Talk:The 13th Floor Elevators

in regards to Janet Joplin

I am not that good at doing citations, but the info about Janis Joplin comes from the Allan Vorda interview with members and friends of the band; specifically Tary Owen. Here is the revelant passage:

AV: It has been rumored and even stated (Rock Movers & Shakers) that Janis Joplin either auditioned and/or sang with the Elevators in June of 1966 and that there was consideration given to her being co-vocalist with Roky Erickson.

TO: That's true. Janis and 1 grew up in Port Arthur and we were really good friends. Jim Langdon also wrote some articles about Janis in an attempt to get her singing career going again. Janis had been singing in California and she had a bout with drug addiction. She came back to Texas to get straightened out and after she did she wanted to sing again. Jim Langdon arranged for her to come back to Austin and play at a place called The 11th Door doing bluesy-folk stuff. It was a benefit show for Teodar Jackson who had been killed. The 11th Door was located where Symphony Square is now by 11th and Red River.

A number of musicians performed such as myself and Powell St. John, but of particular interest was that Janis sang and the Elevators closed the show. Roger Baker did a light show which was done at the Methodist Student Center. It was the first light show in Austin which was during June 1966 and it may have been the first light show in the country, possibly before anything in California.

Janis met the Elevators and there was talk of Janis joining the band, but she got an offer to go back to California and join Big Brother and the Holding Company. So she took that instead of staying with the Elevators. jlpinkme

Jug

Anyone know exactly what the 'jug' was?

One and a half gallon, galvanized kerosene jug with a strange handle on it.

I read somewhere that Roky's trip to the hospital was ordered by the state after a second bust for marijuana rather than for any genuine need. Does anyone have more information about that claim?

What it was, was Tommy Hall blowing into a jug: a small pottery jug at that; with a microphone duck-taped to the side of it. For years I had supposed that Hall had drilled a hole in the bottom, inserted a microphone, and somehow corked the opening, but this was not the case. In any event, it emitted a totally unique sound; one that has never been fully duplicated. "I was really into The Jim Kweskin Jug Band back about 1965," Hall disclosed in a 1996 interview in his San Francisco apartment. "Maria Muldaur was in that group. She did 'Midnight At The Oasis' years later. I said, 'What a cool sound they get, blowing into a jug!' So when I got the band idea rolling, I decided to do the jug thing, but amplify it. I've still got the jug here someplace." www.flagpole.com/Issues/09.23.98/ort.html Also see Clementine Hall interview. To see how he played check : http://youtube.com/watch?v=cYh5oMDlWwQ&mode=related&search= Bububu 23:45, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Back in 1967/1968 the penalty for 1 ounce of marijuana(possession) was twenty years in prison in Texas. To avoid this Roky put in an insanity plea. Unfortunately this got him into the Rusk State Mental Hospital where electro-shock therapy was applied to his forehead. Not a good thing to do to someone that had opened up by using LSD hundreds of times prior to 1968.

13th Floor Elevators members...

I was stationed at Ft. Juachuca, Arizona in the summer of 1969 and one of my buds was a Tommy Chadwell from Austin Texas that claimed to be the bass player for the group until he was drafted. From what i've recently read on the internet bout the group this guy was pretty right on about his stories with the group, etc. and man was he crazy! jesus! If anyone out there in cyberland knows of this character i'd appreciate any further info... i do have a picture of me and him mopping floors in the latrine and he pretending the mop was a guitar.... whata trip! whata flashback! marv@marvelousmarv.com

thanks! marv mason/ grand canyon arizona

Here's an obituary of someone named Tommy Chadwell, which matches some of the dates that you reference.

https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/21097143/Tommy-Chadwell/Houston/Texas/Miller-Funeral-and-Cremation

It doesn't mention him playing in a band, but that is often left out of obituaries. Frankzappatwin (talk) 15:58, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Categories

Is there actually any reason to categorize this as a pre-punk group? (Other than chronologically, which presumably isn't what the category is all about.) — B.Bryant 23:31, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

John Ike Walton

I have merged the content from the John Ike Walton article into this one. John Ike Walton's VFD debate had 3 delete votes and 2 redirect votes, but the first redirect vote said "...merging anything useful" and the second redirect vote was per the first one. I will leave the people interested in this article to decide what is useful and what is not in the text I merged in. Sjakkalle (Check!) 12:57, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Note - same deal with Benny Thurman. -- Jonel | Speak 15:42, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Clean up this article!

This article is very poorly written, and needs serious help. All of the claims (especially those regarding Erikson's mental health, his treatment, and the claim about marijuana and the band name) are totally unsubstantiated. There is no citation for anything whatsoever. It is jumbled and difficult to read, and the incoherent section at the end is haphazardly tacked on for no apparent reason.

This article, when I came upon it, had more errors (grammar, spelling, punctuation, formatting) than I have ever seen in a Wikipedia article. I've done a basic cleanup, but it's still a mess. Someone please do something. This article is in dire need of help, and should probably be completely re-written. --Muugokszhiion 4 July 2005 03:16 (UTC)

• I am removing the attention notice, as the article is now readable and coherent. -- Reinyday, 9 August 2005

"Stacy is buried in the Center Point, Texas cemetery with an awesome headstone." Using the adjective "awesome" here appears amateurish and juvenile

This whole 13th Floor Elevators article needs some expansion. I am certainly not a expert on them or on wikipedia so i wont attempt to edit the page, but The 13th Floor Elevators are a very important band in the history of rock and roll and deserve more information pertaining to them on wikipedia. More information about their history, their run ins with the law, information about the albums and perhaps some professional reviews would be wonderful. Iscream22 (talk) 13:19, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Also there is no picture of The 13th Floor Elevators on this page. Someone should at least find a good picture and put it up. Iscream22 (talk) 13:19, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

13th Floor Elevators book & more

In 1998 (1st edition) and 2002 (2nd edition) I published the only books written about the 13th Floor Elevators to date. The title is "13th Floor Elevators - The Complete Reference File", published by Lysergia.com (see website), and the author is Patrick Lundborg. The book is oriented towards hard facts and basic data such as recording sessions and day-by-day activities, and is not a formal biography. The 2nd edition was 150 pages and had some graphics. Both editions were printed in limited runs and are long sold out. A CD-Rom version of the book has been sold in recent years, but is also currently out of print.

The Wikipedia entry for the 13th Floor Elevators seems reasonably accurate, although it puts emphasis on some aspects that were considered important in the 1970s-80s, and are downplayed by Elevators fans today.

The connection to 70s "punk" music is of minor importance; the Elevators role as one of the first psychedelic bands in the world is much more important. The band was formed with an explicitly psychedelic (LSD-inspired) agenda. Their debut LP was an underground hit across the USA, making an impact on the emerging San Francisco "acid rock" scene as well as other metropolitan areas like Detroit and Miami. It went on to sell some 40.000 copies at the time, and after decades of innumerable reissues and bootlegs, total sales today probably exceed 100.000 copies.

Band vocalist Roky Erickson is currently (Spring 2007) reviving his long dormant solo career with successful concerts around the USA. A documentary movie about Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, titled "You're Gonna Miss Me" and directed by Keven McAlester, premiered in 2005 and has been shown at various film festivals. Here is the movie webpage: http://youregonnamissme.com/

Feel free to contact me via Lysergia.com.

Plu4085 13:17, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Edited songwriting credits

The songwriting credits were not correct. Much of the music was in fact written by Stacy Sutherland, especially on Bull of the Woods after Roky left. (Hall did not play any instruments) and the other members of the group did AFAIK not contribute at all to the band's material. Powell St. John wrote some songs, but he was never a proper member. Sponsianus (talk) 20:16, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Dead link

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://web.wt.net/~duane/13thfloo.html
  • In 13th Floor Elevators on 2011-05-23 02:58:50, 404 Not Found
  • In 13th Floor Elevators on 2011-06-01 15:13:04, 404 Not Found

--JeffGBot (talk) 15:13, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Dead link 2

During several automated bot runs the following external link was found to be unavailable. Please check if the link is in fact down and fix or remove it in that case!

• http://13thfloorelevators.uuuq.com/index.html
  • In 13th Floor Elevators on 2011-05-23 02:58:46, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'
  • In 13th Floor Elevators on 2011-06-01 15:13:29, Socket Error: 'getaddrinfo failed'

--JeffGBot (talk) 15:13, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Mortal Engines

I'm not putting this in the article, as my personal view is that the "Legacy" section contains too much fluff already, but in case anyone else feels it's interesting: Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines has an airship called The 13th Floor Elevator, which given Reeve's propensity for inserting references all over the place is, I'm sure, a reference to this band. 86.185.94.206 (talk) 16:58, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Reads like This Is Spinal Tap

This article is ridiculously reverential, and consists of what some call "fan wank".

For example, the author of the article is clearly not aware of Ken Kesey or the "Acid Tests" in California.

Note that it is contradictory to claim that an artist was hugely influential, and at the same time, they could not even get more than 10,000 copies of their great opus work printed.

Ultimately, Wikipedia is all about rewriting history to fit 21st Century sensibilities (using "references" even if they are circular ones like other crowd-sourced sites). But then so is All Music (where every artist is five stars).

I would caution that sales are not indicative of influence so drawing that conclusion is problematic. The fact that there are references from musicians and others that the Elevators were an influence on them backs that up. The extent of the influence - especially if you go with the thought of who they influenced in turn - is far-reaching indeed.THX1136 (talk) 15:23, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Memories of Love Street

The Elevators used to often play a club at Houston's Allen's Landing on Buffalo Bayou, the northern boundary of downtown Houston. Love Street Light Circus and Feel Good Machine was upstairs at a white stucco building, accessed by an open black metal stairwell. The main section of the audience was rows of plywood backrests padded with big throw pillows where the audience reclined. On the sides were tall stools and tables, lot of black paint with day glow and UV lamps on the sides. From the booth above the front door came a pulsing cascade of focused light. 16mm movie projectors, Carousel 35mm projectors, overhead projectors with trays of oil and dyed water. Watching the Elevators from the second row of pillows was always a special evening. I learned how Tommy played jug from 10 feet away. I would dare to call it "tongue singing" with the jug being a resonance chamber.

Stacy Sutherland was nothing short of astounding, as good as any guitar player as I have known. Only one other guitarist I knew of could cleanly play three simultaneous riffs, and that was Mance Lipscomb. Stacy was so far above every other guitar player around him. He was good friends with Dylan (how the band got royalties that they could afford on It's All Over Now, Baby Blue). Every time I watched Stacy play, with or without the band, I was left in pure awe. He was that good.

The band, being such a radical departure from social norms, were haunted by law enforcement, who did everything they could get away with shutting down the band. Roky was not the only one busted. Others also had their bouts in the courts. It became difficult to manage the controversial band under such conditions, to bring them to a larger audience, and deals fell through. Those of us who experienced them live were touched with their sound. They were fully as important to 70's music as the Grateful Dead was. They were musician musicians, those who set the bar for others to follow. The list of followers was a long one, many who became famous.

Unfortunately, I lost my entire vinyl Elevators collection in a fire in Austin in the late 70's. But I can still play a couple dozen of their songs. Not as well as Stacy, but who could. And every now and then, I find someone else who can play their songs, and it's a special night.

(Jerry Walsh) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.47.132.144 (talk) 00:02, 23 September 2014 (UTC)