The 13th Floor Elevators - "Easter Everywhere" (1967) - International Artist
Hello Friends,
The year 1967 marked a turning point in music and culture, especially in these here United States. There was no shortage of good music either. Bands began pushing the envelope with sounds and instruments. 1967 had debuts from The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Moby Grape, Big Brother & the Holding Company, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd & Leonard Cohen. Frank Zappa & The Mothers released Absolutely Free. The Kinks gave us Something Else. The Beach Boys cut & pasted together, Smiley Smile. Cream, Disraeli Gears. The Who Sell Out. The Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request. And the grandaddy of them all, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The year 1967 marked a turning point in music and culture, especially in these here United States. There was no shortage of good music either. Bands began pushing the envelope with sounds and instruments. 1967 had debuts from The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Moby Grape, Big Brother & the Holding Company, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd & Leonard Cohen. Frank Zappa & The Mothers released Absolutely Free. The Kinks gave us Something Else. The Beach Boys cut & pasted together, Smiley Smile. Cream, Disraeli Gears. The Who Sell Out. The Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request. And the grandaddy of them all, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Released just one year after their amazing debut, The 13th Floor Elevators released Easter Everywhere, another psychedelic masterpiece. Like the times themselves, there's a definite evolution here as well. Not only was the band continually expanding their minds through living the Rock & Roll lifestyle, but by '67 they were more worldly & world-weary. Also, by most reports, they were probably ingesting more psychedelics than your average, run-of-the-mill Texas garage band! Just say no, kids!
The band has broadened their sound as well, playing a slightly more developed version of their signature psychedelic blues with more folk, jazz & Eastern influences thrown in. For their sophomore effort, the rhythm section would also be updated. Bassist Ronnie Leatherman and drummer John Ike Walton would be replaced by Dan Galindo and Danny Thomas, respectively. Of course, each song on the record is enhanced by Tommy Hall's ubiquitous and fluttering electric jug playing!
Frontman Roky Erickson is in especially fine form. His barbaric yawp never sounded better! With whacky stream of consciousness lyrics, he's equal parts Syd Barrett & Jim Jones. William Blake & Charlie Manson. Whimsically menacing. Almost like a crazed Bob Dylan leading a religious cult while ingesting healthy doses of lysergic acid.
Things get kicked off with "Slip Inside This House" which typifies everything that's to follow on the record. Blistering psychedelic rock with equal parts drugs & blues. Erickson's manic philosophy invites the listener in to "slip inside this house as you pass by". At over 8 minutes, it sounds more like a Sermon than a follow-up to "You're Gonna Miss Me".
"Slide Machine" was written by frequent Elevators pal & muse, Powell St. John. Now we're not exactly sure what a slide machine is except that "it sweeps bones right off the road" and the image of a slide machine headed our way with Stacy Sutherland's angry fuzz guitar and Hall's maniacal jug is enough to scare the crap out of anyone, stoned or otherwise!
"She Lives (In A Time of Her Own)" is a fantastic little 3 minute psych-pop gem which sounds like it would have sounded perfectly at home on their debut record, The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators.
On Surrealistic Pillow (also 1967), The Jefferson Airplane asked "Don't You Want Somebody to Love"? On Easter Everywhere, Stacy Sutherland channels both the Airplane and The Byrds (two West Coast-influences) on the lamenting and fuzzy, "Nobody to Love".
Side One wraps up with a grungy, desperate-sounding version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". Erickson channeling Dylan is equal parts triumphant and heartbreaking!
Side Two opens up with another rollicking psychedelic thrill ride, "Earthquake" (think "Roller Coaster" from The Psychedelic Sounds Of).
This rager is followed by one of the band's most raw and vulnerable-sounding songs, "Dust". A quiet and mostly acoustic ballad with cryptic, haiku-type lyrics is about as close to a "love" song as the band would ever get!
In a much cooler alternate Universe, "I've Got Levitation" would have been Easter Everywhere's "hit" single. Once again, it sounds a little like The Byrds or even more like The Monkees on LSD. (It also contains the lyric, "The waves of higher bodies soon dazzling in my ears / Will center my vibrations with the music of the spheres" inspiring the name of the box set!)
Clementine Hall (Tommy's wife) would co-write and harmonize on the gorgeous-sounding, "I Had to Tell You" which has Roky sounding a lot like Michael Stipe. (Just listen to the way he sings, "I'm feelin' fine" at the end of the each chorus!) Clementine was no Yoko however, as this song is fantastic, as is the song she co-wrote on the first record, "Splash 1".
The album's last track is, unfortunately, the album's only weak song. "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)" provides a Motown-influenced backdrop to Roky's meandering lyrics about out-of-body consciousness. Its all rather new age-y. It probably would have worked much better against noisy, fuzzy guitars, feedback and drums that sound like they might be tumbling down a set of stairs.
As part of the MUSIC OF THE SPHERES BOX SET, this updated & remastered vinyl edition of Easter Everywhere is presented as a double LP with both Mono & Stereo versions of the record. I'm sure somewhere else someone has done a pretty thorough breakdown of the differences between the two versions. What we basically notice is that the Mono version has a fuller sound with a deeper bass mix and more prominent jug-playing. (Imagine the Saturday Night Live sketch with Christopher Walken telling Will Ferrell/Tommy Hall, "More Jug!")
Easter Everywhere would be the Elevators' penultimate release as well as their masterpiece. In that much cooler, alternate universe that we mentioned earlier, The 13th Floor Elevators are so much more than just rock & roll footnotes. If there was any justice in the world, it would be Roky Erickson's meddlesome mug gracing posters in teenagers' rooms in the late 60's and 70's instead of that creep Jim Morrison! Lizard king, my ass!
The band has broadened their sound as well, playing a slightly more developed version of their signature psychedelic blues with more folk, jazz & Eastern influences thrown in. For their sophomore effort, the rhythm section would also be updated. Bassist Ronnie Leatherman and drummer John Ike Walton would be replaced by Dan Galindo and Danny Thomas, respectively. Of course, each song on the record is enhanced by Tommy Hall's ubiquitous and fluttering electric jug playing!
Frontman Roky Erickson is in especially fine form. His barbaric yawp never sounded better! With whacky stream of consciousness lyrics, he's equal parts Syd Barrett & Jim Jones. William Blake & Charlie Manson. Whimsically menacing. Almost like a crazed Bob Dylan leading a religious cult while ingesting healthy doses of lysergic acid.
Things get kicked off with "Slip Inside This House" which typifies everything that's to follow on the record. Blistering psychedelic rock with equal parts drugs & blues. Erickson's manic philosophy invites the listener in to "slip inside this house as you pass by". At over 8 minutes, it sounds more like a Sermon than a follow-up to "You're Gonna Miss Me".
"Slide Machine" was written by frequent Elevators pal & muse, Powell St. John. Now we're not exactly sure what a slide machine is except that "it sweeps bones right off the road" and the image of a slide machine headed our way with Stacy Sutherland's angry fuzz guitar and Hall's maniacal jug is enough to scare the crap out of anyone, stoned or otherwise!
"She Lives (In A Time of Her Own)" is a fantastic little 3 minute psych-pop gem which sounds like it would have sounded perfectly at home on their debut record, The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators.
On Surrealistic Pillow (also 1967), The Jefferson Airplane asked "Don't You Want Somebody to Love"? On Easter Everywhere, Stacy Sutherland channels both the Airplane and The Byrds (two West Coast-influences) on the lamenting and fuzzy, "Nobody to Love".
Side One wraps up with a grungy, desperate-sounding version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". Erickson channeling Dylan is equal parts triumphant and heartbreaking!
Side Two opens up with another rollicking psychedelic thrill ride, "Earthquake" (think "Roller Coaster" from The Psychedelic Sounds Of).
This rager is followed by one of the band's most raw and vulnerable-sounding songs, "Dust". A quiet and mostly acoustic ballad with cryptic, haiku-type lyrics is about as close to a "love" song as the band would ever get!
In a much cooler alternate Universe, "I've Got Levitation" would have been Easter Everywhere's "hit" single. Once again, it sounds a little like The Byrds or even more like The Monkees on LSD. (It also contains the lyric, "The waves of higher bodies soon dazzling in my ears / Will center my vibrations with the music of the spheres" inspiring the name of the box set!)
The album's last track is, unfortunately, the album's only weak song. "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)" provides a Motown-influenced backdrop to Roky's meandering lyrics about out-of-body consciousness. Its all rather new age-y. It probably would have worked much better against noisy, fuzzy guitars, feedback and drums that sound like they might be tumbling down a set of stairs.
As part of the MUSIC OF THE SPHERES BOX SET, this updated & remastered vinyl edition of Easter Everywhere is presented as a double LP with both Mono & Stereo versions of the record. I'm sure somewhere else someone has done a pretty thorough breakdown of the differences between the two versions. What we basically notice is that the Mono version has a fuller sound with a deeper bass mix and more prominent jug-playing. (Imagine the Saturday Night Live sketch with Christopher Walken telling Will Ferrell/Tommy Hall, "More Jug!")
Easter Everywhere would be the Elevators' penultimate release as well as their masterpiece. In that much cooler, alternate universe that we mentioned earlier, The 13th Floor Elevators are so much more than just rock & roll footnotes. If there was any justice in the world, it would be Roky Erickson's meddlesome mug gracing posters in teenagers' rooms in the late 60's and 70's instead of that creep Jim Morrison! Lizard king, my ass!
RATING: 4.5 Three-eyed Men Are Not Complaining They Can Yo-Yo Where They Will Out of 5
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