Search - 13th Floor Elevators :: The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators

Best-value, most-complete Elevators compilation

Reader Rabbit | Northern Calif., USA | 08/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Should you choose to take the 13th Floor Elevators "trip," hep cat, this is the full six sugar cubes. Three CDs include almost all of the band's recorded output: nearly 4 hours of music, with very good audio quality. The price works out to about two individually packaged CDs. Better value than most other Elevators compilations, which are typically one disc (~60 minutes/20 tracks of music), but cost almost a much.



You get the full contents of the Elevators' four official LPs: "Psychedelic Sounds of," "Easter Everywhere," the fake "Live" album (really studio outtakes with dubbed applause), and "Bull of the Woods." Plus two genuine live sets that have floated around for years as hard-to-find bootlegs: a 1966 performance from San Francisco, and a 1967 show from somewhere in Texas. Plus various bonus tracks/alternate takes by the Elevators, their precursors (the Spades), and their most prominent survivor (Roky Erickson).



If you already like the Elevators, then drop ~$27, turn on, and tune in. If you're just discovering the Elevators: think middle-period Jefferson Airplane (Roky sings a lot like Marty Balin), with more of the Texas blues groove that influenced Jorma Kaukonen. These guys were real Texans -- some hailing from Janis Joplin's hometown of Port Arthur."

Great songs but not a great job with them or packaging

Bmonster | Baltimore, MD | 03/13/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The 13th Floor Elevators made two brilliant rock/psych albums in the mid-60's. What happened later is the stuff of great stories, lore, and legal oppression. This set includes their four released albums, though only the 1st two (Psychedelic Sounds of & Easter Everywhere) were true releases fully sanctioned by the band. They were extremely creative both musicially and lyrically. Through studies in Eastern philosophy (Tommy Hall), mind-expanding indulgences and innate intelligence and curiosity, they were able to write and play such songs as "Splash 1", Slip Inside This House", "She Sells Soul", "Dust", "Levitation" and more. Roky's voice was to become one of legend. This set did little to improve the sound quality of previous issues, though that is possible, but expensive. Also, the packaging of the box and esp. the discs is inept and fails to live up to the quality of the music. And do not believe what one reviewer wrote when describing Roky's voice. Though at times the two do sound a bit alike on the slower, melodic tunes, Roky does not "sound a lot like Marty Balin". He sounds like Roky."