Customer Reviews

Absolutely the Best

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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!"

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.

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.

Thanks to recommendation and input from various sources, the 13th Floor Elevators made their way onto my "CDs to Get List." However, their individuals albums proved rather pricey for my taste. Thus, after running into this compilation for cheap, I decided to try out these so-called psych rockers just to see what the fuss was about.

After listening to this CD, I came across two things. First, like Mr. Negative down there noted, the sound quality isn't the greatest. But it's not that bad, really. It's tolerable.

As for the band itself... well man, that electric jug trips you up. It's not an exhilirating trip, a la Stone Roses, though. It's more like a woozy trip down a bumpy road. It does take you somewhere, but don't expect to reach some weird Floydian heights; it's just a mild psychedelic trip.

Overall, the sheer volume of tracks gives you a very clear overview of what the 13th Floor Elevators did. The lack of chronological sequencing doesn't paint the most coherent picture, but then again, nobody expected this to be a lucid affair.

This seminal album suffers from poor original recording masters whose lack of quality should not be allowed to detract from the quality of the music itself. Created at a time when the only technology aside from amplifiers was fuzztone, Roky's insitefull poetry and cosmic imagery was transcendental at the time and remains so. Avoid the compilation and get their two best: Easter Everywhere and Psychedelic Sounds. For a great compilation recorded with todays tecnnology seek Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, A tribute to Rocky Erickson with 13th Floor Elevator songs by ZZ Top, R.E.M.,The Jesus and Mary Chain, Butthole Surfers, and others.

if you want a good sample of the 13th floor elevators this is the one to get. there are songs from each of their original albums and you'll want to hear more. the guitars of the sixties have a special ring to them, reminiscent of groups like the yardbirds,and definitely bring back old memories. this cd has sparked my interest in hearing some of roky's solo material, which i recently ordered.

I was very disappointed with this CD on a number of levels. First - the sound quality: It sounded as if the recordings were taken from second generation copies instead of direct from the master tapes. There was much background white noise hiss as if it was an old worn out cassette and every song was distorted, muffled and muddy with no bass, mid-range or treble definition. Second - the lyrics: We all know of the idealism of the 60s and the many songs of this period that urged us to leave our bodies behind and expand our minds (in some cases with the use of mind-altering drugs). Most of these songs still hold up (example: The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc) even if we might now in the 21st Century get a chuckle or two from the idealistic and naive (and sometimes adolescent) lyrics. However, the lyrics of Roky Erickson, Tommy Hall and the 13th Floor Elevators are just downright ridiculous, juvenile and most often disturbing. I was not familiar with this group until listening to this compilation. How anyone could have taken this group seriously in the 60s (or later) is beyond me!Third - the music: It is awful! I purchased this CD because of the reviews, thinking I was going to get some great psychedelic sounds of the 60s. Wrong! I was expecting, at least, something along the lines of Vanilla Fudge or Iron Butterfly (which would have been great). I was really thinking, however, that when I placed this much anticipated disc into my CD player I would be getting a mixture of The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and the almost forgotten group, Love. Well, I was sure wrong. 13th Floor Elevators have been called psychedelic. Wrong again! The music is not haunting, it is disturbing and unsettling. One would be better off purchasing any of the aforementioned artists.While trying to figure out what in the world I was listening to and why the music was so disturbing and the lyrics so utterly tiresome, naive, insane and unsettling, I read the liner notes. Well, no wonder! Get this - Roky Erickson (among the musicians) literally let his brain post toastie on drugs and was locked up in the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He is out now but lives with his brother who is a legal guardian. (I wish I would have known this before purchasing the CD. It sheds some light on the absolute atrocity of this collection.) Another bandmate and fellow songwriter, Stacey Sutherland, led such a wonderful life that he was shot to death by his wife in 1976. None of the music contained on this CD is even close to what we fondly recall as the music of the 1960s. Please, if you want music of this era, DON'T buy this one. If you already know the 13th Floor Elevators and are disturbed or peculiar enough to actually like them or want to buy this, take note that the sound quality is horrendous. Even if the music was good, these supposed digitally remastered tracks do not sound remastered. Now that I know how bad these songs are, though, it makes me wonder why anyone even bothered trying to remaster this noise and insanity to begin with.