Eye Mind: Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators

published	November 2007 by Process Packaging
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0976082268 (isbn13: 9780976082262)
pages	350
description	"One of the most exhilarating and important rock 'n' roll stories ever told."Julian Cope The trailblazing 13th Floor Elevators released t...more [close] "One of the most exhilarating and important rock 'n' roll stories ever told."Julian Cope The trailblazing 13th Floor Elevators released the first "psychedelic" rock album in America, transforming culture throughout the 1960s and beyond. The Elevators followed their own spiritual cosmic agenda, to change society by finding a new path to enlightenment. Their battles with repressive authorities in Texas and their escape to San Francisco's embryonic counterculture are legendary. When the Elevators returned to Texas, the band became subject to investigation by Austin police. Lead singer Roky Erickson was forced into a real-life enactment of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and was put away in a maximum-security unit for the criminally insane for years. Tommy Hall, their Svengali lyricist, lived in a cave. Guitarist Stacy Sutherland was imprisoned. The drummer was involuntarily subjected to electric shock treatments, and the bassist was drafted into the Vietnam War. This fascinating biography breaks decades of silence of band members and addresses a huge cult following of Elevators fans in the United States and Europe. The group is revered as a formative influence on Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Primal Scream, R.E.M, and Z.Z. Top. [close]
date added	05-13-07 edit book

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EYE MIND	1	01/25/2008 06:10AM

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Robert rated it:

09/17/07

bookshelves: booksaboutmusic

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: any fan of garage rock or psychedelic rock

I had a vague mental notion of the history of the 13th Floor Elevators and Roky Erickson, but this book really laid out the promise and tragedy of this group. I first encountered Erickson's music as a college student in the early 80s, when I heard the song "Bloody Hammer." Lots of Erickson's songs from this era have an almost cartoonish horror-movie vibe to them, but at the same time have an urgency that undercuts the silliness. "Bloody Hammer" is a perfect example. I had the...more I had a vague mental notion of the history of the 13th Floor Elevators and Roky Erickson, but this book really laid out the promise and tragedy of this group. I first encountered Erickson's music as a college student in the early 80s, when I heard the song "Bloody Hammer." Lots of Erickson's songs from this era have an almost cartoonish horror-movie vibe to them, but at the same time have an urgency that undercuts the silliness. "Bloody Hammer" is a perfect example. I had the album The Evil One, which I liked a lot, but really didn't pursue any more of his work. I knew he had been in the 13th Floor Elevators, which was considered a pioneering psychedelic band and, amazingly enough, was from Austin.

Well, all the blanks on this mysterious band are filled in here in Eye Mind by Paul Drummond. Drummond is no great prose stylist, and the book has some obnoxious typos (the city of Addicks is hilariously referred to as Addicts), but like many superfans, he really digs up the details, extensively interviewing all the surviving cast members and unearthing up old interviews with those who have died.

The most interesting thing (and distressing in a way) was that the jug player, Tommy Hall, was the leader of the band and saw it as a way of pushing his thoughts of instant, acid-fueled enlightenment on the masses. So in addition to writing the lyrics to most of the songs, he was the one who pushed the band to perform on acid, and he seemed to have a certain devil-may-care attitude towards success or even getting paid (he had his own source of income, after all—he dealt acid). The were all babes in the woods, and were royally ripped off by their incompetent and dishonest record label, Houston's International Artists (which also put out records by Red Crayola and Bubble Puppy, who had the psychedelic hit "Hot Smoke and Sassafras"). And all the band members were reckless with drugs without Tommy's help. But still, one gets the feeling that if Tommy hadn't been such a dictator about spreading his gospel and thought a little bit about the well-being of his bandmates, a lot of financial, legal, and psychological problems could have been avoided.

Interesting facts—the band's first Houston shows were played at a joint called La Maisson, a teen dance club located in an old supermarket on Richmond at Mandel. If I am not mistaken, that is now the location if the Menil Museum's huge Dan Flavin installation. Janis Joplin almost joined the band in the days before she went to San Francisco. Her vocal style is said to have been influenced by Roky's, and the song "Splash One" was inspired by an encounter between Roky and Janis. Townes Van Zandt was invited to join the band when it was collapsing as a base player (even though he didn't know how to play base), and he and Roky shared a house for a while.

Indeed, one of the most interesting things that comes through is how interwoven the Austin (and to a lesser extent Houston) music scene was then. I'm sure this is true everywhere—musicians in a given city know each other and play in each others' bands, and if this state of flux seems unfamiliar to us fans, it's because we see only a preserved-in-amber version of it—preserved on record, in this case.
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