Marquee: The Story of the World’s Greatest Music Venue–Book Review
- Denis Brown
The Psych Ward–The Psychedelic Sounds of…The 13th Floor Elevators
The Psych Ward–The Psychedelic Sounds of…The 13th Floor Elevators
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators was the eponymous debut album by the enigmatic group from Austin, Texas. The 13th Floor Elevators notably coined the genre “psychedelic rock” in 1966 as the first band to use the term to describe their music. While planting the paisley flag, the band never achieved legendary status outside of the genre’s most devoted aficionados. However on their 1966 debut LP, the group encapsulates that year’s exploratory, trippy sounds unlike any other.
The album’s lead single begins raucously with vocalist and rhythm guitarist Roky Erickson’s barely in-tune power chords and piercing cries of “Oh yeah!” He defiantly declares “You’re Gonna Miss Me” with a sneer, accented by lead guitarist Stacy Sutherland’s surf rock riff and an atypical amplified jug by Tommy Hall that recalls a jaw harp.
“Roller Coaster” is no day at the amusement park; it’s a moody, unsettling minor-dominant progression. Just when the rider gets settled in, the tempo surges with drummer John Ike Walton’s frenetic flourishes, threatening derailment. Roky screeches along while Ronny Leatherman’s bassline is overrun by relentless arpeggiated sixteenth notes of Hall’s jug, which loses luster with repetition. “Splash 1 (Now I’m Home)” provides a relaxing acousticized contrast, as the protagonist is relieved to return to his familiar abode to process aberrant experiences.
The singalong stomper “Reverberation” has an infectious yet intangible groove and effective rhyming convention. It’s oddly mixed, giving the impression that the lysergic acid is starting to take hold. “Don’t Fall Down” is a twangy riot, from the chanting call-and-response chorus to the cat’s meow falsetto ending.
A campy surf rocker, “Fire Engine”, howls with incendiary sonic wails that take the song’s title literally. “Through the Rhythm” drips with musical tension and Erickson’s expressive elucidations of its pictorial lyrics while it’s better left unsaid that “You Don’t Know” the age of the girl referenced in the following track.
The hallucinogenic highlight “Kingdom of Heaven” explores lands unseen in an acid-drenched waltz. Axemen Sutherland and Leatherman recall Eric Burdon and The Animals, while Roky wails in all vowels at the climax.
“Monkey Island” is relatively absurd in summoning mankind’s primitive predecessors, which would become a recurring theme in garage/psych rock. “Tried to Hide” ends the album on a formulaic note with a hooky blues rock progression benefiting from Roky’s harmonica.
The Psychedelic Sounds… explores a defiant troupe and a genre in its adolescence, experimenting with unknown horizons to determine its identity in the groovy technicolor world of 1966. Essential for collectors of psychedelic rock!
Related: The 100 Best Psychedelic Rock Albums of the Golden Age
The Top 200 Psychedelic Songs of the Original Psychedelic Era
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3 thoughts on “The Psych Ward–The Psychedelic Sounds of…The 13th Floor Elevators”
I was there 1966 Houston TX. In the Allen’s Landing area, & Love Street!
The “Elevators”, the “Lost&Found”, “Moving Sidewalks” the Marion gym
when “Fever Tree” played Shows! And on the Hill jams in the Park across the street from Rice University, we sometimes caught “Johnny Winters” acoustic blues guitar jamming!
TEXAS ROCKS!
I had this band on my old iPod. Thanks for reminding me of them; I just added them back to my library! Truly great sounds! Another great band is Hawkwind. I remember getting into them when I was listening to The 13th Floor Elevator’s before. Thanks for the article Psychedelic Scene!
Thanks for reading, Nick! We’ll publish something on Hawkwind in the near future.