Some of you might already be familiar with Roky Erikson’s story — but for those who aren’t, I’ll briefly recap it:

Roky was the chief singer/songwriter behind the über-influential ‘60s group the 13th Floor Elevators. The Elevators helped pioneer what we now call “psychedelic” music by — you guessed it — taking copious amounts of acid. To them, their music was an effort to emulate the lysergic effects of the drug. You’ve almost definitely heard this song of theirs, it’s a staple:

"If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after the 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, "You're Gonna Miss Me", in early 1966, in all likelihood he'd still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work." —Mark Deming

One day while performing in San Antonio with the Elevators in 1968, Roky started speaking gibberish, and never really stopped. He was subsequently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 21; the inevitable toll of ritualistic psychedelia had now been fully realized.

A few years later, he was indicted for marijuana possession and pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. This was done in order to avoid a ten-year prison sentence, but the chosen alternative may have proven to be a far worse decision for his mental health; Roky instead spent three years in different maximum security mental institutions across Texas, a period in which he was submitted to excessive amounts of electroshock therapy and nearly lobotomized. Escape was attempted on more than one occasion.

At the time of his release in 1974, Roky had allegedly written more than 100 songs from inside the hospital walls (including six tracks that would eventually feature on the Never Say Goodbye compilation, recorded with fellow inmates in true Roky fashion). While his prolific nature at the time might suggest otherwise, he left the hospital cycle in a state not much different than he’d arrived in; in fact, his condition had gotten worse - the gibberish became even more frequent and nonsensical, and he was nearly unrecognizable, even to his closest friends.

Nonetheless, he continued to write and record over the next fifteen years, a period which surprisingly saw him release some of his most focused and put-together work, done with his new B-horror movie themed concept band the Aliens and a few other short-lived groups (the Explosives, Blieb Alien, Evil Wildhook E.T.). The two standouts from this era are 1981’s The Evil One and 1986’s Gremlins Have Pictures.

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For this week’s trip down the rabbit hole, we’ve culled a few deep cuts, bootlegs, and rarities from this chapter of Roky’s life. If his time with the Elevators established his reputation as the anti-Bob Dylan, the songs from his post-institutionalization era cemented his legacy as an all-time great in his own right. It’s truly music for the freaks - we can’t recommend it enough.

As for the rest of his ill-starred story, the rabbit hole goes much deeper. For the diehard collectors out there, check out his bizarro poetry book Openers, written during his time in Rusk State Hospital, here; read about when Roky met Janis here; watch Demon Angel: A Day and Night with Roky Erickson here; listen to True Love Cast Out All Evil, his swan-song collaborative LP written and recorded with Okkervil River, here. —Jackson Todd