OFF: Roky/Elevators

[Michel Ellis]

>
>>BTW, the Roky legend remains strong here in Austin, where once in a
blood-red
>>moon he'll play.
>
>Have you actually seen him?  Any stories?
>
>- Andy
>

I saw him in San Franciso in '78 and Houston in '79, and in Austin a couple
of years ago. At the '78 & '79 shows he was great on stage, although the
other band members needed to keep an eye on him. Offstage he seemed frightened
and confused. At the show in Austin, which was a benefit for a friend of his,
he only did a couple of numbers, and seemed confused as to what was going on,
tending to wander off when the backing band was trying to figure out what to
play. Unfortunately it was probably more sad than anything else. The band
started into "You're gonna miss me", these young kids started jumping up
and down
at front and screaming at him oblvious to the fact that they were freaking
him
out. He stood at the mike with arms crossed, tried to sing a few lines,
then walked
off. He seems to either be possessed by the Power and able to really rock and
mesmerize, or too disconnected and confused to handle a live show.

All the stories in recent years have to do with his troubles coping with
day-to-day living - he was arrested for collecting all the mail of his
neighbors and storing it in his house (tampering with the US mail being a
Federal offense, it's actually a serious charge).

I guess you could say the Roky stories I've heard and the last
time I saw him remind me of stories I've read about Syd Barrett. A friend
of his I met in Houston in the late 70's told me a story of taking Roky to
a football game. They'd gone in one car, and during the game Roky asked for
the car keys so he could go get something in the car. Roky didn't come back.
When the game was over, they went to the car and it was locked. No Roky.
Eventually they did find him - he'd found somebody else's car, which was
open, gotten in and fallen asleep.

Those late 70's shows were great though - at one of the Houston shows he says
real solumnly and earnestly  "Now we're going to play a tune
that they used to play on the old church organ back in this little East
Texas town ..." and he then launched into "Y'r Gonna Miss Me" at full
volume ...

-mike