Roky Erickson,
I Have Always Been Here Before

Label: Shout! Factory
Year: 2005

(4½ out of 5)

Roky Erickson is something of a cult figure. With the possible exception of his lone hit, "You're Going to Miss Me" with the 13th Floor Elevators, his music generally is little known among the general public. But he has proved a significant influence to musicians like REM and the Butthole Surfers. Shout! Factory looks to expand public awareness of Erickson's 40 years in music with the comprehensive I Have Always Been Here Before: The Roky Erickson Anthology.

Part of his cult status derives from the tragic sequence of events that defined most of his recording career.

With Roky at the helm, the 13th Floor Elevators were Texas' foremost contribution to the psychedelic sounds of the 1960s. But the band's open embrace of the flowering drug scene aroused police suspicion, and in 1969 Erickson was arrested for marijuana possession. To avoid a jail term he pleaded insanity and spent more than three years in a state-run insane asylum, during which time he was subjected to electroshock and pharmaceutical therapies.

Erickson resumed his music career upon discharge but was never able to capture more than a fraction of the attention devoted to the 13th Floor Elevators. And he continues to battle paranoid schizophrenia, relying in part on donations to a trust fund to help defray medical expenses and the costs of everyday living.

The two-disc I Have Always Been Here Before provides a neat summation of Erickson's rollercoaster career.

Disc 1 includes a cut from Erickson's first band, The Spades, as well as 11 tracks from his stint with the 13th Floor Elevators. A sharp detour in styles follows, marking the beginning of Erickson's post-asylum career. Work with Austin-based Bleib Alien and San Francisco-based The Aliens finds Erickson delving into hard rock tales of demons and horror.

Disc 2 continues with more from Roky Erickson & The Aliens. While he pretty much dropped out of public life in the mid-1980s, a 1990 tribute album renewed Erickson's interest in recording, and the remainder of Disc 2 includes later solo tracks.

This compilation is a good introduction for those new to Roky Erickson, although at 43 songs it may provide more than the sampling desired by most novitiates.

But it's also a fascinating look at an artist's struggles with inner demons. Recordings with The Aliens are bewildering and more than a little frightening. Later solo recordings find Erickson still struggling, but clearly a more mature songwriter who has achieved some measure of peace with who he has become.

Buy: Lone Star Music, Amazon

February 16, 2005