When I had a small indie label in San Francisco, 415 Records, my partner Chris was a Roky Erickson fanatic. I didn't know who he-- or his old band, Texas' 13th Floor Elevators-- were but Chris played me the tapes and told me they were like the Texas version of the Grateful Dead. I was floored by what I heard and we put out The Evil One. In person, Roky was... pretty much just like his music.
Many years later, I was working at Sire Records and I helped another Roky fanatic, Bill Bentley, put together a tribute record of many of Roky's greatest songs. I was surprised such a diverse array of artists-- from R.E.M, Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream and Julian Cope to ZZ Top and Doug Sahm-- were eager to cover songs. This is the actual Roky version of "Two Headed Dog" from the 415 release:
