CNN) -- Mychal Bell, a black teenager accused of beating a white classmate and who was the last of the "Jena 6" behind bars, was released from custody Thursday after a juvenile court judge set his bail at $45,000.

You're "record industry a suit" but finally, you advocate someone worthy of acknowledgment.

Let's see a Mayo Thompson tribute next, howie.

Let's hear it for Roky!! And the fact that he's doing well and making music once again. Bless his creative heart!

Roky and his band of crazy fucks were a real, cool deal. That was in the days when San Francisco was a very special place indeed!

These guys were always good to see....

They were, no question, Totally Groovy!

I was never much into the El's, but what little I know is from my early teens. That they played at Love Street locally here in Houston, and that their name is supposedly derived from the fact that many buildings (possibly all?) don't have a floor titled 13 because of the supposed unlucky number.

Hell, why don't they just have buildings with all floors numbered 7?

Thanks. Here in Austin, he's a national hero. Children in music camps are required to learn "You're Going to Miss Me."

Just watched the "You're Gonna Miss Me" documentary a few weeks ago. Roky's story is really compelling and touching; he's a brilliant and original artist, and the 13th Floor Elevators are one of the top 25 or so rock bands of all time, in my humble opinion.

I remember seeing Roky and the Aliens from around the time of this clip perform at Berkeley Square in the early 80's. Guess you were probably there too, Howie.

It was a truly weird and powerful gig, (the closest thing to it I could think of was when I'd seen Nico at Mabuhay Garden a couple of years before).

The band really rocked but they would always have to keep looking at Roky's hands at the end of each song because they never knew when he might suddenly decide to start playing more of the song, or an entirely new song, without any warning. And when Roky left the stage he was accompanied by a couple of roadies, one on each arm, who lead him away.

BTW, I doubt Roky being in London in the 60's would've boosted his career in any significant way. The Elevators used to go out to California from Austin often, and they were huge in San Francisco during the apex of that city's music scene, which was as big or bigger than London or New York or LA at the time. From around 1966 to 1968 San Francisco was pretty much the Center of the World as far as rock music was concerned, and the 13th Floor Elevators were booked into all the best halls, and got plenty of great gigs, and were seen by all the labels. It's shocking to recall and hard to to realize now, but it took similar bands like The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd several years of trudging along with cult followings and insignificant record sales before they became successful in any kind of mainstream way.

Roky Erickson is an undiscovered jewel. I loved his work with the 13th Floor Elevators (Who can't love, for instance, Slip Inside This House?) and I'm a huge, huge fan of his solo work. All That May Do My Rhyme is my favourite solo album of his. The first half of it is sheer bliss and heaven.

This is a much rawer version of TWO HEADED DOG than appears on THE EVIL ONE album. I moved to New York City in 1981 and I bought that album at BLEEKER BOB'S in my first months here, so it always brings me back to those exciting first days in NY when I listen to it. I prefer the album version of this song, finding it more musical, and the melody more pronounced, but it's great to hear Roky just blasting it out like this.

Thanks for the info lewisnclark I am glad they were very successful, I did not know they were apparently as big as they were, me not being from there. (San Francisco) It is good to hear He has been appreciated, He certainly had a voice and presence, and Yes I almost said something about the audible similarity to Janis, or apparently vice versa.

Love Roky. He didn't die, did he?

Rusty Shackleford @ 21:

Love Roky. He didn't die, did he?

You may be thinking of Arthur Lee, "the first black hippie."

I'm sure it was a TOTAL co-inky-kinky that there was an alien abductee named Roky Crickenson in season three of The X-Files. Could it be construed in the slightest way as a wink toward Roky Erikson and the Aliens? Nah!

Roky ain't dead, folks. Still kicking and stronger than ever! He's been performing some absolutely stellar sets in the last year or so with his old band The Explosives. Check out the Texas Psych blog for Roky news. There's been a very strong fan base for more than a decade that has helped spread the news of Roky and the Elevators all over the world. The Roky CD Club has distributed THOUSANDS of free CDs of live recordings to fans everywhere. You can join in the fun, too! Go to the blog and follow the links! See you around, folks.

Loonesta @ 26:

I still have this album, on vinyl circa 1983. It's a little creepy & Satanic in its song subjects but "Creature With The Atom Brain" was great...

I remember reading or hearing somewhere that Roky sometimes wrote songs based on sci-fi novels he read and old horror movies he watched on TV (ie, "I Walked With a Zombie"). Always seemed to me like as good a way as any to write lyrics.

song's full title: Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog)

& for whatever its worth, roky's the city of houston's greatest cultural export - period.

electric jug for the win - & the 13floor's song monkey island is one of the greatest bad-day-at-work songs ever.

1st post here - regular visitor to C&L - thanks for the site.

the 13floor’s song monkey island is one of the greatest bad-day-at-work songs ever.

The electric jug is iconic to the elevators' music though, personally, my favorites are "Reverberation", "You're Gonna Miss Me" and "Splash 1". They music is available on iTunes.

Awesome! I can't believe I haven't heard of this guy before. I am guessing he was well known to and a big influence on the grunge scene. This track reminds me of Mudhoney and early Soundgarden. (I'm showing my age here :)

I think Billy Gibbons was in 13th Floor Elevators for a little while back in the 60s.

Thanks for putting Roky up! For those who are really into it, his recordings with the Explosions are a little more, ahem, explosive than the ones with the Aliens, which sometimes were a little sluggish or over-produced. Also, Roky's acoustic recordings are consistently good, perhaps better than the Elevators.

My favorite song of his is still the Explosions version of "I Walked With a Zombie"--which has no words except "I walked with a zombie last night" for the entire duration of the song!

I also love "Bloody Hammer" for having about a million words that scramble and run across the verses until they suddenly catch up with the chorus.

The blogger who referred to Roky's breakdown and attributed it to LSD should do a little reading about the tragic story of this great American Original. He was busted for pot and given a choice to go into a mental hospital for "treatment" or jail....after a few years of Texas Shrinks screwing up his brains, he was released...He was never the same, still capable of brilliant misic, but increasingly strange as the years went by...A real American Tragedy!

Ex-Austinite @ 36:

The elevators' are credited with inventing the word "psychedelic". Their first album was awesome, the second great and the third, not-so-good.

I liked the music better when Roky played in the elevators. He seemed to lose his spark after his, ahhhh, breakdown. Can you say, "LSD"?

It was Syd Barrett who had the acid meltdown, Roky had his madness thrust upon him by the backhanded "benevolence" of the law

Good ol' Roky...I remember seeing him several times in Austin in the early 80's playing with a fury and then later in neighborhood areas/stores when he was dysfunctionally Ka-razy.That always bummed me out.He slowly emerged from this with the help of friends and mostly his brother and mom.He's back and good as ever.
There's another record with the same songs called "I think of demons",slicker production,same creepy.I wore it out.Thanks for sharing a Austin/Texas treasure.
BTW...Billy Gibbon's band was called moving sidewalks.

Mr. Klein: Thanks for putting together "Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye." That was my introduction to Roky Erickson and the best tribute album I've heard (alongside the excellent Disney tribute "Stay Awake"). Some good songs have been mentioned in these comments; "If You Have Ghosts" is probably my favorite Roky tune. Somehow the idea that "if you have ghosts/you have everything" perfectly sums up the idea that loss has a flipside---that one should be grateful for having had anything to lose.