You're Gonna Miss Me (documentary film) Let's talk about it...

Hopeful Sinner

Angry Southern Gentleman
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So if you've seen it what do you think? Was Roky's mental illness and schizophrenia self imposed from the massive amounts of psychedelic drugs? Seems a lot of his family members border on the mental disorder side of things. I also can't decide if his mother thought she was doing the right thing or merely keeping Roky dependent on her so she wouldn't have to be alone. She made repeated attempts throughout the filming to put the focus on herself... I was extremely happy that his brother was able to get guardianship of Roky. It was great to see him play music again... Someone needs to get Roky and Daniel Johnston together, those cats are very similar and I bet the music would be interesting to say the least...

 
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I didn't get a chance to watch this yet, but I'll do my best tonight. I haven't heard of the guy, or the band, this will be interesting!
 
Thanks for posting this. Roky is sort of a cult figure/myth/legend here in Texas. I can't wait to see this movie.

Goldtop
 
I saw it last night. I will give it a day so more people can watch, but I will say I had to cut my fingernails and clean the house after watching it!
 
Watching it now... I won't live blog it... but mannnn I don't understand how he can sleep with all those different audiotracks on so loud?
 
I watched it again and it's just as sad the second time around. The mom is as crazy as Roky is, but in the end you can see (as does his brother) that she was doing the best she could.

Was it the drugs, the shock treatment or was it a genetic trait? Either way, the guy was out there, but put a guitar in his hands and he seemed to come back to a somewhat neutral position. I wonder how he is doing now?
 
I watched it again and it's just as sad the second time around. The mom is as crazy as Roky is, but in the end you can see (as does his brother) that she was doing the best she could.

Was it the drugs, the shock treatment or was it a genetic trait? Either way, the guy was out there, but put a guitar in his hands and he seemed to come back to a somewhat neutral position. I wonder how he is doing now?

He released a new record a couple years ago and during the spring of this year he played several fairly successful shows overseas. This band from Austin, Okkervil River, backs him now when he plays out. A friend of mine lives out there and knew what was going on with him...was great to hear Roky is doing so well...
 
Man that was a tough watch.

I feel like some of his illness has to do with his father issues ,and the fact that he has been controlled by somebody, or something for the majority of his life. All of his family members are at the very least eccentric, and with the exception of his father, I feel like every one of them wants something from him, and since he has no adult coping skills he has emotionally retreated into himself. I'm not saying he is not very sick, but I feel his brothers attempts to get him away from his mother proved that he could be capable of being more self dependent.

The thing that captivated my attention the most (besides those creepy fingernails and my compulsive need to clean my home) was the fact that The Thirteenth Floor Elevator had a jug player! Man, I would fire that dude so fast if he was in my band! I found his humble remarks about the whole band being leaders on AmStand must have had something to do with more than a few band discussions in the back of the van. I think it would be safe to say if their plane went down, he would be the first one to be eaten. I mean I'm sure he is a very nice human being and probably a virtuoso among juggists, but a whole night on stage with that in every song would send me over the edge.
 
I didn't get through the entire film yet... I had never heard of him before. I'm amazed at how he was able to come back in the 80's and write tunes that were so catchy again. Someone in there said it right about how there weren't many writers of that genre in that time that were able to make a transition and continue to write hits in later years.

His son says it best when he states something along the lines of Schizophrenia not being that big of a deal anymore. Without getting into a debate about the economy of whether or not medication would/could help vs the effect it may have on someones creative ability, I think that it's an avenue that would be worth a try in this case. I'm not a psychologist, or a social worker, but it seems pretty clear that his mother is keeping him sick in order to enable herself to be 'needed'. It's very sad indeed.

I just got turned on to Okkervil River by my dad. He caught their set on ACL, and told me to give them a spin. I need to get down to Texas... there's so much musical talent flowing through that place!
 
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