Does anybody love their music as much as I do? And how did you get into them? It was a good two years ago, or around about then I reckon; I was really into Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane, that sort of psychedelic sound, and I'd just started listening to the early Pink Floyd stuff too. I had some vouchers for HMV that I'd gotten for my 18th birthday from some relative or other, but I couldn't really find anything that I could say I desperately wanted. Then I came across "The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators," a 3 CD box set which includes the band's entire recording career. I'd never heard of them before, but the very pretty, technicoloured box design and the word "psychedelic" had a seductive effect on my mind, so I thought why not. Since then, I can say that they've probably become one of my favourite bands; the one box set is still all I own, but I don't think there's anything that isn't included on it, except maybe Roky Erickson's solo stuff or some incredibly rare bootleg recordings. I know the recordings are mostly of pretty poor quality, but I think their sound is really groovy and their music quite original and inspiring. Does anyone else agree with me on this one? What albums do you own, and which songs are your favourites?
The Psychedelic Sounds of is my favorite album, and from that i really really like Thru The Rhythm, Your Gonna Miss Me, and Dont Fall Down. The album is just perfect, pretty hard to narrow down the favorites.
I've just been getting to know this band a bit and they sound really good to me. I love the songs "you're gonna miss me" and "roller coaster"
"Roller Coaster" was allegedly Syd Barrett's inspiration for the Floyd song "Lucifer Sam." If you listen to them both, the guitar riffs are fairly similar.
I've got all three of their original albums (the debut on vinyl! yay me ), and a whole whole bunch of "rarer" Elevators stuff, from the Roky Barrett ftp or whatever that site is. Psychedelic Sounds... is my favourite album, my favourite songs are "Reverberation," "Slip Inside This House," "Slide Machine," "Fire Engine," "I've Got Levitation," You're Gonna Miss Me," "Livin' On," "May The Circle Remain Unbroken," and of course their cover of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." Awesome awesome band.
Psychadelic Sounds of... is a damn near perfect record. I'm listening to Kingdom of Heaven right now, that's such a great riff! Splash 1, Reverberation, She Lives In a Time of Her Own, and I've Got Levitation are my other favorites by them.
I first got into the Elevators two or two and a half years ago. I was, at the time, trying to track down all kinds of psychedelic rock. I had been reading about the genre, and the 13th Floor Elevators always seemed to come up. Well, one night I went to this record store I'd never been to, and it turns out that this store (which is not unfortunately closed down) carried a lot of obscure psych albums re-released on vinyl. So, I bought The Psychedelic Sounds... that night, and I've been a fan ever since. Now I own their first three studio albums on CD, as well.
