13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS

'The 13th Floor Elevators' was a psychedelic rock music group founded 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. Their biggest hit "You're Gonna Miss Me", a Billboard #55 hit in 1966, was featured on the 1972 compilation '', which was later to be considered a landmark in the history of garage rock and the development of punk rock.
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 "Easter Everywhere" (with the exception of "She Lives" and "Levitation") which is 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

Members

Name

History

Music

Post-Elevators careers

Legacy

Discography

Albums

Charting singles

References

External links

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

Name

The band's name is 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. According to Walton, he suggested the name "Elevators" and Clementine Hall came back with the group's full name the next morning.^[1]

History

The band emerged from the Austin psychedelic scene in 1965, where it was contemporary to bands such as including Shiva's Headband and The Conqueroo. The band rose from previous incarnations known as The Spades and The Lingsmen.
Both The Lingsmen and, to begin with, The Elevators themselves were supported and managed by Walton's family. The group's first single, the Erickson-penned "You're Gonna Miss Me", a re-recording of an early Spades track, reached #2 on local charts in early 1966, eventually reaching #55 on the pop charts nationwide.
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. 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. 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. 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,^[2] before she headed to San Francisco and joined Big Brother and the Holding Company.
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, signalling the end of the band's career.

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.
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.

Post-Elevators careers

After Erickson pleaded insanity in response to drugs charges, he was committed to a mental hospital, 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. After a battle with heroin addiction, Sutherland was shot to death by his wife Bunny in 1978, and is buried in Center Point, Texas.

Dan 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.

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 a new band, The Explosives, playing the 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.^[3]
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.

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 the tribute recording, ''Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson''. In 2005, a panel at the SXSW music festival discussed the music of the Elevators and Powell St. John, one of the Elevators' songwriters.
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''.
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.

Discography

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

Albums

★ ''The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators'' (1966)

★ ''Easter Everywhere'' (1967)

★ ''Live'' (1968)

★ ''Bull of the Woods'' (1968)

Charting singles

★ "You're Gonna Miss Me" (August 1966) - #55 Billboard, #50 Cash Box

★ "Reverberation (Doubt)" (November 1966) - #129 Billboard's Bubbling Under

References

1. John Ike Walton Margaret Moser
2. Psychedelic Psounds: Interviews from A to Z with 60s Psychedelic and Garage Bands, , Allen, Vorda, Borderline Productions, 1994,
3. Where the Pyramid Meets the High Joe Trybyszewski

External links

★ Texas Psychedelic Ranch: 13th Floor Elevators, Roky Erickson, Golden Dawn, Bubble Puppy, more...

★ A QUEST FOR PURE SANITY - THE PSYCHEDELIC POETRY OF TOMMY HALL

★ http://www.lysergia.com/LamaWorkshop/elevFAQ.htm

★ 13th Floor Elevators History Interview

★

★ Roky Erickson's official site

★ Life In The Elevators (Recollections of Danny Thomas of The 13th Floor Elevators chapters)

★ Profile for Stacy Sutherland at Find A Grave