13th Floor Elevators

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The band, formed in December 1965, was made up of members of the Austin Jag band (in some other folk band sources) from The Lingsman, guitarist Stacy Sutherland, bass player Benny Terman, drummer John Ike Walton and potter Tommy Hall. It was the latter who became her ideologist. Tommy Hall studied at the philosophical and psychological department of the University of Texas at Austin and, in addition to playing in a group on the “jag” (a ceramic pot for stewing meat, used as an exotic wind musical instrument), was an active participant in the local student underground life, which had a bohemian character. In this circle, Hall discovered mescaline, a mescal (or peyote) made from a local cactus, and "sung" by Carlos Castaneda in his series of books on Mexican Indian Don Juan. Then the search for stronger impressions related to the “expansion of consciousness” led him to LSD.

Such hobbies coincided in time with the cardinal changes taking place in American musical culture in the mid-1960s. On the one hand, “Beatlemania” and “British invasion” radically altered traditional white folk music and blues, on the other hand, Bob Dylan’s work became increasingly important. The question of “conformity with the spirit of the times” was a question of the existence of the group as such, so Hall, judging that LSD, literature, philosophy and psychology could help him in the revolutionary transformations, suggested that others change the style of the group and first of all find a vocalist. Initially, this place was offered to a good friend of Tom, a student at the same university, Janice Joplin . However, for some reason, the future legendary singer of the white blues did not join the group, although Joplin maintained friendly relations with all the participants and at first still took part in their concerts. In particular, it is known ^{[ where from? ]} that it was with them that she got to San Francisco. In the end, the recent high school graduate and songwriter, 18-year-old Rocky Erickson (Roger Erkinard), who sang in The Spades' Austin garage band, became the vocalist. Hall met Erickson at one of the Spades concerts at the local Jade Room club and offered to rehearse together. After a successful jam arranged in the basement of the Halls house, Erickson was invited to join the group, which he agreed to. The union was consolidated by the first joint LSD trip (LSD reception). And a few days later the group changed its name to Elevators, which was proposed by drummer Walton - apparently, being impressed by the joint LSD trip. The name attracted and was adopted in the version of Tom Hall's wife Clementine 13th Floor Elevators ("Elevators to 13 floors"), because in the light of the "modernization" of the group undertaken by Hall, it turned out to be the most opportune and relevant. At the household level, this was a mockery of the national superstitious fear of number 13, which is absent in many high-rise buildings and, in principle, is rarely used in everyday life; at the metaphysical level, number 13 denoted the upper step of the pyramid on the path to enlightenment, which is crowned by the "third eye" (or "all-seeing eye"). In this sense, the name of the group meant that its members associate themselves with elevators that raise the consciousness of their listeners to the heights of enlightenment - or, as Erickson figuratively said, "the place where the pyramid meets the eye."

In December 1965, the newly-minted band played their first concert, after which the musicians became incredibly popular in Austin, despite the fact that local bands such as Shiva's Headband and Conqueroo started around the same time. A month later, in January 1966, the Houston producer Gordon Bynem, to whom rumors about the band had reached, suggested she record a single on her record company Contact Records. Here, the musicians were incredibly lucky: Erickson brought with him to the group a hit of his own composition “You're gonna miss me”, which was performed in Austin (and even released a single) by The Spades. It was decided to re-record it, having previously reworked it slightly in the direction of tightening the sound. The second side of the single was taken by the song "Tried to hide" by Hall and Sutherland. The single quickly became popular in Austin, and then throughout Texas.

At the same time, Hall improved his jag by attaching a microphone to it. The instrument became electric, adding to the overall sound of the group, quite energetic in the garage style, otherworldly mystical sound. Since then, the sound of this pot has become the band's signature card. Then Hall put forward, perhaps, the main condition for the existence of the group - not a single concert, not a single song recording should now have been complete without LSD. Subsequently, this rule extended even to the life of musicians, which led to a real tragedy.

The first result of the "application" of this rule was the birth of the phrase "psychedelic rock", the authorship of which is often attributed to Rocky Erickson. It’s hard to say whether this is true, but many critics believe that it was he who introduced this circulation, because in the summer of the same year, when the group first arrived in San Francisco, he already used it with might and main. It was with his light hand that the young bands of the West Coast picked up this name to signify their music.

Throughout the spring of 1966, musicians toured extensively throughout the state, performed at Austin and Houston clubs, gaining many fans with a combination of energetic performances and a mystical image. Their repertoire of that time consisted mainly of cover versions of songs by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Kinks, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly and Solomon Burke, but there were also several songs of his own composition. The latter in the repertoire became more and more. Almost everything wrote songs - Erickson, Hall, Sutherland, even Clementine Hall, who co-wrote Erickson in the song “Splash1”. Five songs for the group were written by one of their mutual friends, Austin student poet Powell St. John. However, in addition to fans, the group also acquired vigilant supervision of the local police, under which its concerts were often held - the Texas authorities did not like the outspoken propaganda of LSD. The musicians were arrested several times, but the conflicts were resolved.

In the summer, the band, mediated by producer Lelan Rogers, whose brother Kenny was a well-known country singer, signed a major Houston record company International Artists and released the single “You're Gonna Miss Me” nationwide. The song began to rise quickly in the American charts, reaching 55th place (according to some sources 56) and 50th place in the Cash Box in Billboard. The group performed twice on Dick Clark's popular television show American Pop and several television shows in Dallas (Sumpin Else) and Houston (The Larry Kane Show). In addition, the musicians gave a number of concerts on the west coast of the United States, including in the best halls of San Francisco, The Fillmore and The Avalon, and shot two videos that were broadcast on national television. The first “You're Gonna Miss Me” chords, played in a slightly different tone, marked the beginning of Jefferson Airplane's “Runnin 'round the world” song. San Francisco himself liked the musicians so much for their relaxed atmosphere that they stayed in it longer than they planned, and only the firm’s demand to return to record the first full album to consolidate the success of the single forced the group to leave this city, leaving Janis Joplin as vocalists of another group - Big Brother & the Holding Company.

At the peak of popularity

The first album The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators was recorded in August 1966 in just 8 hours, after which the group returned to San Francisco. This album is notable in many respects: firstly, all 11 of his songs were of his own composition - not a single cover version; secondly, it can be called one of the first - even before “Sergeant Pepper” and “Pet Sounds” - conceptual works in rock music that gave rise to the phenomenon of “landscape thinking”. From the design of the cover to the arrangement of songs in the album, everything served as the embodiment of one idea. Musically, the album was not a revelation - it was an ordinary garage rock, in which the influence of British bands was felt, with a strong mystical touch. The album struck with another - energy, novelty of sounding, even some kind of audacity, recklessness and freshness. It is not surprising that upon its release in November of the same year with a circulation of 40 thousand copies (some sources ^{[ what? ]} called a much larger figure - 140 thousand.) The album instantly became popular. The single released a little earlier with the song “Reverberation (Doubt)” hit the No. 129 Billboard's Bubbling Under Charts in November 1966. The group finally became "their" in California. On posters of that period, the name The 13th Floor Elevators can be seen next to teams such as the Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Great Society and The Byrds.

However, at the same time, serious conflicts began within it. Many musicians did not accept the idea of ​​constant LSD trips and were not enthusiastic about the fact that the group was actually the mouthpiece of the Hall and the relay of his ideas; to everything else, dissatisfaction with the management of International Artists was added. In the end, strife led to the departure of the bass player and drummer. Their places were taken by Ronnie Leatherman and Danny Thomas respectively. Soon Lezerman was replaced, Dan Galindo became the bass player. In this composition, in the summer of 1967, the group recorded their second album - Easter Everywhere . Compared to the first, it sold worse, it sold only 10 thousand copies, so International Artists did not make an additional circulation, although initially there were such plans. Later, the second album was recognized as a “psychedelic masterpiece”. In particular, it recorded a cover version of Bob Dylan’s song “It's All Over Now, Baby Blue,” which the author himself considered the best of all covers for this composition, recorded in the mid-1960s.

Decay

In the spring of 1968, the group again settled in the Houston studio, recording the third album under the working title Beauty And The Beast in an updated composition - bassist Lezerman returned to the group instead of Galindo. However, the recording of the songs was extremely difficult due to the aggravated problems with drugs and the authorities - this was already evidently manifested by the reverse side of Tom Hall's philosophy. The group was constantly breaking out of the studio work schedule. Everything else, the musicians had problems personally with Rocky Erickson. Together with LSD, he took other drugs, the most harmless of which were mescaline, DMT, marijuana. Everything pursued one goal - to "expand consciousness." Once this led to the fact that at the concert Erickson instead of the words of the songs began to carry all kinds of nonsense, having forgotten where he was. The concert had to be interrupted. In addition, he developed symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia : according to Clementine Hall, he began to “hear voices ordering him to kill Jackie Kennedy.” Erickson soon saw that Clementine was "great looking like Jackie." On top of that, one day during a police search at his home, he found so many drugs that, according to Texas law, led to a 20-year prison sentence. The musicians realized that something urgently needed to be done.

In April, The 13th Floor Elevators gave their last concert, while work in the studio ceased. Erickson was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he was treated with electric shock. After Erickson left the hospital in August, Hall took him to San Francisco, where they hid from friends for some time. So the group actually ceased to exist.

However, there is another version of these events, according to which the symptoms of schizophrenia were skillfully imitated by Erickson on the advice of his lawyer in order to avoid imprisonment. Indirect proof for the followers of this version is Erickson’s rather successful musical career in the late 1970s and early 1980s: his solo albums were popular, some of the songs even became soundtracks for horror films.

Left without a group, International Artists, represented by producer Fred Carroll, decided to release another 13th Floor Elevators album. It was released in August of that year and included songs recorded by musicians primarily in 1966. It was decided to call it simply Live , and to give it an allegedly concert sound, Carroll put on the sound of the crowd and applause. This album featured four cover versions that were part of the band’s concert repertoire but never released on albums, two of their own songs from the archives of the musicians and five of their best songs of previous years recorded in another version.

The remaining members of the group Sutherland, Thomas and Lezerman finalized the material recorded in the spring and in December 1968 released another album called Bull of the Woods under the guise of 13th Floor Elevators. It was a fairly traditional rock by that time and did not have much success. After the official breakup of the group, the remaining members continued their musical career in other groups. Several attempts were made to reunite the group, but in the 1970s, relations between Erickson and Hall worsened, which already condemned such attempts to failure. The death of Stacy Sutherland, who was shot dead on August 24, 1978 by his own wife, put an end to the story. It is believed that the murder was committed during the heroin breaking of a former guitarist.

The fate of the participants

Rocky Erickson in the late 1970s formed a new band, “Bleib Alien”, later renamed “Rocky Ericson and The Aliens” and began a solo career, releasing several songs at different companies: “Starry Eyes” / “Two Headed Dog” (1975 ), Bermuda / The Interpreter (1977), Mine Mine Mind, I Have Always Been Here Before, and Click Your Fingers Applauding the Play of the same year. Since 1980, Erickson has been releasing solo albums, some of which were produced by former Creedence Clearwater Revival member Stu Cook. The themes of most of Erickson’s songs were inspired by his stay in a psychiatric hospital and the subjects of horror films and were mystical, otherworldly. In the 2000s, a documentary about the life of Rocky Erickson was shot by Kevin McAlester.

Benny Terman changed the bass for the violin and was spotted in bands such as Plum Nellie and Mother Earth along with Powell St. John and the Austin band Armadillo World Headquarters. John Ike Walton played with Ronnie Lezerman in Tommy Hall's Schedule band.

Stacy Sutherland created his own group Ice, in which he played until his death in 1978. It is believed that the blues and acid sound of his guitar and the masterful use of the reverb and echo gadgets influenced the sound of bands such as The Allman Brothers Band and ZZ Top. Sutherland's grave is located in Center Point, Texas.

Danny Galindo died in 2001 from complications associated with hepatitis C.

Powell C. John, songwriter for Slide Machine, You Don't Know, Monkey Island, You Gotta Take That Girl, Kingdom of Heaven for 13th Floor Elevators and Bye, Bye, Baby ”for Big Brother And The Holding Company, mastered the rhythm guitar and joined the Conqueroo band, later worked with Tracy Nelson and the American group Mother Earth as a musician and songwriter. In 2006, he released his CD Right Track Now.

В 1990 году вышел трибьют-альбом «Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson», в котором были представлены кавер-версии песен The 13th Floor Elevators и Роки Эриксона, сделанные 21 современной группой, включая REM , ZZ Top , The Jesus & Mary Chain , и Primal Scream . В 2005 году на одной из сессий фестиваля South by Southwest (SXSW) музыка Elevators обсуждалась с Пауэлом C. Джоном, одним из поэтов-песенников группы. Музыка группы также продолжает жить благодаря группе Tommy Hall Schedule как трибьют-группы «Elevators» и младшего брата Эриксона Самнера Эриксона, исполняющего музыку Elevators с басистом Ронни Лезерманом. В сентябре 2005 года Роки Эриксон провёл в Остине фестиваль музыки The 13th Floor Elevators.

• 1966 — The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
• 1967 — Easter Everywhere
• 1968 — Live
• 1968 — Bull of the Woods

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