b3ta.com board
You are not logged in. Login or Signup
Home » Messageboard » XXX » Message 10421632 (Thread)

# 'The Very Best of the 13th Floor Elevators' is your primer. Probably available very cheap, and recommended to anyone even slightly turned on by garage rock/early psychedelia.
The solo fragments are a long way down the line, and just sound like like a damaged old baby drooling about Jesus outside the context of his initial incandescence.
(I helped save b3ta! Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sun 15 May 2011, 2:46, archived)
# Ah, okay.
I've heard of the 13th Floor Elevators, but not particularly familiar with them.
(I helped save b3ta! 4Q just lurking, Sun 15 May 2011, 2:48, archived)
# Well, I won't badger you about 'em.
It's undignified "poorly-recorded tripping Texan teenagers screaming into a bucket" stuff, which sometimes forgets to wear trousers.
Which I love, but friends with more rarefied tastes really don't like at all.
(I helped save b3ta! Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sun 15 May 2011, 2:59, archived)
# Well so far, I approve of:
You're Gonna Miss Me
(I helped save b3ta! 4Q just lurking, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:01, archived)
# Here's 'Levitation'.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVePUYzC34k

And here's 'Monkey Island', one of the great masterpieces of rock 'n' roll alienation for anyone who ever didn't like putting on a tie and going to work:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyzk2byktGg&feature=related

(You'll already know their marathon mind-melt 'Slip Inside This House' from the cover on 'Screamadelica')
(I helped save b3ta! Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:05, archived)
# I like the sounds,
but can't really be bothered to concentrate on the words.
(I helped save b3ta! 4Q just lurking, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:19, archived)
# The words were proto-psych nonsense written by their jug player (that's the odd gobbling noise) who was a university lecturer in Austin.
The only notable thing about the lyrics is that - as with the Elevators as a whole - it would've been brave to be experimenting with LSD in Texas in 1964/5, let alone making records about it. With a teenage audience.
The singer (Roky Erickson) got busted for possession of two spliffs, and was given the choice of prison or mental hospital.
Whoops.
Several decades of loony bin and god knows how many experimental 'treatments' later, he got shat back out into the world, a husk.
Quite a tale, presumably easy to find somewhere on the web.
Sorry, I appear to have got a bit evangelical. Odd, cos I can rarely summon up the enthusiasm to walk out of the front door.
(I helped save b3ta! Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:33, archived)
# I had no idea.
I knew they were considered quite highly but had never got around to listening to any of their stuff.
Singing about LSD in 60s Texas - brave indeed.
(I helped save b3ta! 4Q just lurking, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:36, archived)
# Makes the Butthole Surfers seem pretty anaemic, eh?
(as a result of all this, I've just pre-ordered a soon-coming box set of all the Elevators' LPs for £13.70-odd. Great, I try to recommend a band to someone, and end up spending money myself!
I think this has happened before, me encouraging people to see Monty Python's Holy Grail and then buying it on DVD)
(I helped save b3ta! Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:46, archived)
# Huge tracts of land...
(I helped save b3ta! 4Q just lurking, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:51, archived)
# There's some lovely filth down 'ere, Dennis!
(I helped save b3ta! Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sun 15 May 2011, 3:55, archived)