13th Floor Elevators

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The 13th Floor Elevators
Cover of their debut album
Cover of their debut album
Background information
Origin Austin, Texas, USA
Genre(s) Garage Rock, Psychedelic
Years active 1965 - 1969
Former members
Roky Erickson
Tommy Hall
Benny Thurman
John Ike Walton
Stacy Sutherland
Danny Thomas
Danny Galindo
Powell St. John

The 13th Floor Elevators were a rock music group founded in Austin, Texas in late 1965.

Though they found only limited commercial success before dissolving amid legal troubles and drug use, The 13th Floor Elevators are commonly regarded as one of the first psychedelic bands, and have been cited as an influential protopunk group: their classic song "You're Gonna Miss Me" was featured on the first Nuggets release in 1972, marking a series of garage-rock singles that were a treasure trove for early punk rockers. In addition to their musical influence, they are also widely cited as the first band to refer to itself as "psychedelic."

Personnel were singer/guitarist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, bass guitarist Benny Thurman, guitarist Stacy Sutherland, and drummer John Ike Walton. Erickson and Hall were the band's primary songwriters, but most band members wrote or co-wrote some material. The sound of Tommy's electric jug (which bore no resemblance to the sound of traditionally-played jugs) became the band's signature and trademark.

Contents

[edit] History

The group's first single, "You're Gonna Miss Me" (actually a second version—the song had been recorded once before by the band when it was known as The Spades, with bassist Ernie Culley), reached #2 on local charts in early 1966, eventually reaching #56 on the pop charts nationwide. The band was contemporary with other Austin psychedelic bands including Shiva's Headband and the Conqueroo.

Throughout the spring of 1966, the group toured extensively in Texas, playing clubs in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. They also played on live teen dance shows on television, such as Sumpin Else, in Dallas, and The Larry Kane Show in Houston.

In late summer 1966 the Elevators successfully toured the west coast, made two nationally televised appearances, and played several dates at the San Francisco ballrooms The Fillmore and the Avalon.

The International Artists record label (also home to contemporary Texas underground groups such as Red Krayola and Bubble Puppy) in Houston signed the Elevators to a record contract, and released the album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators in the latter part of 1966, becoming an underground classic among the burgeoning counterculture.

Posters from the period show them on the same bill as Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Great Society, and The Byrds. Playing in San Francisco during that time, and the exposure to other bands, would lead to their second album, Easter Everywhere, which was also released by International Artists.

Singer Janis Joplin was a close associate of the band. Joplin sang with the band at a few shows, and considered joining the group in Austin, [1] before she headed to San Francisco and became part of Big Brother and the Holding Company.

[edit] Name

The band's name is a play on the superstitions that lead to many tall buildings not having a 13th floor, and the fact that the letter "M" (for marijuana) is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. Tommy Hall's wife, Clementine is credited with helping to think up the name. [1]

[edit] Recordings

The band had two records that charted in the USA. "You're Gonna Miss Me", their most popular, charted at #55 on Billboard and #50 on Cash Box in August 1966. Their followup, "Reverberation (Doubt)" peaked at #129 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Charts in November 1966. In 1966 they released their first and most popular album, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators.

The 13th Floor Elevators followed up this album with Easter Everywhere in (1967), a concept album. This record featured a version of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". Dylan is rumored to have called this version of the song his favorite; the claim may be apocryphal, but critic Mark Deming argues that the Elevator's take on the song is "superb." [1]

The final album they recorded as a group was entitled Bull of the Woods, released in 1968.

[edit] Breakup

Drug and legal problems resulted in turmoil for the band. In 1969, facing a marijuana possession charge, Erickson chose to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital rather than serve a prison term.

[edit] Members

[edit] Roky Erickson

Roky Erickson was the band's singer, guitarist and a songwriter. The Elevator's only hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me" was written by Erickson (he recorded it with his first band "The Spades"). After pleading insanity on marijuana charges, he was committed to Rusk mental hospital, where he was reportedly administered shock and thorazine treatments. While in the hospital, Erickson wrote innumerable poems and songs, and when he emerged in 1975 he was set to embark on a solo career that would taper off in the late 80's. His first solo single was "Starry Eyes" b/w "Two Headed Dog" and was recorded with a group called "Bleib Alien", released in 1975. In 1977, Roky released two singles: one on Rhino records, "Bermuda" b/w "The Interpreter" ; and one of France's Sponge label, "Mine Mine Mind", "I Have Always Been Here Before" and "Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play". These tracks were credited to "Roky Erickson and The Aliens". The lyrical content was focused more on occult themes, hinting at demonology and cosmology, bearing a great affinity to horror movies. The years between 1977 and the 1980 were spent working with Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival), who produced the album (Roky's only major label deal) "The Evil One", which was released in 1980. "The Evil One" is a psychedelic evocation of a world chock-full of demons, goblins, bats, vampires, etc., and is considered by many to be essential for any fan of Erickson. Unfortunately, this was not all the product of imagination, but also of a mind sincerely troubled, and Roky's physical and mental health declined in the late 1980's. He made relatively no money on any of his recordings, and it has not been until recently that a trust fund has been set up, he has started to own his recordings, and has started playing again in Austin.

Director Keven McAlester recently completed a documentary film on the life of Roky Erickson entitled You're Gonna Miss Me.

[edit] Tommy Hall

Tommy Hall was best known for his amplified "electric jug", usually sounding somewhat like a cross between a minimoog and cuica drum. He occasionally played guitar as well. Hall wrote lyrics to many of the band's songs. Much of his lyrical content stemmed from his study of philosophy and poetry at the University of Texas at Austin. He was also influenced by the philosophy of the Polish-born mathematician Alfred Korzybski and his 800-page work Science And Sanity.


In fact, his electric jug (invariably mentioned by all newbies to the Elevators records as, "What IS that weird sound?") was a crock-jug, with a microphone held up to it while it was being blown. Its effect on record was uncanny; its effect live was transcendental. In fact, the band backed up many bands such as Flatt & Scruggs at Love Street and other places, an amazing transposition of pure Texas psychedelia with bluegrass (in other words, the beginning of Cosmic Cowboy).

[edit] Benny Thurman

Benny Thurman, former bassist with the 13th Floor Elevators, left the band shortly before their excursion to San Francisco in 1966. He now plays violin and achieved recognition in his other bands, most notably leading Plum Nellie and Mother Earth along with Powell St. John in the early 1970s at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas.

[edit] John Ike Walton

John Ike Walton, builder of musical instruments, drummer, instrumentalist and founding member of the band, builds kalimba (marimbula) and "zulu-drums". He presently resides in the Texas hill country. His family originally supported the creation and subsequent management of the band and the earlier band The Lingsmen. John presently is appearing occasionally with tribute band "Tantric Sons' along with Ronnie Leatherman, who joined the band for their 1960s San Francisco dates at the Avalon ballroom -see Chet Helms and the more notorious Fillmore. Both left the band because of monetary (non-payment) and managerial disagreements with the band's label. For this,[citation needed] John is not credited on the Easter Everywhere LP, though he does play on "Levitation" and "She Lives", two of the more popular I.A. 45 rpm singles released. The Kalimba CD is now available.

[edit] Stacy Sutherland

Stacy Sutherland (May 28, 1946 - August 24, 1978) was a founding member of the band. He joined the group after playing with the Lingsmen, a Port Aransas, Texas band.

Sutherland was the lead guitar for the Elevators and is known for his pioneering use of reverb and echo. His bluesy, acid-drenched guitar influenced such bands as The Allman Brothers Band, and ZZ Top. In the 1970s, Sutherland formed a band called Ice which played in Houston, Texas. He was shot to death by his wife in 1978, after battling heroin addiction. Sutherland is buried in Center Point, Texas.

[edit] Danny Thomas

Danny Thomas, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second drummer for the band to replace John Ike Walton. Danny played drums and sang back up vocals on the final two studio albums, Easter Everywhere and Bull of the Woods. In an interview in 2001, Danny was asked when he quit the band. His reply was "I never quit." (Online interview Texas Psych Group). In 1996, Danny formed a band in Charlotte called Bessie Mae's Dream with singer/guitarist Jerry Shaver and guitarist Marcus Cheek. For personal reasons, he left the band in 1998. BMD is still a popular jamband, with two albums released, and still plays regularly on the east coast and throughout North Carolina. Danny still resides in Charlotte.

[edit] Danny Galindo

Danny Galindo (June 29, 1949 - May 17, 2001) joined the Elevators in July 1967 as replacement for Ronnie Leatherman. Previously he had been playing bass along with Danny Thomas in San Antonio, in a band called The Concentric Excentrics. He was more used to playing Southern rhythm and blues, but quickly adapted to the Elevators. He performed on Easter Everywhere and did many live shows with the band. He left the band in early 1968, but came back and did many of the bass parts on Bull of the Woods. He died in 2001 from complications associated with Hepatitis C.

[edit] Powell St. John

Powell St. John (b. 1940) was a songwriter for the band. He wrote the lyrics for the songs Slide Machine, You Don't Know, Monkey Island, You Gotta Take That Girl, and Kingdom of Heaven. He was a close associate of the Elevators in Austin in 1966. Big Brother And The Holding Company also recorded his song, 'Bye, Bye, Baby' on their debut album on Mainstream Records. He also played rhythm guitar with Conqueroo, and later went on to join Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth as a songwriter and musician. At present he has a new CD called Right Track Now, released in the spring of 2006, which contains new versions of many of the songs he wrote for the Elevators.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Legacy

Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continues to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 different contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Primal Scream — recorded covers of Elevators songs on the tribute recording, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson. In 2005, a panel at the SXSW music festival discussed the music of the Elevators and Powell St. John, one of the Elevators' songwriters.

The band's music also continues through live performances of the Tommy Hall Schedule as an Elevators tribute band, and Erickson's youngest brother Sumner Erickson incorporates Elevators' music with his band The Texcentrics.

Roky Erickson, having made a full recovery, resumed regular performances with The Explosives, including the Austin City Limits music festival in September 2005.

[edit] Trivia

  • In 2006, Dell Computers used "You're Gonna Miss Me" in one of their ads for their XPS laptop.
  • During the initial months of their existence as a band, the electric guitars used both by Roky Erickson and Stacy Sutherland were Gibson ES-335's.According to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top in an article that originally appeared in Vintage Guitar magazine, the guitars were run through "Black-Face" Twin Reverbs with both guitarists using external Fender "tank" reverb units and Gibson "Maestro" Fuzz-tones as distortion devices.
  • The 2000 movie, "High Fidelity," "You're Gonna Miss Me" was used in the opening scene and is the first song on the movie soundtrack.

[edit] Reference

    1. ^ a b Vorda, Allen. Psychedelic Psounds: Interviews from A to Z with 60s Psychedelic and Garage Bands. Borderline Productions. (1994) ISBN 0-9512875-9-1

[edit] External links

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