13th Floor Elevators

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The 13th Floor Elevators
Origin Austin, Texas, U.S.
Genre(s) Psychedelic rock, garage rock, acid rock
Years active 1965 - 1969
Label(s) International Artists
Associated acts Roky Erickson, The Spades, The Lingsmen
Former members
Roky Erickson
Tommy Hall
Benny Thurman
John Ike Walton
Stacy Sutherland
Ronnie Leatherman
Danny Thomas
Danny Galindo
Powell St. John
Clementine Hall

The 13th Floor Elevators were a psychedelic rock band formed in Austin, Texas, in late 1965.

The band found only limited commercial success before dissolving amid legal troubles and drug use. However, as one of the first psychedelic bands, they have been cited as an influential protopunk group.[citation needed] Their biggest hit "You're Gonna Miss Me", a Billboard #55 hit in 1966, was featured on the 1972 compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, which was later to be considered a landmark in the history of garage rock and the development of punk rock.[citation needed]

The band's classic line-up was singer/guitarist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, guitarist Stacy Sutherland, drummer John Ike Walton and bass player Ronnie Leatherman, with several other irregular contributors and sessions musicians. Erickson and Hall were the band's primary songwriters, but most band members submitted material from time to time. The "electric jug" sound would become the band's signature and trademark.In July 1967, Walton and Leatherman left the band and were replaced by Danny Thomas (drums) and Dan Galindo (bass guitar). With this new line up, the Elevators recorded their second album Easter Everywhere (with the exception of two songs "She Lives" and "Levitation") which was considered to be the band's superlative effort by most critics. Ronnie Leatherman later returned for the fourth and final album, Bull of the Woods.

Contents

[edit] Members

  • Roky Erickson, vocals, guitar, lead songwriter
  • Tommy Hall, electric jug player, occasional guitarist, songwriter
  • Stacy Sutherland (May 28, 1946 - August 24, 1978), lead guitarist (previously member of The Lingsmen)
  • Benny Thurman, bassist (1965-August 1966)
  • Ronnie Leatherman, bassist (August 1966 - July 1967)
  • John Ike Walton (b. November 27, 1942), drums (1965-July 1967)
  • Danny Thomas, drums and backing vocals (July 1967-)
  • Danny Galindo (June 29, 1949 - May 17, 2001), bass (July 1967-) (previously member of The Concentric Excentrics)
  • Powell St. John (b. 1940) member of The Conqueroo who occasionally contributed lyrics ("Slide Machine", "You Don't Know", "Monkey Island", "You Gotta Take That Girl", "Kingdom of Heaven")
  • Clementine Hall, wife of Tommy Hall, song-writing contributions

[edit] Name

The band's name has been given numerous explanations by various members of the band and its entourage, including being 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.[1] According to Walton, he suggested the name "Elevators" and Clementine Hall came back with the group's full name the next morning.[2]

[edit] History

The band emerged from the Austin psychedelic scene in 1965, where it was contemporary to bands such as Shiva's Headband and The Conqueroo. The band was formed when Roky Erickson left his group The Spades, and joined up with Stacy Sutherland, Benny Thurman, and John Ike Walton who had been playing Texas coastal towns asThe Lingsmen.[1]

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 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 in Houston, also home to contemporary Texas underground groups such as Red Krayola and Bubble Puppy, 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, which became instantly popular among the burgeoning counterculture.[1] The album's sleevenotes, which advocated LSD as a guaranteed gateway to a higher state of consciousness, attracted some controversy.

Over the next few months the band shared bills with Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Great Society, and The Byrds in San Francisco and in 1967 released a concept album, Easter Everywhere, also released by International Artists. This record featured a version of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", a version Dylan is rumored to have called his favorite.[1] Shortly before the release of Easter Everywhere, Leatherman and Walton left the band because of managerial disagreements with the band's label, as well as non-payment of royalties.[2] As a result of this, Walton was not credited in the Easter Everywhere sleevenotes, despite appearing on "Levitation" and "She Lives".

Singer Janis Joplin was a close associate of the band. She sang with the band at a few shows, and considered joining the group in Austin,[3] before she headed to San Francisco and joined Big Brother and the Holding Company. Her style of singing was much influenced by Roky Erkison's trademark screaming and yelping, as in "You're Gonna Miss Me".

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, signaling the end of the band's career.[1]

[edit] Music

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. Sutherland's pioneering use of reverb and echo, and bluesy, acid-drenched guitar influenced such bands as The Allman Brothers Band and ZZ Top. 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.[citation needed]

The lasting trademark of The Elevators' sound came from Tommy Hall's innovative electric jug. The jug, a crock-jug with a microphone held up to it while it was being blown, sounded somewhat like a cross between a minimoog and cuica drum.

The band were unique, even in the 60's, in that they (at Tommy Hall's urging) played most of their live shows and recorded their albums while on LSD.

[edit] Post-Elevators careers

After Erickson pleaded insanity in response to drugs charges, he was committed to a mental hospital[citation needed], and the rest of the band dissolved to join many different bands throughout the 1970s.

Benny Thurman joined a string of other bands, most notably Mother Earth, with Powell St. John.

Stacy Sutherland formed his own band, Ice, which performed only in Houston and never released any material. In 1969, after a battle with heroin addiction, he was imprisoned in Texas on drug charges, the culmination of several years of drug related trouble with the law. After his release Sutherland began to drink heavily. He continued to sporadically play music throughout the 1970s, occasionally with former members of the Elevators. Tragically, Stacy was accidentally shot and killed by his wife Bunny in 1978 during a domestic dispute, and is buried in Center Point, Texas[4].

Danny Galindo played bass with Jimmie Vaughan's (Stevie Ray's older brother) band Storm in Austin, Texas during the 1970s. He died in 2001 from complications of hepatitis C.

Danny Thomas owned his own delivery company called Gophers Inc. Prior to that he worked at Carolinas Medical Center (formerly Charlotte Memorial Hospital). He is now retired, but still enjoys many hobbies including buying and selling antiques and growing vegetables. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife, Juanette. They have two grown daughters, Christina Mason and Tiffany Johnson, and a son, Jason Brock. Danny is a vegetarian and humanitarian.[citation needed]

Erickson was released from hospital in 1975 and embarked upon a solo career, working with Stu Cook from Creedence Clearwater Revival. However, his solo career was blighted by a continual struggle with mental illness and was never successful, resulting in Erickson withdrawing from public life for many years. However, in the 2000s he has re-emerged with one of his late 70s/early 80s backing bands, The Explosives, playing regular gigs including the Austin City Limits festival in September 2005, as well as Coachella in California, Hultsfred Festival in Sweden and Montreal World Film festival in Canada.

Tommy Hall currently lives in a run-down San Francisco residence hotel. His crowded room is decorated with cobwebs and Sixties posters and is stacked to the ceiling with cassettes and videotapes, without a CD in sight. His ex-wife Clementine keeps in contact and visits him regularly.[5] In the 1980s he was rumored to be the true identity of Texas outsider musician Jandek, but this has since been disproven.

Various Elevators tribute bands exist, such as Tantric Sons, featuring John Walton and Ronnie Leatherman, and a band called The Tommy Hall Schedule. Erickson's youngest brother Sumner Erickson covers many Elevators songs with his band The Texcentrics.

[edit] Legacy

Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continues to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Primal Scream — recorded covers of Elevators songs on Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson, one of the first tribute albums, in what would become a fad. 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 song "You're Gonna Miss Me" was covered by influential Australian group Radio Birdman on their 1977 album Radios Appear.

Seminal 1980s drone/space-rock band Spacemen 3 were hugely influenced by the 13th Floor Elevators, covering Roller Coaster for debut album Sound of Confusion and May the Circle Be Unbroken for third album Playing With Fire.

Le Bonne Route, a 1996 album by Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman features a song titled 'Lunatics at the Edge of the World', which Tek described as "An ode to Syd Barrett and Roky Erickson."

In 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.

In 2006, Dell Computers used "You're Gonna Miss Me" in one of their ads for their XPS laptop.

On April 24, 2007 during a radio promotion/interview before a concert, Jesse Lacey of Brand new credited the inspiration and a few lyrics for the song Degausser to Roky Erickson.

The band have also been an influence on the "stoner rock" scene the likes of Queens of the Stone Age and Nebula have regarded them as a big influence.

[edit] Discography

Cover of The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
Cover of The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

[edit] Albums

[edit] Box Sets

[edit] Compilations

[edit] Charting singles and albums

  • "You're Gonna Miss Me" (August 1966) - #55 Billboard, #50 Cash Box
  • "Reverberation (Doubt)" (November 1966) - #129 Billboard's Bubbling Under
  • "Easter Everywhere" (December 1967) - #122 Billboard's Bubbling Under, Cash Box, Record World

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Drummond, Paul (Dec 2007). Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and The 13th Floor Elevators. (Process Media. ISBN 978-0976082262. 
  2. ^ a b Moser, Margaret. "John Ike Walton", The Austin Chronicle, 2004-08-20. Retrieved on 2007-07-30. 
  3. ^ Vorda, Allen (1994). Psychedelic Psounds: Interviews from A to Z with 60s Psychedelic and Garage Bands. Borderline Productions. ISBN 0-9512875-9-1. 
  4. ^ The Austin Chronicle: Music: High Baptismal Flow: Part 2: The 13th Floor Elevators' ground floors: Where are they now?
  5. ^ Trybyszewski, Joe. "Where the Pyramid Meets the High", The Austin Chronicle, 2004-08-13. Retrieved on 2007-07-30. 

4. Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and The 13th Floor Elevators by Paul Drummond, foreword by Julian Cope (Process Media, December 2007)

[edit] External links