The Evil One

Are you familiar with Roky Erickson? Well, if you like Halloween, rock music, and certifiably insane individuals, you should. You see, Roky Erickson is a kick-ass guitarist, writes great music-- oh, and he's also crazy as a moon-bat. You see, in the 60's, Roky was a founding member of The 13th Floor Elevators, arguably the first Psychedelic band ever. Then, in 1969, he was busted for pot (he had one joint on him) in Austin, Texas. Instead of going to prison for ten years, though, he pled insanity and was sent to the Rusk State Hospital for the criminally insane where he received electroconvulsive and Thorazine treatments. When he was released in 1972 he was full-fledged lunatic, obsessed with the occult and b-rated horror movies. And that's where Creedence Clearwater's Stu Cook comes in.

In 1979, Cook began working with Roky, hoping to channel some of his "energies" into an album. The only problem was that, at this time, Roky was back in the loony-bin. Well, let's let Stu finish the story:

"Initially, when I started working with him, he was incarcerated in a Texas State mental hospital in Austin. The task at hand was to get him sprung from there to take him to recording sessions (laughs). I went actually down to the hospital with Craig (a friend of Roky's). I was going to go out and meet Roky's doctor and explain to him what was going on. That I needed to get him for a while and bring him back at the end of the day. I'll never forget this--I had to wear a tie. I didn't have one at the time, so I borrowed one from Craig. I was wearing this tie, I went into the mental hospital, and all the inmates, the patients, started acting weird to me. Because I had a tie on, they thought I was a doctor. I walk into this room, and there's just all this people drooling and popping the walls. It's like bedlam. Then we got Rock, and Rock was calm, he's on his medication. When he takes his medication, as bad as that stuff is in the long term, it definitely works in the long term. He was cooperative, inquisitive, alert. But not really focused on the recording."

"I finally figured out, the way to do it is to just get him in the studio and just keep coming at him. Don't let him have a chance to start talking about his apartment or dinner. Just keep him with flooded with musical paths. That way, I found I could keep his attention. And whenever he started to lose it, I'd use my bag of tricks.

(And, about his lyrics): "He's very concerned about aliens and things like that, other life forms, interplanetary invasion and stuff like that. His darkest psychosis--there's that fear, and all that concern about that. "Creature With the Atom Brain," "Night of the Vampire," "Two-Headed Dog." One of my favorite songs by him, and I think I consider it a love song, is "I Think of Demons." "I think of demons for you" is the hookline for the chorus."

What resulted is Roky's best album, "The Evil One" (pictured above). In addition to the one's listed above, it includes tracks entitled, "Bloody Hammer,""Don't Shake Me Lucifer," and "Stand for the Fire Demon." If you don't already own it, go out and buy it, now!

For the final sell, here's a clip of Roky performing "It's a Cold Night for Alligators."