You're Gonna Miss Me : A Film About Roky Erickson

Product Description

The Fascinating Story of Rock `n Roll Pioneer Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson And His Struggles With Drug Addiction and Mental Illness.
Outside Austin, Texas, a 53-year-old man sits in an apartment with four radios, three televisions, two amps, a radio scanner, and a Casio electric piano playing all at the same time. Loudly. He has three teeth, his hair is matted into one huge dreadlock, and he has a notarized document on his wall declaring himself an alien, "so whoever's putting shocks to my head will stop."
Special Features: 90+ Minutes of Rare & Exlusive Bonus Footage including:
* Historic, Uncut Live Performances: "COLD NIGHT FOR ALLIGATROS" & Intimate Acoustic Performances of "BLOODY HAMMER," STARRY EYES," "RIGHT TRACK RIGHT NOW," "DON'T SLANDER ME," and many more
* The Complete "I KNOW THE HOLE IN BABY'S HEAD" and other readings by Roky
* The Collected Works of EVELYN ERICKSON
* POSTSCRIPT: Austin City Limits Festival Documentary (2005)
* POSTSCRIPT: Roky's Emancipation Hearing (2007)
* DELETED SCENES & EXTRA DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE

Amazon.com

In the annals of spooked rock, Roky Erickson is a legend. When you hear his wobbling, impassioned, vocal yowl, you have to admit: He could've been a sort of psychedelic, proto-punk, American Van Morrison. Alas, history has been less kind to Roky. Kevin McAlester's documentary discloses precisely why (and how) Roky's early status as an icon--a maverick rock genius as demonstrated by his band, the 13th Floor Elevators--went sadly awry. At the center of You're Gonna Miss Me are some crucial dramatic tropes: a terribly broken family; a pressing, age-old "Am I my brother's keeper" predicament; and a relatively simple case of schizophrenia. The film opens in a courtroom, Erickson's aging and awkward mother, Evelyn, and his youngest brother, Sumner, locked in a battle for guardianship over the then-53-year-old, mentally imbalanced singer. The film captures Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Patti Smith, and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), among others, testifying to Roky's non-pareil genius. Also present, however, are tales of Roky's singular madness--extended acid and heroin binges and, alas, his then-present-day condition, living in cramped, decrepit quarters with an array of transistor radios, stereos, TVs, and keyboards, all cranked fully as he placidly reclines or wanders aimlessly.
The film painstakingly shows the Erickson family's longstanding fissures, contextualizing Roky's schizophrenia and, disarmingly, putting his mother's own awkward idiosyncratic behavior on display. Lee Daniel's cinematography brilliantly captures the desolation and desperation of Roky's life, camera shaking and panning and finding hidden angles to show the strange, seemingly endless schizophrenic signs around the singer--dozens of antennae, stacks and stacks of mail strewn throughout his apartment, and Evelyn's complicated obsession with Roky's history--from his highpoints as a rocker to his tragic three-year stay at the Rusk State Hospital for marijuana possession (where, for example, he played in an ad hoc band with a couple of murderers, a rapist, and, improbably, a hospital counselor) to her own, eerie film project where she casts Roky as "the king of the beasts" in a home-movie she undertakes as a "legacy" for the family. The film is all about otherworldly dimensions, centering in large part on youngest brother, Sumner--himself an accomplished musician playing tuba with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra--and his legal battle to become Roky's guardian and get Roky "simple medical care" and medication for his schizophrenia. This is an important chapter in the history of rock, without the underlying humor that made Dig! an indie film hit in 2005 but with a much larger historical purview. --Andrew Bartlett

Review

"...Roky Erickson, sang with a full-moon hellcat yowl that bridged the fervor of Van Morrison and the anarchy of Janis Joplin." - Owen Gleiberman -- Entertainment Weekly

"If you think every film about tormented geniuses has to end in tragedy, YOU'RE GONNA MISS ME will shock you" -- Ken Taylor -- XLR8R

"It was a set of beefy, fuzz-toned, vociferous garage rock, propelled by Mr. Erickson's saber-toothed rhythm guitar and topped by his biting high voice." - Jon Pareles,. -- The New York Times

"We did miss you, Roky, and we're glad you're back." -Robert Asahina -- The New York Sun

Roky Erickson ought to be dead, too, and the unpredictable fate of the former lead singer of the 13th Floor Elevators makes "You're Gonna Miss Me" a terrifically gripping film." - Joe Williams -- St. Louis Post, ISBN13: B000P0J060 ISBN10: B000P0J060 Material Type: dvd