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I ate a meal with Roky once. Of all the amazing things a life time in music can give you, eating with Roky and listening to him tell you about whatever it is you talk about over Texas food, that is a top notch thing. I will give up a 401K all day long, as long as I can hold that memory of Roky speaking directly TO ME.

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That’s the kind of thing you get to take with you when you leave! What a great memory to hold onto.

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Also, I am pretty sure I only understood like 80 percent of what we talked about.

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Rad story! I've only been in Austin for about 4 years so I don't know if the 13th Floor (DT live venue) existed back then.

I was obsessed with that song, "Stand For the Fire Demon" for a hot minute last year.

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13th Floor is a relatively new spot and they get this old Austinite’s full support. I lived there from 1992—2011. Great town, and I was there for some cool times. I can bag on it, like all “I was there when” folks, and sometimes do, but it’s still fun to visit and I have a lot of friends there. A lot of these stories here are Austin stories.

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Sep 16Liked by Jamie Ward

Wow. Powerful stuff. Every hear the term ‘heart-breakingly beautiful?” I think we all have those feelings, especially if we don’t focus it all on one individual. There’s an urge for generalized sharing.

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Thank you. Heart-breakingly beautiful rules more and more of my life the older I get.

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Sep 16Liked by Jamie Ward

I would have said, "Randy Newman, who has a sister, Sandy, and a little brother, Ray," but that's just me.

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Fantastic post that reverberates like Tommy's jug and goes straight to the heart, Jamie. I can feel the depth of the many layers you are peeling back and exposing to us all. 

I lived in London for fourteen years. Like Vancouver for you, London is in my blood forever. The last concert I saw in London before I moved back to the States was Roky Erickson and the Explosives at the Royal Festival Hall on June 18, 2007 (and "Starry Eyes" was in the set!). A year later, I saw him in my new city of Portland, Oregon, with The Black Angels. 

I wanted to go to Austin Psych Fest to see the reformed Elevators in 2015 but couldn't make it. However, a good friend of mine did, and he got me an Easter Everywhere shirt. 

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Thanks Michael. You always get it.

I never got to see him live, although there was a time he played in Vancouver and like a complete idiot, I did not go. I'm sure there was a reason, but it couldn't have been good enough, in retrospect.

That's great you got to see him on two separate sides of the planet! Seems fitting.

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I get chills when I hear Starry Eyes. Also 'You Don't Love Me Yet' is a purty little song. I think love became to abstract for Roky in his later years, but he knew of it. As much as he knew of the demons!

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It’s like you have to know both to know either. “Hasn’t Anyone Told You” is another one of my faves. And yeah, ‘Starry Eyes’ always gives me chills, too. I need to go through my posters that are still in storage, waiting for me to decide where I want to live, but I’m hoping I have that Roky poster you did; I know I have a Daniel Johnston one.

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I don’t even think I have one of those Roky posters I made! I will never forget seeing Roky for the first time in the mostly empty concrete cathedral of Seaholm Power Plant (before it was “repurposed” or whatever) with Black Angels backing him. I just couldn’t believe I was seeing him. A beautiful moment.

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