Eye Mind: Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators

This is a fantastic and fascinating book, looking in depth at the history of this unique psychedelic band and at 414 pages with the copy quite small there is plenty to get your teeth into. It gives a great look into sixties life, mostly around Texas and San Francisco and I found it hard to put down. If you're a fan of counterculture literature or the sixties you will love this rock & roll read. I put it up there with Wonderland Avenue and The Electric cool Aid Acid Test.

The originators of psychedlic music and their mindblowing lifestyle (2/4 people found this helpful)

LSD and DMT were legal, mescaline grew freely in the form of peyote all over Texas, in the years after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, then the pioneers of the drug culture inevitably found musicians to reflect these experiences. This laid the foundation in 65 directly for Janis & Big Brother, whose style unashamedly copies the Elevators. This is a music that began in Austin, Texas.
Repressed by the McCartheyist authorities and suppressed by inept management they escaped and became the headline band in Frisco in 66, the year before it all happened there, supported by Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service et al. If only they'd played Monterey! They went back to Texas that winter and, due to bail restrictions, could not return West after their busts. You're not paranoid when the system really is out to get you and they were after the Elevators big time! It didn't help that Tommy was half protecting and half posessing Roky with his incessant "let's drop acid and do music" dogma. That was partly responsible for their genius and partly for their problems. But then, Stacey and Roky's contribution\inadequacies, were equally responsible for that genius\problems conflict - acid casualties three.
Their management failed to do justice to their innovative psychedelic creations with poorly mastered lo-fi recordings. You can get an idea of what they were doing but it hardly does them justice. This is the story of what could have been but for conspiracies, halucinogens, institutionalisation, busts, repression, ineptitude, poor timing and apathy. This was the seed and root of Frisco music which emerged and blossomed on the more liberal West Coast. Without the Elevators it wouldn't have happened. This is the story of that embryonic evolution and how it impacted by osmosis on the bands they touched and sold their drug doctrine to.
Read this book. It is probably a better guide than their CDs to just how huge an influence they were and how to snatch failure from the jaws of success. The aftermath and years since are a Greek tragedy of (arguably self-inflicted) misfortune and psychiatric meanderings. A great recording is Roky's compilation "Even Gremlins have Pictures" but not representative of the Elevator's seminal early years. Roky is surely Texas's version of Syd Barrett. Had they been based in England or LA they would have been enormous but then, where would they have found all that peyote?

Long overdue but well worth the wait... (3/5 people found this helpful)

Ah at last! There has been a huge gap in the history of rock n roll literature until the release of this book. It seems unbelievable that apart from rather dodgy collections of press cuttings and compendiums of lyrics that the life and times of one of the most important bands in the history of popular music had not been marked by a serious attempt at critical analysis and story telling. Thankfully this has now been put right. This exemplary history of the band is remarkable in its thoroughness and is a credit to its author. I wont bang on endlessly about what makes it great but basically if you love the band or even have a passing interest in them you should buy this book. Packed with largely unseen photographs and extensive interviews this book is gripping and ultimate a melancholy history of another time. I would recommend purchasing the excellent Roky Erickson doc "Youre Gonna Miss Me" alongside this. I got levitation! Thank you Mr Drummond.

a must for all Elevators and Erickson fans (3/6 people found this helpful)

this seems a real labour of love - very detailed, based on extensive interviews, plenty on the social and cultural context of the psychedelic era, great photographs. if you are interested in the Elevators then I highly recommend this book.

Eye Mind: Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators

Paul Drummond

Reader Reviews:

Counterculture Classic (0/0 people found this helpful)

The originators of psychedlic music and their mindblowing lifestyle (2/4 people found this helpful)

Long overdue but well worth the wait... (3/5 people found this helpful)

a must for all Elevators and Erickson fans (3/6 people found this helpful)

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