Easter Everywhere

Due to the upcoming Easter weekend (and the sorely needed break I am taking for its duration), I will be posting a little more erratically over the next week or so. I'm hoping the break will afford me some extra time to sleep and evaluate some new records. I'll still probably be posting in the interim, I'm just not certain of how consistently.

In the meantime, I felt it was appropriate to write on Easter Everywhere (1967), the 13th Floor Elevators' second record. Fronted by 19-year-old Roky Erickson, the Elevators formed in Austin, TX in 1965. They recorded their first album, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators in 1966 - it would be the first time a band utilized the term "psychedelic" to describe their music. Not surprisingly, the album sleeve contained brazen endorsements of LSD. The music itself was fairly successful - "You're Gonna Miss Me," the album's single, made it as high as #55 on the charts. The follow-up to The Psychedelic Sounds of, 1967's Easter Everywhere, was a comparatively more mature effort. From the opening 8-minute opus, "Slip Inside this House," to the upbeat "She Lives," to a strung-out cover of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," the album rarely falters. It is considered one of the finest statements of the psychedelic era, despite never selling particularly well or producing any hit singles.

Unfortunately, the band's lifestyle eventually caught up with them. In 1968, Erickson was hospitalized after speaking gibberish. He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic (perhaps, as was the case with Syd Barrett, brought on by extensive use of LSD), subjected to ECT, and released. Later in 1969, Roky was caught in possession of a single joint. Due to the draconian Texas laws, he faced a ten year prison sentence - a punishment he avoided by pleading insanity. Sadly, this plea would lead to several more years of ECT and hospitalization, which he unsuccessfully attempted to escape several times. By the time he was released, the psychedelic era was long gone, the 13th Floor Elevators had broken up, and Roky was a shadow of his former self.

Today's upload is "Nobody to Love," one of my preferred tracks from Easter Everywhere. In addition, I've posted a video clip of the band miming "You're Gonna Miss Me" on television. Note that Tommy Hall, the band's lyricist, is playing an "electric jug" (it's actually a closely-miked "acoustic" jug) - this was a large part of the band's signature sound.

"Is this the 13th Floor?"

Nobody to Love