Don't Slander Me

After recording his album The Evil One with California-based band the Aliens in 1979, Roky Erickson was released from Austin State Hospital where he had been held several years for psychiatric treatment. He went into the care of his mother.

Staying in Texas, Erickson enlisted a number of local punk rock acts to be his backing band: first a couple of pickup gigs with the Reversible Cords and Sterling Morrison's group the Bizarrors, then more extensively with Austin bands the Explosives and the Resurrectionists, as well as the Nervebreakers in Dallas. The material they played largely drew from the Aliens' arrangements of songs from The Evil One and the handful of Erickson's 1970s singles that had preceded the album, plus a couple of hits by Erickson’s early group 13th Floor Elevators and material from Erickson's larger body of unreleased songs. Of these bands, the Explosives would stick with Erickson the longest, touring behind him through 1981 until they could no longer tolerate the singer's erratic behavior due to deteriorating mental health.^[2]

A new lineup of the Aliens were playing in the Bay Area. The drummer, D.H. Peligro, left to join the Dead Kennedys and was replaced by Paul Zahl of Tuxedomoon and the Flamin' Groovies. Band manager Craig Luckin eventually reunited the core of the group to record a follow-up to The Evil One, with Erickson on vocals and guitar, Billy Miller on electric autoharp, Motown artist Andre "Mandré" Lewis on keyboards, and lead guitarist Duane Aslaksen handling musical arrangements and production as Stu Cook had on the previous album. Zahl also recruited bassist Jack Casady, his former bandmate in SVT bandmate and early member of Jefferson Airplane.^[2]

The basic tracks and overdubs were done at Site Studios in San Rafael, California. The recording process went smoothly and quickly in comparison to the previous album's long, difficult, and often interrupted sessions. Originally titled Burn the Flames, CBS UK funded the album's recording, planning to release the record as a follow-up to their 1980 Roky Erickson and the Aliens/TEO album, but upon hearing the finished product, CBS executives balked. Luckin managed to secure CBS's funding, but was forced to shop the record to a new buyer.^[2]

In the interim, Erickson had backup bands for live gigs, including a reunited version of the 13th Floor Elevators. In 1984 he recorded five songs with a group of Austin-based musicians fronted by producer Speedy Sparks, including three tracks that he'd done for the unreleased Burn the Flames album.^[3] Two of these saw release as the single "Don't Slander Me" b/w "Starry Eyes" that year for Sparks' tiny Dynamic Records label, followed by the full five-song Clear Night for Love EP on French label New Rose in 1985.^[4] In 1986, Enigma Records subsidiary Pink Dust eventually picked up the Burn the Flames album three years after it was recorded, releasing it as Don't Slander Me alongside a repackaged compact disc of The Evil One and the live compilation Gremlins Have Pictures culled from seven years worth of Erickson backed up by his various bands.^[5] Demon Records issued Don't Slander Me in the U.S., added three tracks from The Evil One's session not previously available outside the U.S.

Many songs on Don't Slander Me were in Erickson's live sets for several years. He had been performing "Bermuda," "Can't Be Brought Down," "Starry Eyes," and the album's title track as early as 1975 with his band Blieb Alien, and then the Aliens, Nervebreakers, and Explosives. An early Blieb Alien version of "Starry Eyes" had been a local country radio staple when it first appeared as a B-side in 1975, and the Aliens' first recording of "Bermuda" made waves within the punk movement as a single in 1977. A version of "Can't Be Brought Down" was recorded for The Evil One but never finished.^[6]

Although the album contains spooky, sinister, and vampiric songs like "Burn the Flames," "Haunt," and the re-recorded "Bermuda," Don't Slander Me marks a departure from the pure horror rock of The Evil One. A new version of "Starry Eyes" inserts itself as a sentimental love song while the both "You Drive Me Crazy" and "Nothing in Return" show Erickson returning to his rockabilly roots of Buddy Holly fandom.^[4]