The mid-1960s saw the rise of countless local garage-rock scenes throughout the U.S. that, in many ways, laid the groundwork
for the psychedelic movement later in the decade and also the punk
movement that first cropped up in NYC in the mid-1970s.
While most of the bands comprising these local scenes were short-lived
and destined for permanent obscurity, The 13th Floor Elevators, from
Austin, TX. and fronted by one of the most
tragic figures of the rock-era, Roky Erickson, arguably rock 'n' roll's
first real counter-culture "wildman" figure and electric jug player and self-styled spiritual leader
Tommy Hall, who claimed to have participated in LSD experiments at UT
Austin in 1964, transcended their provincial origins by being one of the
first bands to openly advocate the use of psychotropic drugs as a form
of mind expansion as well as allowing the effects of this practice to
overtly influence their music. Hall: "Everything I wrote was inspired through my taking LSD. I invented the
electric jug totally out of my desire to find a place onstage with this
new group, so I could be a part of it, and so I could communicate my new
ideas through the lyrics I wanted to write."
What set The 13th
Floor Elevators apart from their garage-band contemporaries was their
musical sophistication, which manifested itself not only in their
playing, but also in their tendency to draw from multiple genres to
create their distinctive brand of melancholic psych-rock. Guitarist Stacy Sutherland was the driving force in achieving the band's unique sound. Hall: Stacy was a consummate guitarist, far ahead of his time. He had deep
fears about his dying young under violent circumstances. This manifested
itself as a deep, mysterious, soulful feeling in his music and gave the
Elevators a profound base to our overall sound. His sense of impending
doom was indeed prophetic."
The 13th Floor Elevators led a dangerously precarious
(in a legal sense) bohemian existence in amidst the ultra-conservative
culture of their home state, something that eventually necessitated an
extended stay in San Francisco in 1966-1967, where they helped foment
the quickly developing Bay Area psychedelic scene and reconnected with
fellow Austin native Janis Joplin (Joplin is rumored to have been
influenced by Erickson's distinctive vocal style). Just before their
visit to the Bay Area, the band had released their classic debut album,
The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators,
which was something of a clarion call for an impending revolution in
rock music. Aided by a breakthrough single, "You're Gonna Miss Me,"
which landed Erickson, Hall & co. on, of all things,
American Bandstand, The 13th Floor Elevators' debut album was a minor commercial
success despite their humble garage-band origins; however, what truly
set the album apart was its palpable sense of its own pioneering status.
In 1966, there were a number of bands toying with adding psychedelic
elements to their songs, but in the case of The 13th Floor Elevators,
they were pretty much inventing psych-rock from scratch by investing
their songs with a manic sense of emotional urgency and broadening their
musical palette to include sonic textures falling far outside the
purview of conventional pop music (not the least of which were Hall's
simply bizarre contributions on the electric jug).
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| Stacy Sutherland |
After returning to
Austin in early 1967, the band began recording what would become their
masterpiece,
Easter Everywhere, an unparallelled piece of
late-sixties psychedelia that features a more polished and confident
sound than its precursor matched with a cohesive set of consistently
fine songs. From the acid-drenched slow-burner "Slip Inside This House,"
to the beautifully mournful folk ballad "I Had to Tell You," Roky
Erickson's vocals are simply stunning in their ability to convey
everything from unhinged passion to wistful melancholia, and Stacy
Sutherland's lead guitar work is an exercise in understated melodic
brilliance. Sadly, a year after the release of
Easter Everywhere,
Erickson was arrested for the possession of a single marijuana joint,
which, in Texas at the time, was prosecuted in outlandishly harsh ways.
In order to avoid a 10 year prison term, Erickson pleaded insanity;
consequently, he was institutionalized and repeatedly subjected to
electroshock therapy until his release in 1972. As a result of
Erickson's fate, The 13th Floor Elevators slowly fell apart, finally
disbanding in 1969 after releasing
Bull of the Woods; however,
few if any bands were as instrumental in the rise of psychedelia and the
unprecedented revolution that rock music underwent during the late
1960s. Tommy Hall: "Most people got caught up with illusions, failing to see truth provided
by the psychedelic experiences. You must look past the pyramid, into its
shadow, to find the truth."
