Absolutely the Best [Original recording remastered]

13th Floor Elevators | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 29, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B00005V8J8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,493 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You're Gonna Miss Me

2. Slip Inside This House

3. Pictures (Leave Your Body Behind)

4. Till Then

5. Rose And The Thorn

6. Nobody To Love

7. Street Sons

8. Roller Coaster

9. Splash I (Now I'm Home)

10. Thru The Rhythm

11. Tried To Hide

12. Don't Fall Down

13. Fire Engine

14. Earthquake

15. Dust

16. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)

17. Before You Accuse Me

18. Levitation

19. Slide Machine

20. May The Circle Remain Unbroken

Editorial Reviews

This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the 2002 Fuel 2000/Varese release. Catalog 302-61178-2. There is a hole punch through the UPC

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars National Treasure, April 9, 2002

By 

Ken Nagaine "lotusfield3000" (Ventura, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absolutely the Best (Audio CD)

As a compilation of classic Elevator tracks (for Elevator fans, what tracks aren't classic?), this is a pretty decent rendering. These "remastered tracks" seem to especially bring out the brilliant guitar work of Stacy Sutherland (one of the best of the underrated guitarists of the 60's). Tracks 4-7 offer a block of Stacy inspired tunes. This is a nice touch that balances the display of the bands overall talents.

The Elevators' psychedelia is nothing less than inspired visionary genius. This is the real thing, folks, a band of unqualified mind expanding pioneers, discharging the quintessential poetic message over cosmic-electric musical boundaries. These songs are gut-wrenchingly beautiful, for instance, "Splash 1, "She Lives", "Dust", "Don't Fall Down;" or terrifyingly sinister as conveyed by the creepy crawly syncopations of "Thru the Rhythm."

Roky Erikson's urgent and confrontational call to "open up your mind and let everything come through" in "Rollercoaster," is sung with consummate force. "Heavy" with implications of profound meaning, the message seems to cut at our ignorance "like a knife."

Tommy Hall's lyrical mastery achieves its ultimate form, I believe, in the epic "Slip Inside This House." A song to encourage and inspire the mystic traveller. A mesmeric 8 minute "multimedia" masterpiece, to musically propel the imagination across aeons of rhythm, sound and image. "You have always risen/From the seeds you've sown" echoes the wise and compassionate chorus.

If this CD is indeed the "only official Greatest Hits" package for the band in North America, I hope all the surviving members of the group finally receive their well-deserved compensation for the production of such musical gems. What's more, induction into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" seems naturally in order. Finally, why not recognize these heroic adventurers of the Western world for what they truly are, a "National Treasure!"

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slip Inside This House and Leave Your Body Behind, October 26, 2004

By 

R. Smith "rscrabb" (Viola, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absolutely the Best (Audio CD)

Back before the invention of CDs, the only way to hear the 13th Floor Elevators was either try to find the out of print International Artists albums or find it on import. This Best of is the first true best of that is availble. And even though the recordings may have not been state of the art, You're Gonna Miss Me has never sounded better in this version. Like most compliations, there are missing songs (Reverbation, Fire In My Bones) that would've made this best of better. And the four tracks that came off the album Bull Of The Woods, actually are the less psychedelic tracks, sounding more close akin to Quicksilver Messenger Service. Strangely sequenced after Pictures and before the freakfest Roller Coaster, The Bull Of The Woods tracks probaly would been better off at the end of the disc. Almost forty years after the fact, The Elevators remain perhaps the originators of the psychedelic era, and they sound like they came from the 60's. Can you think of any other bands that used a electric jug in their music?

Perhaps their most shining moment is their first album The Psychedelic Sounds Of...., but for a decent overview, this is second to none.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A correction & a recommendation, May 18, 2002

By 

elckp (Ct.,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absolutely the Best (Audio CD)

The correct title for track 3 is "Postures(Leave your body behind)."This mistake started with the U.K. cd of "Easter Everywhere" on the Decal lable.The only addition to the track listing i would have liked would be "Living On",the opening track from "Bull Of The Woods".Stacy Sutherland's lead guitar work is simple,to the point but full and far reaching sonically on this track.Tommy Hall's lyrics have a cautionary but positive message,delivered with conviction through Roky Erickson's vocal.This compilation is the best so far,and a good intro to this group.Even if you own the other cds by this great band,this compilation improves on the sound quality and makes a great traveling companion in the car or on walk or hike.Hope the individual albums get remastered also.