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A Major Evolutionary Step For Man

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5 May 12th, 2005 

33 Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful

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Champ666

Champ666

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Bye, it has been great for the most part but now I am off to annother part of the world to make my f...

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Few psychedelic bands are able to hold a sugar cube to the 13th Floor Elevators. Formed by Austin University undergraduate Tommy Hall who despite not being a musician had a clear vision of the route the band should. Tommy took an already successful local Texan band The Lingsmen and recruited Rocky Ericsson from the spades onto vocals to form the 13th Floor Elevators. The band were serious about psychedelic mind expansion, and Rocky eventually paid a fairly high price for this, spending years in a Texan asylum for the criminally insane, after pleading guilty to Marijuana possession.

Anyway onto the music Tommy Hall took on the role as lyricist and band guru, he also played the Electric Jug which created a sort of bubbling sound in the background of the music. This album has its feet fairly squarely in the garage rock of the time with the odd folky influence from Rocky. Beneath all the psychedelic gleam there is a great band here from the initial haunted yelping of Rocky on the punk rhythm and blues of "you're gonna miss me" onto the haunted surf guitar picking of "Roller Coaster" during which rocky sounds truly tortured, and the tenderness of the country gospel "Kingdom of Heaven" there are already glimpses of Rocky's Genus.

It is not just Rocky that shines here Stacy Sutherland is one of the most underrated guitarists in the history of psychedelic rock his guitar work reverberates around the songs adding layers of texture to the music in a truly psychedelic fashion, the haunted surf line on "Through the Rhythm" sends shivers up and down as it stalks through the song.

The recording quality at times on this CD lets things down and a proper remastering is well overdue. It also contains 10 bonus tracks 8 of which are almost unlistenable live recordings, due to the quality of the mastering not the quality of playing. However it does includes 2 songs by Rocky's previous band The Spades, the country folky "Wee Sell Soul" and their version of "You're Gonna Miss Me" which makes up for the other eight.

Considering that this album was released in 1966 it is way ahead of it's time and possibly the first of it's kind. Their influence still reverborates through music today with Robert Plant , Primal Scream, R.E.M and the Butthole Rurfers all cite them as an influence.

However I am going to recommend that you do not buy it for all it's brilliance it is unlikely that Rocky and the rest of the band are going to get any cash from it, and considering that the TrustRocky fund is approving a whole load of properly remastered Rocky Erikson releases this year then it would be better for him if you get those instead.

Track List:-

1. You're Gonna Miss Me
2. Rollercoaster
3. Splash 1
4. Reverberation (Doubt)
5. Don't Fall Down
6. Fire Engine
7. Thru The Rhythm
8. You Don't Know
9. Kingdom Of Heaven
10. Monkey Island
11. Tried To Hide
12. Everybody Needs Someone To Love (bonus track)
13. Before You Accuse Me (bonus track)
14. I'm Gonna Love You Too (bonus track)
15. You Really Got Me (bonus track)
16. Roll Over Beethoven (bonus track)
17. Word (bonus track)
18. Gloria (bonus track)
19. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) (bonus track)
20. We Sell Soul (bonus track) - Spades
21. You're Gonna Miss Me (bonus track) - Spades

 

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Comments about this review »

MAFARRIMOND 17.06.2005 21:20

Sounds good but I will wait for the rereleases. Maureen

sallysmith1973 12.05.2005 23:45

I think RockBoi's right, you should keep these for the next comp. Your music reviews are great. Sal x

craggsy23 12.05.2005 22:33

A good review, but it dosen't sound like my kind of thing. Helen

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