The Return of Roky Erickson Part 3

I love this photo of Roky Erickson at the 2008 Austin Music Awards:

Austin Music Awards 2008 Photo licensed under Creative Commons

My opinions about the people in the documentary You're Gonna Miss Me are based on what I saw and what I've read. I don't know these people personally. Having said that, I'll toss some ideas around about Roky Erickson, his situation and his family.

I watched the documentary a second time, and I saw things a bit differently. I understand Roky's mother better. She is an extremely bright woman with an elevated vocubulary. She is a frustrated performer who still dreams of being on the stage. Unfortunately, she is more than a pack rat. She appears to be a hoarder of the stacks of junk and filth around her that keep her at a low level of functioning.

Roky's youngest brother Sumner talks about growing up in a decaying house and the need to make noise before entering the kitchen so the rats would run away. The mother and the silent father did not teach their children to solve their own problems, at least by example. It's no wonder that the mom could not release Roky from his inward prison, no matter how much she loves him, when she's stuck in one herself.

The Return of Roky Erickson Part 2

The 13th Floor Elevators were the highly respected pioneers of psychedelic rock. Chet Helms, the rock promoter of the once famous Avalon Ballroom gives Roky Erickson credit for much of Janis Joplin’s stage presence. Singer/poet Patti Smith says that she would play her 13th Floor Elevator LPs over and over, going to sleep to them and, waking up to them.

I was a bit leery to watch the documentary You're Gonna Miss Me because it's about someone extremely wounded--by both mental illness and the mental healthcare system itself. I didn’t want to see that beautiful front man for the Elevators turn into someone broken. I'm very curious to know what hurt Roky the most: the LSD and other drugs he took, the potent medications (drugs) and electroshock therapy the "doctors" gave him, or the mental illness that was a part of Roky's makeup. But I will delve into this question in Part 3.

Although You’re Gonna Miss Me is a sad story, there is sweetness to this documentary that begins in 2001 in a Travis County Texas courtroom as Roky’s brother Sumner petitions the court for guardianship of Roky. He wants to lift Roky out of poverty and get him medical care. He dreams of Roky playing music again.

In the years that their mother took on the job of caregiver, Roky has declined further into isolation, poverty and nothingness. At the point this movie begins, Roky will only speak to his mother and no one else. When the mother testifies before the judge, she seems more concerned about the sadness of her own life than the outcome of the court hearing.