Sources

The primary source for the lyrics examined here will be Openers II, compiled and edited by Casey Monahan (1995, 2.13.61, Los Angeles). As Monahan stated in the Editor's Afterword, his manuscript sources were various; the most reliable was Roky's 1972 book of lyrics and poems, Openers, the source of last resort being Roky himself. At this point in time, Roky obviously took little interest in his own work. There is virtually nothing to identify the source for any particular song. I myself have never seen Openers; or rather, all I have ever seen are autographed copies that are priced far beyond my means, so I was loath to thumb through them too much. The only transcribed lyrics that I would consider to supercede those in Openers II with any kind of authority are those printed in the CD booklets for Never Say Goodbye and True Love Cast Out All Evil. At any rate, it seems to me that there are certain lyrics that are open to interpretation and dispute, so there may be occasions when I depart from the text if I hear a compelling reason to do so. However, unless otherwise stated explicitly, the text used here will be that of Openers II, including lineation, spelling, and punctuation.