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Does Anyone In This Town Know Who Roky Erickson Is?

Rocks Off is practically bouncing off the walls with anticipation for tonight's Roky Erickson show at the Continental Club, a sentiment shared by (at last count) around 250 of his friends and fellow Houstonians. Erickson (read all about him here) may not have a problem filling up the club tonight, but what about Houston at large? Does anybody even know who this guy is anymore? Did they ever?

Tuesday afternoon, Rocks Off found it very difficult to get any work done while these questions were boring holes in his caffeine-addled brain. So we headed into the downtown tunnels to ask (cough, accost) some random lunch-breakers - those who didn't beg off because they were late for work or camera-shy, or just flat-out ignored us - if Roky rang a bell.

We know this isn't Austin, where Roky is almost (if not quite) as beloved a public figure as Willie Nelson, but we figured we might run into someone who knew who he was.

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Chris Gray has been Music Editor for the Houston Press since 2008. He is the proud father of a Beatles-loving toddler named Oliver.
Contact: Chris Gray