Consumer Guide Album

Roky Erickson: You're Gonna Miss Me: The Best of Roky Erickson [Restless, 1991]
Discophilia or no discophilia--the title track confuses live with authentic, leaving the equally apt "You Drive Me Crazy" to true collectors--this compilation establishes a '60s casualty and various aliens as the greatest '60s band of the '80s, which didn't lack for retro pretenders. The feel is early Stones, with the very Satan the Stones pimped so pretentiously filling in for Charlie Watts--who else could have guaranteed Roky a victory over Mother Nature, not to mention Father Time? Devils, ghosts, zombies, vampires, two-headed dogs, I got no use for any of them--except when they ride riffs, grooves, and tunes this demented and user-friendly. A−