Allege Roky's attorneys, they don't call him Long Gone John for nothing. The suit says, simply, that the man who paid for the recordings way back when (Craig Luckin, then Roky's manager) did indeed license them to Sympathy's owner, John Mermis, who's yet to account for a penny of sales. Roky Erickson ’ s music is, refracted invariably through the prism of legend, ventured Spin reviewer Jason Cohen. District Court in Northern California, attorneys filed suit against the label Sympathy for the Record Industry, claiming it has no right to distribute or profit from Erickson's critically acclaimed solo debut The Evil One, released initially in 1981 on the CBS Records subsidiary 415 and, over time, also available on Restless Records. Erickson, whose return to sanity was documented by my old friend Keven McAlester in his must-see doc You're Gonna Miss Me, was taken advantage of for years - most often by his mother, who would sell his works to scoundrels for pennies on the dollar to make a little money to support herself and her son during the worst of times.Īllegations of exploitation continue to this day: Last week in U.S. Īs I wrote back in '95, few musicians have had their work as exploited as the father of psychedelic rock for every one official release on his discography, there are dozens of sketchy 'imports' that various attorneys and caretakers have spent years attempting to erase from the back catalog. Hard to keep track of Roky's comebacks at this late date, but this one appears ready to stick - thank God. (with Gremlins Have Pictures the lo-fi classic in the discography), but Don’t Slander Me was recorded in a professional recording studio with an engineer who knew how the equipment worked. As Pete mentioned a few weeks back, Roky Erickson's got a brand-new album forthcoming - True Love Cast Out All Evil, due in April and featuring as his backing band Okkervil River. Bermuda - Roky Erickson - Dont Slander Me (Cassette, Album) 2nd October.

Roky erickson discography