an American heavy metal band, founded in 2010 by Anders Manga in Transylvania County, North Carolina, United States. Manga is the primary producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. Bloody Hammers' music straddles a range of genres including gothic metal, doom metal, and stoner rock. The touring band features a revolving lineup with Manga and keyboardist Devallia being the only permanent live members. Devallia also contributes keyboard parts to recordings and is sometimes credited as a co-producer.
Wizard Bloody Wizard is the ninth studio album by English stoner/doom metal band Electric Wizard, released on 17 November 2017, three years after their previous album Time to Die. Recording took place from April 2016 to February 2017 at the Satyr IX Recording Studios with production duties on the album shared between lead singer Jus Oborn and guitarist Liz Buckingham. Though some music critics noted an overall change in the band's sound from their usual doom formula towards a slightly more hard rock approach, the album received generally favourable reviews. With a running time of 43 minutes and consisting of only six songs, Wizard Bloody Wizard is the band's shortest studio album to date.
Gremlin Have Pictures is a solo album by 13th Floor Elevators singer Roky Erickson, released in 1986. Described by Billboard writer Morgan Enos as "a grab-bag of acid rockers, acoustic ballads and assorted oddities", it compiles material recorded between 1975 and 1982 in various venues, and with three backing bands, the Aliens, the Explosives, and Blieb Alien. It includes a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin".
Don't Slander Me is an album by the American musician Roky Erickson, recorded in 1982 or 1983 and released in 1986. It features former Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady as part of Erickson's backing band, as well as former members of the Aliens.
May the Circle Remain Unbroken: A Tribute to Roky Erickson is an album by various artists, released July 17, 2021, on indie record label Light in the Attic. It is the first posthumous tribute album for Erickson and is produced by Bill Bentley, who also assembled the 1990 Erickson tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye for Sire Records.
All That May Do My Rhyme is an album by the American musician Roky Erickson. It was released in 1995 on Trance Syndicate Records, an independent record label founded in 1990 by King Coffey, drummer of Austin, Texas, band the Butthole Surfers.
↑ Hooker, Mike (2014). "When We Were Young and There Were Rats on the Wall: Punk in Austin, the Raul's Years". Journal of Texas Music History. 13. Texas State University: 49.
↑ Don't Slander Me (LP booklet). Light in the Attic. 2013.
1 2 Erickson, Roky (November 10, 1975). Live at the Longbranch Saloon in Berkeley, California (Sound recording of live performance).
↑ "The Psychedelic Sounds Of..."(Podcast). Fire In My Bones: A Roky-cast. 1 (1). Austin & San Francisco. June 20, 2024. Retrieved 7 November 2024.{{cite journal}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help); |first2= missing |last2= (help)
↑ Cerf, Bennett (1944). Famous Ghost Stories. New York: Random House.
1 2 Topper, Cosmo (August 20, 1979). "Roky Erickson Interview". The Modern Humans Show. KSJO Radio.
↑ stinkbot (Fall 2007). "DEAD CITY - The Dead Sessions (featuring Cheetah Chrome) CD". Profane Existence. No.54. Retrieved 28 October 2024. Though no fist pumping anthems were to be found on this release and it's a bit ballad-y for my taste, a cover of Roky Erickson's / Walked With A Zombie was a treat.
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