13th Floor Elevators
Encyclopedia
The 13th Floor Elevators were an American rock band from Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 formed by guitarist and vocalist Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.-Biography:...

, electric jug
Jug (musical instrument)
The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The jug is just that: an empty jug played with the mouth...

 player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland, which existed from 1965 to 1969. During their career, the band released four LPs and seven 45s for the International Artists
International Artists
International Artists was an independent record label based in Houston, Texas that originally existed from 1965 to 1970.During its existence IA released 12 albums and 39 singles and was owned by a group of businessmen in Houston. Among its staff were producer Lelan Rogers, brother of country...

 record label.

The 13th Floor Elevators found some commercial and artistic success in 1966-67, before dissolving amid legal troubles and drug use in late 1968. As one of the first psychedelic
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...

 bands, their contemporary influence has been acknowledged by 1960s musicians such as Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...

, Peter Albin of Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...

, and Chris Gerniottis of Zakary Thaks
Zakary Thaks
The Zakary Thaks were an American garage band from Corpus Christi, Texas, formed in the mid 1960s.The band developed out of the Marauders, a teen group which included Chris Gerniottis , Pete Stinson , and Rex Gregory , and who then became the Riptides, adding lead guitarist John Lopez...

. Their debut 45 "You're Gonna Miss Me
You're Gonna Miss Me (song)
"You're Gonna Miss Me" is a 1966 single from the band 13th Floor Elevators from their album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The song peaked at #55 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1966...

", a national Billboard #55 hit in 1966, was featured on the 1972 compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American garage rock singles released in the mid- to late 1960s. It was assembled by Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records, and Lenny Kaye, later lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group...

, which is considered vital in the history of garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

 and the development of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

. Seminal punk band Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...

 played their song "Fire Engine" live in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s-90s, the 13th Floor Elevators influenced important bands such as Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...

 and Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...

, both of whom covered their songs, and 14 Iced Bears
14 Iced Bears
14 Iced Bears were a British indie pop band associated with the C86 music scene. Formed in Brighton in 1985, by Rob Sekula and Nick Emery the band featured a shifting line-up of musicians across their seven-year existence, centred around songwriter and vocalist Rob Sekula and guitarist Kevin Canham...

 who use an electric jug on their single "Beautiful Child". In 2009 the International Artists
International Artists
International Artists was an independent record label based in Houston, Texas that originally existed from 1965 to 1970.During its existence IA released 12 albums and 39 singles and was owned by a group of businessmen in Houston. Among its staff were producer Lelan Rogers, brother of country...

 released a ten CD box set entitled Sign of the 3-Eyed Men, which included the mono and new, alternate stereo mixes of the original albums together with two albums of previously unreleased material and a number of rare live recordings.

History: Rise to fame

The 13th Floor Elevators emerged on the local Austin music scene in December 1965, where they were contemporary to bands such as The Wig and The Babycakes, and later followed by Shiva's Headband
Shiva's Headband
Shiva’s Headband, an early Texas psychedelic rock band, formed in Austin in 1967. The group was the house band at the Vulcan Gas Company, a late 1960s Austin nightclub. The band is credited with a significant role in the founding of the Armadillo World Headquarters. The bands first royalty check...

 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 as The Lingsmen. Tommy Hall was instrumental in bringing the band members together, and joined the group as lyricist and electric jug player.

The band's name was developed from a suggestion by drummer John Ike Walton to use the name "Elevators" and Clementine Hall added "13th Floor". In addition to an awareness that a number of tall buildings don't have a 13th floor, it has been noted that the letter "M" (for marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

) is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet.

In early January 1966, the band was brought to Houston by producer Gordon Bynum to record two songs to be released as a 45 on his newly formed Contact label. The songs were Erickson's "You're Gonna Miss Me", and Hall-Sutherland's "Tried to Hide". The 45 was a major success in Austin, and made an impression in other Texas cities. Some months later, the International Artists
International Artists
International Artists was an independent record label based in Houston, Texas that originally existed from 1965 to 1970.During its existence IA released 12 albums and 39 singles and was owned by a group of businessmen in Houston. Among its staff were producer Lelan Rogers, brother of country...

 label picked it up and re-released it.

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 TV, such as Sumpin Else, in Dallas, and The Larry Kane Show in Houston. During the Summer, the IA re-release of "You're Gonna Miss Me" became popular outside Texas, especially in Miami, Detroit, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In October 1966, it peaked on the national Billboard chart at the #55 position. Prompted by the success of the 45 the Elevators toured the west coast, made two nationally televised appearances for Dick Clark, and played several dates at the San Francisco ballrooms The Fillmore
The Fillmore
The Fillmore Auditorium is a historic music venue in San Francisco, California, made famous by Bill Graham. Named for its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, it lies on the boundary of the Western Addition and the Pacific Heights neighborhoods.In 1968,...

 and The Avalon
The Avalon Ballroom
The Avalon Ballroom is a music venue, in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco, California, at 1268 Sutter Street, on the north side, one building east of the corner of Van Ness Avenue. The space operated from 1966 to 1968 and reopened in 2003...

.

The International Artists
International Artists
International Artists was an independent record label based in Houston, Texas that originally existed from 1965 to 1970.During its existence IA released 12 albums and 39 singles and was owned by a group of businessmen in Houston. Among its staff were producer Lelan Rogers, brother of country...

 record label in Houston, also home to contemporary Texas underground groups such as Red Krayola
Red Krayola
Red Krayola was a psychedelic, avant-garde rock band from Houston, Texas, formed by art students at the University of St. Thomas in 1966. The band was led by singer/guitarist and visual artist Mayo Thompson, along with drummer Frederick Barthelme and Steve Cunningham...

 and Bubble Puppy
Bubble Puppy
-Origins:The group was formed in 1966 in San Antonio, Texas by Rod Prince and Roy Cox. Looking to form a "top gun rock band" based on the concept of dual lead guitars, a staple of southern rock that was highly unusual on the psychedelic music scene, Prince and Cox recruited Todd Potter: a gymnast,...

, signed the Elevators to a record contract and released the album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators is a 1966 album by 13th Floor Elevators. The album's sound, featuring elements of folk, garage, blues and, of course, psychedelia, is notable for its use of the electric jug, as featured on the band's only hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me", which...

in November 1966, which became popular among the burgeoning counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...

. Tommy Hall's sleeve-notes for the album, which advocated chemical agents (such as LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

) as a gateway to a higher, 'non-Aristotelian' state of consciousness, has also contributed to the album's legendary status.

During their California tour the band shared bills with Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...

, The Great Society with Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...

, and Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music...

. Upon returning to Texas in early 1967, they released a 45 "Levitation" and continued to play live in Austin, Houston and other Texan cities. November 1967 saw the release of the band's second album, the psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...

 masterwork Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere is the second album from the Texas psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. The album was originally released as an LP by International Artists. For a long time, the album was a hard-to-find collectors' item, until re-released as a CD from Collectables Records in 1993.The...

. Highlighted by the opening track, the transcendental epic "Slip Inside This House", the album is rated by most critics and fans as their finest work. It also featured a cover of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records . The song was originally recorded on January 15, 1965 with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass...

", a version Dylan is rumored to have called his favorite. However, shortly before work began on Easter Everywhere, Walton and Leatherman left the band, due not only to disputes over mismanagement of the band's career by International Artists, but also due to a fundamental disagreement between Walton and Hall over the latter's overzealous advocacy of the use of LSD in the pursuit of achieving a higher state of human consciousness. As a result, they were not credited in the Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere is the second album from the Texas psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. The album was originally released as an LP by International Artists. For a long time, the album was a hard-to-find collectors' item, until re-released as a CD from Collectables Records in 1993.The...

sleevenotes, despite having appeared on "(I've Got) Levitation" and "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)." Despite the lengthy studio work and resources utilized, and the album's later legendary status, Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere is the second album from the Texas psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. The album was originally released as an LP by International Artists. For a long time, the album was a hard-to-find collectors' item, until re-released as a CD from Collectables Records in 1993.The...

was not the success the band and International Artists had hoped for. Lacking a hit 45 and released too late in the year, it sold out its original run but was never reprinted, suggestion somewhat disappointing sales. Record label paperwork indicate that the debut LP sold upwards 40.000 copies during its original run, while Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere
Easter Everywhere is the second album from the Texas psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. The album was originally released as an LP by International Artists. For a long time, the album was a hard-to-find collectors' item, until re-released as a CD from Collectables Records in 1993.The...

may have sold around 10.000 copies.

History: Falling apart

While the band were unable to repeat their national success, they were still a powerful presence on the Texas rock music scene. Chris Gerniottis, ex-lead singer of Zakary Thaks
Zakary Thaks
The Zakary Thaks were an American garage band from Corpus Christi, Texas, formed in the mid 1960s.The band developed out of the Marauders, a teen group which included Chris Gerniottis , Pete Stinson , and Rex Gregory , and who then became the Riptides, adding lead guitarist John Lopez...

 has spoken repeatedly of how the Elevators stood apart from all the other bands on the regional scene, and they continued to influence these bands during the late '60s. Following the local popularity of the track "Slip Inside This House", an edited 45 was released in early '68 and saw plenty of rotation on Houston radio. Meanwhile, the Elevators had lost their bass player Dan Galindo, who went on to another I A band, the Rubiayat. Duke Davis was briefly brought in to replace Galindo, before the band's earlier bassist Ronnie Leatherman returned during the Summer of 1968. As documented in a lengthy interview/article in the Texas underground music magazine Mother #3, the band worked all Spring '68 on their new album, which at one point was to be called Beauty And The Beast. But an unstable member line-up, and the increasingly erratic behavior of the psychedelicized Tommy Hall and mentally fragile Roky Erickson, led to little of value coming out of these sessions. The live shows had lost their original energy, and often the band would perform without their lead singer Erickson, due to his recurring hospital treatments at the time. The last concert featuring the 'real' Elevators occurred in April 1968.

International Artists put out a Live LP circa August 1968, which was old demo tapes and outtakes dating back to 1966 for the most part, with some phony applause added. Around this time, the original 13th Floor Elevators disbanded, as the original nucleus of Erickson-Hall-Sutherland had been reduced to guitarist Stacy Sutherland only. Sutherland brought some of his own songs for a final set of studio sessions which led to the dark, intense posthumous album Bull Of The Woods. Initially disliked by many Elevators fans, it has found a substantial fan-base today, with some even rating it the band's best LP. These final sessions consisted of Sutherland on guitar, Ronnie Leatherman on bass, and Danny Thomas on drums. A few live gigs were played around Texas during the second half of 1968, until an 'obituary' in Rolling Stone magazine in December 1968 declared the band gone. International Artists pulled together the various studio recordings from 1968 and with the assistance of drummer Danny Thomas added some horn arrangements, which became the Bull Of The Woods album, released circa March 1969. The very last 13th Floor Elevators record released by I A was a reissue of the "You're Gonna Miss Me" 45, dating from mid-1969 circa.

Singer Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

 was a close associate of Clementine Hall and the band. She opened for the band at a benefit concert in Austin, and considered joining the group prior to heading to San Francisco and joining Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane. They are best known as the band that featured Janis Joplin as their...

. Her style of singing has been described as having been influenced by Erickson's trademark screaming and yelping as showcased in "You're Gonna Miss Me."

Drug overuse and related legal problems left the band in a state of constant turmoil, which took its toll, both physically and mentally, on the members. In 1969, facing a felony marijuana possession charge, Roky Erickson chose to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

 rather than serve a prison term, thus signaling the end of the band's career.

Bull of the Woods
Bull of the Woods
Bull of the Woods was the 13th Floor Elevators' last album on which they worked as a group, and despite the near absence of both Roky Erickson and Tommy Hall, it is noted for its moody, dreamy, and fuzzed-out psychedelic sound. It featured not only the 1968 lineup of Roky Erickson, Stacy...

, released in 1969, was the 13th Floor Elevators' last released album on which they worked as a group and was largely the work of Stacy Sutherland. Erickson, due to health and legal problems, and Tommy Hall were only involved with a few tracks, including "Livin' On," "Never Another," "Dear Doctor Doom," and "May the Circle Remain Unbroken".

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
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...

s. Sutherland's pioneering use of reverb
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...

 and echo, and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

y, acid
Acid rock
Acid rock is a form of psychedelic rock, which is characterized with long instrumental solos, few lyrics and musical improvisation. Tom Wolfe describes the LSD-influenced music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cream,...

-drenched guitar predates such bands as The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...

 and ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...

. According to Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons
William Frederick "Billy" Gibbons is an American musician, actor and car customizer, best known as the guitarist of the Texas blues-rock band ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs. Gibbons is known for playing his Gretsch Billy Bo guitar and his famous 1959...

 of ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...

 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.

A special aspect 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
Minimoog
The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. It was released in 1970 by R.A. Moog Inc. , and production was stopped in 1981. It was re-designed by Robert Moog in 2002 and released as Minimoog Voyager.The Minimoog was designed in response to the use of...

 and cuica
Cuíca
Cuíca , or "kweeca", is a Brazilian friction drum often used in samba music. The tone it produces has a high-pitched squeaky timbre. It has been called a 'laughing gourd' due to this sound....

 drum. In contrast to traditional musical jug technique, Hall did not blow into the jug to produce a tuba-like sound. Instead, he vocalized musical runs into the mouth of the jug, using the jug to create echo and distortion of his voice. When playing live, he held the microphone up to the mouth of the jug, but when recording the Easter Everywhere album, the recording engineer placed a microphone inside the jug to enhance the sound.

The band was unique, even in the 1960s, in that they (at Tommy Hall's urging) played most of their live shows and recorded their albums while under the influence of LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

, and built their lifestyle and music around the psychedelic experience. Intellectual and esoteric influences helped shape their work, which shows traces of Gurdjieff, the General Semantics
General Semantics
General semantics is a program begun in the 1920's that seeks to regulate the evaluative operations performed in the human brain. After partial program launches under the trial names "human engineering" and "humanology," Polish-American originator Alfred Korzybski fully launched the program as...

 of Alfred Korzybski, the psychedelic philosophy of Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...

, and Tantric meditation.

Members

The classic 13th Floor Elevators line-up was built around singer/guitarist Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.-Biography:...

, electric jug
Jug (musical instrument)
The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The jug is just that: an empty jug played with the mouth...

 player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland. The rhythm section went through several changes, with drummer John Ike Walton and bass player Ronnie Leatherman being the longest permanent members. Hall was the band's primary lyricist and philosopher, with Sutherland and Erickson both contributing lyrics as well as writing and arranging the group's music. Along with Erickson's powerful vocals, Hall's "electric jug" became the band's signature sound in the early days. In July 1967, Walton and Leatherman left the band and were replaced by Danny Thomas (drums) and Dan Galindo (bass). Ronnie Leatherman later returned for the third and final studio album, Bull of the Woods
Bull of the Woods
Bull of the Woods was the 13th Floor Elevators' last album on which they worked as a group, and despite the near absence of both Roky Erickson and Tommy Hall, it is noted for its moody, dreamy, and fuzzed-out psychedelic sound. It featured not only the 1968 lineup of Roky Erickson, Stacy...

.
  • Roky Erickson
    Roky Erickson
    Roky Erickson is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.-Biography:...

     - guitar, lead vocals, songwriter
  • Tommy Hall - electric jug
    Jug (musical instrument)
    The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The jug is just that: an empty jug played with the mouth...

    , vocals, songwriter
  • Stacy Sutherland (May 28, 1946 – August 24, 1978) - lead guitar, vocals, songwriter
  • John Ike Walton - drums (November 1965 – July 1967)
  • Benny Thurman (February 20, 1943 – June 22, 2008) - bass, vocals (November 1965 – July 1966)
  • Ronnie Leatherman - bass, vocals (July 1966 – July 1967; July 1968 – August 1968)
  • Danny Thomas
    Danny Thomas (musician)
    Danny Thomas, born in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, was the second drummer for the 13th Floor Elevators. Danny played drums and sang back up vocals on the final two studio albums, Easter Everywhere and Bull of the Woods...

     - drums, vocals (July 1967 – October 1969)
  • Danny Galindo (June 29, 1949 – May 17, 2001) - bass (July 1967 – January 1968)
  • Duke Davis - bass (January 1968 – April 1968)


Collaborators and contributors
  • Powell St. John
    Powell St. John
    Powell St. John is an American singer and songwriter. He was a well-known figure on the mid-1960s Austin, Texas campus folk/bohemian music scene. He was an occasional member of various Austin rock groups, including The Conqueroo and he wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators.-Biography:Powell St...

     - member of Mother Earth
    Mother Earth (band)
    Mother Earth was an American blues rock band from California, fronted by Tracy Nelson.Nelson, who hailed from Madison, Wisconsin, began her career as a solo artist, but formed the Mother Earth ensemble after moving to San Francisco...

    , songwriter ("Slide Machine", "You Don't Know", "Monkey Island", "Take That Girl", "Kingdom of Heaven", "Right Track Now")
  • Clementine Hall - wife of Tommy Hall, vocals and songwriting collaborations with Erickson ("Splash 1", "I Had to Tell You")

Post-Elevators careers

After pleading insanity in response to drugs charges---he was arrested for possession of a single marijuana joint---Roky Erickson was committed to a mental hospital in 1969. allmusic.com's Jason Ankeny has written that the treatments Erickson received during his three-and-a-half-year may have contributed to his subsequent mental troubles. At that point the Elevators had already dissolved, although local promoters, along with their record label, International Artists, made some attempts to keep the band's name alive. Erickson attempted a sporadic solo career, burdened by management who exploited his instability and involved him in contracts that left him no control or profit from his music. After staying mostly out of sight in the 1980s, Erickson gradually returned to music in the 1990s, especially when the tribute album Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye---featuring players from ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...

, The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...

 and R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...

, all of whom claimed Erickson's or the Elevators' influence---was released. He recorded All That May Do My Rhyme for the Trance Syndicate label, owned by the Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...

's King Coffey, who claimed Erickson told him it was the first time he'd ever been given a royalty check for his music. By 2001, Erickson's brother Sumner had been awarded custody of the troubled musician and helped him receive better psychological treatment, restore his physical health, and connect with a legal team that helped him untangle his complicated past contracts and begin receiving more royalties for his music. I Have Always Been Here Before, a 43-track compilation of his post-Elevators music, was released in 2005, and Erickson receives full royalties for the set.

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. Sutherland was accidentally shot and killed by his wife Bunny on August 26, 1978 during a domestic dispute, and is buried in Center Point, Kerr County, Texas.

Danny Galindo played bass with Jimmie Vaughan
Jimmie Vaughan
James Lawrence "Jimmie" Vaughan is an American blues rock guitarist and singer from Dallas, Texas, United States. He is the older brother of the late Stevie Ray 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 left the 13th Floor Elevators in 1968 and was hired to perform with Delta blues guitarist Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam John Hopkins better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas...

. After leaving Texas and returning to North Carolina he played from 1970-1997 with: Lou Curry Band, Dogmeat, and Bessie Mae's Dream. During this time, he owned his own delivery company called Gophers Inc. Prior to that he worked in accounting at Carolinas Medical Center (formerly Charlotte Memorial Hospital). He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife, Juanette, and they have two daughters, Christina Juanette Thomas and Tiffany Joan Thomas Johnson, and son, Jason Vincent Brock.

Benny Thurman joined a string of other bands, most notably Mother Earth
Mother Earth (band)
Mother Earth was an American blues rock band from California, fronted by Tracy Nelson.Nelson, who hailed from Madison, Wisconsin, began her career as a solo artist, but formed the Mother Earth ensemble after moving to San Francisco...

, with Powell St. John
Powell St. John
Powell St. John is an American singer and songwriter. He was a well-known figure on the mid-1960s Austin, Texas campus folk/bohemian music scene. He was an occasional member of various Austin rock groups, including The Conqueroo and he wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators.-Biography:Powell St...

, and played with Plum Nelly in the 1970s.

Roky Erickson was released from hospital in 1973 and embarked upon a successful solo career that resulted in a CBS album produced by Stu Cook
Stu Cook
Stuart Alden Cook is an American bass guitarist, best known for his work in the rock band, Creedence Clearwater Revival....

 from Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....

. During the 1980s he struggled with mental illness and withdrew 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
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...

 festival in September 2005, as well as Coachella in California, the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden and Montreal World Film festival in Canada.

Tommy Hall currently lives in downtown San Francisco. In the 1980s he was rumored to be the true identity of Texas outsider musician Jandek
Jandek
Jandek is the musical project of an anonymous outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released over 60 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical...

, but this has since been disproven. He became a devout follower of Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...

 in the '70s.

Various Elevators tribute/related bands exist, such as "The John Ike Walton Revival" featuring namesake John Ike Walton (formerly known as The Tommy Hall Schedule), and Acid Tomb, featuring members of The Alice Rose
The Alice Rose
The Alice Rose is an indie pop/rock band from Austin, Texas, formed in 2001. The group's founding members are songwriter and vocalist JoDee Purkeypile, bassist Sean Crooks, and drummer Chris Sensat. Keyboardist Brendan Rogers joined the band in 2005...

. Erickson's youngest brother Sumner Erickson covers many Elevators songs with his band The Texcentrics.

Legacy

Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continue to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 contemporary bands — including R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...

, ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...

, Richard Lloyd, David Leonard
David Leonard (musician)
David Leonard is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, probably best-known as a member of Richard Lloyd's touring and recording band....

, The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...

, and Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...

 — 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
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...

 music festival discussed the music of the Elevators and Powell St. John
Powell St. John
Powell St. John is an American singer and songwriter. He was a well-known figure on the mid-1960s Austin, Texas campus folk/bohemian music scene. He was an occasional member of various Austin rock groups, including The Conqueroo and he wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators.-Biography:Powell St...

, one of the Elevators' songwriters.

The song "You're Gonna Miss Me" was covered by influential Australian group Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman was one of the first punk bands in Australia along with The Saints. Deniz Tek and Rob Younger formed the group in Sydney, Australia in 1974...

 on their 1977 album Radios Appear
Radios Appear
Radios Appear was the first full length studio album by Sydney punk-rock band Radio Birdman. The album was recorded at Birdman's Trafalgar Studios, Sydney during 1976 and 1977. Trafalgar initially distributed the album via mail order and by sales from the backs of friend's and band members' station...

.

Seminal 1980s drone/space-rock band Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...

 were hugely influenced by the 13th Floor Elevators, covering Roller Coaster twice, for debut album Sound of Confusion
Sound of Confusion
1994 re-issue bonus tracks...

and as a 17 minute version for debut EP "Walkin' With Jesus". Vocalist/guitarist Pete Kember also covered "Thru the Rhythm" with his post-Spacemen 3 project Spectrum
Spectrum
A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a prism; it has since been applied by...

.

Other notable covers are "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the Psycotic Pineapple, "(I've Got) Levitation" by Julian Cope
Julian Cope
Julian Cope is a British rock musician, author, antiquary, musicologist, poet and cultural commentator...

, and "Reverberation (Doubt)" by the Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...

.

Le Bonne Route, a 1996 album by Deniz Tek
Deniz Tek
Deniz Tek is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter and a founding member of Australian group Radio Birdman who broke up, for the last time, after their last European tour in 2007...

 of Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman was one of the first punk bands in Australia along with The Saints. Deniz Tek and Rob Younger formed the group in Sydney, Australia in 1974...

 features a song titled 'Lunatics at the Edge of the World', which Tek described as "An ode to Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...

 and Roky Erickson."

In the 2000 movie High Fidelity
High Fidelity (film)
High Fidelity is a 2000 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack and the Danish actress Iben Hjejle. The film is based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, with the setting moved from London to Chicago and the name of the lead character...

, "You're Gonna Miss Me
You're Gonna Miss Me (song)
"You're Gonna Miss Me" is a 1966 single from the band 13th Floor Elevators from their album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The song peaked at #55 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1966...

" 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
You're Gonna Miss Me (song)
"You're Gonna Miss Me" is a 1966 single from the band 13th Floor Elevators from their album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The song peaked at #55 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1966...

" in one of their ads for their XPS laptop.

On April 24, 2007, during a radio promotion/interview before a concert, Jesse Lacey
Jesse Lacey
Jesse Thomas Lacey is an American musician from Levittown, New York. He is the frontman of the band Brand New.-Musical career:...

 of Brand new
Brand New
Brand New is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. Formed in 2000, the band currently consists of vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Jesse Lacey, guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garrett Tierney, drummer Brian Lane, and guitarist/keyboardist Derrick Sherman.In the late...

 credited the inspiration and a few lyrics for the song Degausser to Roky Erickson.

In 2009, "You're Gonna Miss Me
You're Gonna Miss Me (song)
"You're Gonna Miss Me" is a 1966 single from the band 13th Floor Elevators from their album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The song peaked at #55 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1966...

" was used at length during a scene in episode 21 of Alan Ball
Alan Ball (screenwriter)
Alan E. Ball is an American writer, director, actor and producer for film, theatre and television.-Early life:Ball was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball, an aircraft inspector and a homemaker...

's HBO series True Blood
True Blood
True Blood is an American television series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in the state of Louisiana...

, culminating in a frantic, ultimately unsuccessful attempt by Lafayette Reynolds and Lettie Mae Thornton to remove Tara Thornton
Tara Thornton
Tara Mae Thornton is a fictional character in Charlaine Harris's The Southern Vampire Mysteries and their television adaptation, HBO's True Blood.-Biography:...

 from the demonic influence of maenad
Maenad
In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus , the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones"...

 Maryann Forrester.

The band have also been an influence on the "stoner rock
Stoner rock
Stoner rock or stoner metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, combining elements of psychedelic rock, blues rock, traditional heavy metal and doom metal. Stoner rock is typically slow-to-mid tempo and features a bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and 'retro' production...

" scene the likes of Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...

 and Nebula
Nebula
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...

 and Names and Faces have regarded them as a big influence.

Noted Hollywood actor Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...

 praised the Elevators in a 2005 interview with Esquire Magazine: "Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, a band out of Texas. They were basically the first psychedelic-rock band. 1965. And if you listen to old 13th Floor Elevators stuff—Roky Erickson especially, his voice—and then go back and listen to early Led Zeppelin, you know that Robert Plant absolutely copped everything from Roky Erickson. And it's amazing. And Roky Erickson is sitting in Austin, Texas; he's just there. And Robert Plant had a huge hit. It always goes back to those guys, you know? I love those fucking guys."

Texas recording artist Ray Wylie Hubbard notes "no band was cooler than the 13th Floor Elevators" in his song "Screw You, We're from Texas" from his album "Growl," 2010.

Discography

Charting singles
  • "You're Gonna Miss Me
    You're Gonna Miss Me (song)
    "You're Gonna Miss Me" is a 1966 single from the band 13th Floor Elevators from their album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The song peaked at #55 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1966...

    " / "Tried to Hide" (January/May 1966) - #55 Billboard, #50 Cash Box in October 1966
  • "Reverberation (Doubt)" / "Fire Engine" (October 1966) - #129 on Billboard's Bubbling Under in November 1966


Uncharted singles
  • "I've Got Levitation" / "Before You Accuse Me" (February 1967)
  • "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own" / Baby Blue (Late 1967)
  • "Slip Inside This House" / "Splash 1" (February 1968)
  • "May the Circle Remain Unbroken" / "I'm Gonna Love You Too" (Fall 1968)
  • "Livin' On" / Scarlet and Gold" (Early 1969)


Albums
  • The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
    The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
    The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators is a 1966 album by 13th Floor Elevators. The album's sound, featuring elements of folk, garage, blues and, of course, psychedelia, is notable for its use of the electric jug, as featured on the band's only hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me", which...

    (November 1966)
  • Easter Everywhere
    Easter Everywhere
    Easter Everywhere is the second album from the Texas psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. The album was originally released as an LP by International Artists. For a long time, the album was a hard-to-find collectors' item, until re-released as a CD from Collectables Records in 1993.The...

    (November 1967) - #122 on Billboard's Bubbling Under
  • Live
    Live (13th Floor Elevators album)
    Live is a 1968 studio album by the psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators. In an interview the band cited that the live album was essentially made up of studio outtakes that were overdubbed with phony cheering and applause...

    (August 1968)
  • Bull of the Woods
    Bull of the Woods
    Bull of the Woods was the 13th Floor Elevators' last album on which they worked as a group, and despite the near absence of both Roky Erickson and Tommy Hall, it is noted for its moody, dreamy, and fuzzed-out psychedelic sound. It featured not only the 1968 lineup of Roky Erickson, Stacy...

    (1969)


CD box sets
  • The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators
    The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators
    The Psychedelic World Of The 13th Floor Elevators is a 3 disc box set. The set collects the band's studio output, with live cuts, alternate versions and the two original singles as The Spades.-CD 1:# You're Gonna Miss Me# Roller Coaster# Splash 1...

    (2002)
  • The Complete Elevators IA Singles Collection
  • Sign of the Three Eyed Men (2009)


Compilations
  • The Very Best of the 13th Floor Elevators Going Up
    The Very Best of the 13th Floor Elevators Going Up
    The Very Best Of The 13th Floor Elevators Going Up is a 2004 compilation.-Track listing:# You're Gonna Miss Me# Slip Inside This House# Fire Engine# Livin' On# She Lives in a Time of Her Own# Reverberation # Earthquake# Tried to Hide...

    (2004)
  • Best of the 13th Floor Elevators: Manicure Your Mind (1997, 1998)
  • The 13th Floor Elevators: His Eye is on the Pyramid (1999)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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