Song of the Day 6/3: 13th Floor Elevators, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”

Roky Erickson, one of rock’s most famous burnout cases, died Friday in Texas. Erickson’s 13th Floor Elevators, formed when he was still a teenager, pioneered psychedelic rock (and championed psychedelics) until Erickson had a psychotic break and was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was institutionalized for three years and subjected to electroshock therapy, breaking up the band, but Erickson kept making music as much as his condition would permit, playing with various backing bands, most recently Okkervil River. This Dylan cover is from the second 13th Floor Elevators album, “Easter Everywhere.”

Though his mental state was always fragile, Erickson made a lot more music than just the 13th Floor Elevators, and most of it was closer to the mainstream than anything he did with the Elevators. “I Think of Demons” should have been a power-rock hit.

At one point Erickson was convinced he a Marian was inhabited his body, and even to a notarized statement to that effect. He named his first post-hospitalization band The Aliens. Their best-known song was “Two-Headed Dog,” produced by Doug Sahm. It’s about Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov’s head transplant experiments.

He mellowed a good bit in recent years. Here’s a song off his 2010 album with Okkervil River, “Goodbye Sweet Dreams.”

Roky Erickson was 71.