Customer Reviews

The Evil One (plus one)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is absolutely fantastic. I don't know why this isn't more popular than it already is. Every song is memorable, even from the first listen. From the unnerving opening riff of "Two Headed Dog" to the loud pleas of "Mine Mine Mind", this disc never bores (with the possible exception of the slightly long "Stand for the Fire Demon"). The guitar playing and backing band are superb and fit the material like a glove. The lyrics cover everything from Satan to zombies and are delivered with the best vocal performance I've ever heard on a rock album. All of these elements gel to make an album somewhere between punk, metal, and novelty '50's songs. However, never do any of these songs come off as gimmicky because Roky sounds like he believes every word he sings. As great as this all is, it's not short either, finishing at over fifty minutes.

The first disc by itself is a must have, but the second disc is a great little bonus. It's a radio show from 1979. While it seems some parts of it may have been edited out, the material that's there is quite good. The show intersperses interview segments with early versions of songs from the record. The interview parts are interesting as Roky talks about the chilling inspirations for some of the songs, while weirdos call in and ask odd questions. Roky handles the calls with tact seeming to know exactly what to say to his audience.

The alternate versions of the songs follow a pattern in which the stronger songs from the album sound weaker and the weaker songs sound better. Plus, the sound quality is nearly as good as what was on the first disc. I'm tired of typing, so just buy this.

It's hard to quantify someone like Roky Erickson and an album like this. To me, this is his best album, even better than his stuff with the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. Janis Joplin admitted to sealing his yelp and Billy Gibbons was amazed by his ability when they were in competing bands in Texas (The Moving Sidewalks and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators). Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth has cited him as an influence on the disenfranchised noise that would become the brilliance of Sonic Youth. What I'm getting at is that Roky Erickson holds the genuine credentials of a lost musical genius. His sound is much harder to define. Maybe if Ozzy had fronted Sabbath all the way into the 80's when the art of metal was being fined tuned or Captain Beefheart had been interested in proto-metal (it's important to note that I am not comparing their voices).

Roky Erickson was mentally unstable. He was in and out of clinics, experimented with drugs, and received shock treatment as a form of therapy. The man has run the gauntlet and it's amazing that he's still around today to share his music. This album however was cut in 1981. It is the best representation of his work. He sounds like a man trying to hold his fragile world together even though it is ripping at the seams. The album is haunted by vampires, demons, and the devil but that's because Roky himself was haunted by them. I can't say enough about the absolute genius of this album. Buy it and do it now before it is unavailable like many of his other works. Also, do yourself a favor and get the documentary on Roky You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone. It's fascinating with some amazing musical clips.

Roky lives behind a porno store and next to a trailer park in Austin,Texas. He needs your help!This is his best most cohesive peice of work.It puts the whole human and sub human experience to the Bo Diddley beat and has an aural sheen that will remind you of anything good you've heard in music.He uses the same mythology as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath but, can summon the fury of both those bands with just his voice. Some albums don't gain a wide audience because they blow.That is not the case here. This is the best album you have never heard or heard of.But it and cry.Buy it and boogie.Buy it and hide in the closet so the cops don't find you.

I only recently discovered this album after reading of Roky's decline and comeback, and I wonder, why is it all these years I'd never heard it? This is one of the greatest rock albums I've ever heard. When Roky sings 'i think of demons', he *means it*. This is a mind coming unglued, while still retaining incredibly musical genius.

This album should be in every collection.

Black Sabbath only talks about being paranoid - Roky really brings you into his insane world, and it's worth the trip.

ROKY ERICKSON & THE ALIENS-THE EVIL ONE: As delicious a slab of downright devilish dementia as anything Alice Cooper ever conjured up, this ex-13th Floor Elevators psychedelic pioneer exhumes a dead-on winner here. Produced by former Creedence bassist Stu Cook, the song titles read like an old Saturday afternoon MONSTER FEATURE marathon: CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN, NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE, and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, to name a smatttering. All are shrieked and shouted in Erickson's patented Charles Manson-meets-Screamin' Jay Hawkins delivery (now THAT would be a movie!), convincing anyone within earshot that Ozzy and Rob Zombie merely SING about deomns...this cat is the truly unhinged one who shares his bed with 'em. Check out the frantic raunch 'n roll of DON'T SHAKE ME LUCIFER, the haunting ode IT'S A COLD NIGHT FOR ALLIGATORS, or the comparatively serene (but still creepy) CLICK YOUR FINGERS APPLAUDING THE PLAY at you own risk. Roky Erickson is an audio exorcism that will leave you either disgusted or amazed, but never bored...Unlike a certain bat-biting Beezle-boob.

RATING: FIVE BLOODY HAMMERS

My uncle used to be his manager, so that's how I learned about him. Of course, I just blew it off initially as some garage band he was hanging around with, but Roky has some rockin' good music! My faves on this album are: Creature with the Atom Brain: I crack up when he talks with the creature ("...but you're not Buchanan!"). Also my favorite Roky tune. Don't Shake Me Lucifer: Old fashioned loud rock 'n roll. I Walked with a Zombie: How many folks could write a song (covered by REM) with lyrics consisting solely of "I walked with a zombie/I walked with a zombie/I walked with a zombie last night." over and over and make it sound good? Night of the Vampire: Good Halloween music. Play this and the cover of Burn the Flame on the tribute CD. He has a lot of great tunes, however he also has plenty of less memorable ones. This album has many of his better songs.

Roky Erickson's solo debut is a lost classic and one of the greatest pure rock 'n' roll albums ever recorded. Previously the frontman for the seminal drug-fueled psychedelic outfit the 13th Floor Elevators, Erickson was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1968 and institutionalized until 1972, where he was forced to undergo electroshock therapy.

Upon release, the former composer of such trippy '60s anthems for the LSD generation as "Slip Inside This House" formed a new band and recorded an album comprised of...polished and commercially oriented hard rock tunes? Say what?

Before you get any ideas about the efficacy of contemporary psychiatric treatments, however, know that this ain't your father's hard rock, ain't your uncle's Deep Purple In Rock, or even your more embarassing uncle's Flirtin' with Disaster. Evil One is a strange entity indeed, a twisted mutant hybrid only masquerading as a "normal" rock album. Indisputably the product of a deranged mind, Evil One sounds like if Black Oak Arkansas had retained Daniel Johnston as their frontman and written music inspired by a paranoid and McCarthyesque commitment to exposing the creeping Red Menace in America. Erickson's lyrics on Evil One deal with such topics as extraterrestrial lifeforms, fire demons, Lucifer, ghosts, zombies, vampires, the Soviet Union, and all the weird and grotesque stuff that cheap '50s B-movies are made of. Musicially, Evil One is primarily hard-edged southern rock with some rockabilly twang and a healthy dose of epic metal cheese grated over the top. The guitar licks are electrifying (this ranks alongside Daydream Nation, Love Devotion Surrender, and Black Woman as one of the greatest "guitar albums" ever made), the grooves infectious, and Erickson's vocals more impassioned and confident than ever before as he sings with tremendous conviction about creatures with atom brains and the two-headed dog that resides, perhaps surreptitiously, in the Kremlin.

Okay, so I'm having a little bit of fun at Roky Erickson's expense, but there's certainly nothing funny about this album's lack of recognition or acclaim. Evil One is an outstanding collection of songs with nary a weak spot in sight. It's rock and roll the way it was meant to be played: loud, heavy, bombastic, insanely catchy, and filtered through the mind of a certified lunatic. Unless there's a parasitic slug in your brain inhibiting your free will, seek this out immediately.

I'm surprised that this wasn't a huge hit -- or at least a huge cult hit -- upon it's original release in 1981. At first glance, song titles like "I Walked With A Zombie" and "It's A Cold Night For Alligators" might lead one to assume this is some sort of novelty/Halloween album. Uh-uh. This is serious stuff. A great sounding band with songs about aliens, demons, and vampires delivered with complete sincerity. The music is catchy, totally rocking, and you'll be singing along within minutes. I especially like the melodic hooks of "The Wind And More" and "Mine Mine Mind". Some of the songs get a bit repetitive -- in fact the lyrics for "Creature With The Atom Brain" consist of nothing but those four words (but what marvelous words they are). The second ("plus one") disc has some great live performances (at times better than their studio counterparts), although I would prefer listening to them uninterrupted by the interview segments (wish those had all been placed at front or end of the disc). Another reviewer has already compared this band's sound to early Black Sabbath. Agreed, anyone who likes the song "Iron Man" (and who doesn't?) will probably love this album.

Rokys Stu Cook produced studiomaterial. If you like rock at all, just buy it. It's a masterpiece.