An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take tuns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
THE 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS: You're Gonna Miss Me
Written by Roky Erickson
Produced by Gordon Bynum
Single, Contact Records [reissued by International Artists], 1966
We are the weird.
We are damaged, disturbed, inadequate, unprepared. We don't fit in, couldn't if we tried, wouldn't if we could. We wake up wondering, find ourselves all alone. As the sun greets the dawn. We didn’t realize.
The late Roky Erickson is often remembered as a casualty, a fragile fallen angel, a flawed Icarus who flew too close to a merciless psychedelic sun. He sang of walking with zombies, of working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog. Against type, he sang a beautiful ballad called "Starry Eyes," suddenly (if briefly) becoming a post-lysergic Buddy Holly. He warned ominously of the danger of slandering him. His mortal form was caged, in correctional facilities and sanitariums. His mind lived in a time of its own.
And with the 13th Floor Elevators, he gave us an incredible rock 'n' roll classic called "You're Gonna Miss Me."
"You're Gonna Miss Me" is acid made punk, as hallucinatory as Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, as badass as...well, you name it. It's the embodiment of the rock-critic concept of 1960s garage-built psychedelia, while sounding not quite like any of its peers.
It could only have come from Texas. It profoundly influenced at least one son of the Lone Star State: Billy Gibbons, later to find fame slingin' his sharp-dressed six-string with ZZ Top. Contemporary to the Elevators, Gibbons played with a group called the Moving Sidewalks, whose own single "99th Floor" carries an undeniable Elevators influence. "You're Gonna Miss Me" has continued to glow in the dark for all subsequent generations seeking the sound of electric guitars crossed with electric sugar cubes.
Like a lot of folks, my introduction to Roky and his Elevators came courtesy of a compilation album called Nuggets. Nuggets, originally released in 1972, was a two-record various-artists set that celebrated the mid-to-late-sixties explosion of young American guitar groups trying to be as surly as the Stones, as heavy as the Yardbirds, as fab as the Fab Four. I bought it because it had "Lies" by the Knickerbockers and “Liar, Liar” by the Castaways. Nuggets revealed further truths via tracks by the Electric Prunes, the Remains, the Strangeloves, the Nazz, Mouse, and the Cryan Shames, reiterated truths I already knew about the Standells and the Seeds, and unleashed unto me its greatest truth among great truths: "You're Gonna Miss Me." The 13th Floor Elevators.
Holy shit.
Immediate. Hypnotic. As tough as Detroit's MC5 or Stooges, a Don't tread on me! as potent as a sidewinder's rattle, and as intoxicating as drinkin' wine, spo-dee-o-dee, drinkin' wine, goddamn.
Welcome to Texas, muthas and bruthas.
In the song, Erickson warns a faithless lover that she will wake up one morning to find that he’s gone. Like casting a spell, Roky chants “You didn’t realize” five times, sealing his former flame’s sentence of solitude.
Realize what, already...?
OH, YOU'RE GONNA MISS ME, BABY!
Chills. Chills. Message delivered, at as high a volume as my poor little stereo could stand. Otherworldly, jagged, pissed-off guitar. Harmonica. A percolating hiccup sound that turned out to be an electrified jug, fercrynoutloud. And the wail of a tortured demon freed temporarily from the pit of perdition. Roky Erickson. Hell's newest hitmaker.
Over time, the presumed frailty of Roky Erickson's bruised psyche became the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend. Drug busts and mental issues were the headlines that obscured the music, all of it detailed in the 2005 Erickson documentary You're Gonna Miss Me. Erickson survived, gaining (one hopes) some level of stability before his death in 2019.
And still we wake up wondering, find ourselves all alone.
We are the weird. Damaged, disturbed, inadequate, unprepared. Don't shake me Lucifer. Roky Erickson sang on our behalf.
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