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Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound (Paperback)

by Paul Drummond (Author), Julian Cope (Foreword)

4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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You're Gonna Miss Me : A Film About Roky Erickson

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"One of the most exhilarating and important rock 'n' roll stories ever told."-Julian Cope

The trailblazing 13th Floor Elevators released the first "psychedelic" rock album in America, transforming culture throughout the 1960s and beyond. The Elevators followed their own spiritual cosmic agenda, to change society by finding a new path to enlightenment. Their battles with repressive authorities in Texas and their escape to San Francisco's embryonic counterculture are legendary.

When the Elevators returned to Texas, the band became subject to investigation by Austin police. Lead singer Roky Erickson was forced into a real-life enactment of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and was put away in a maximum-security unit for the criminally insane for years. Tommy Hall, their Svengali lyricist, lived in a cave. Guitarist Stacy Sutherland was imprisoned. The drummer was involuntarily subjected to electric shock treatments, and the bassist was drafted into the Vietnam War.

This fascinating biography breaks decades of silence of band members and addresses a huge cult following of Elevators fans in the United States and Europe. The group is revered as a formative influence on Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Primal Scream, R.E.M, and Z.Z. Top.

Roky Erickson is the subject of a heralded recent documentary feature, You're Gonna Miss Me; a box set of remastered Elevators CDs with liner notes by author Paul Drummond will be issued in fall 2007.

Product Details

Paperback: 454 pages
Publisher: PROCESS (November 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0976082268
ISBN-13: 978-0976082262
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #126,864 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Citations (learn more)

4 books cite this book:

Walt Whitman: A Life (Perennial Classics) by Justin Kaplan on page 39
Country Music Culture: From Hard Times to Heaven (Studies in Popular Culture) by Curtis W. Ellison in Back Matter
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Presents Country Music Trivia (Includes CD-Rom Game) by Country Music Hall of Fame on page 33
The Girls' Guide to Country: The Music, the Hunks, the Hair, the Clothes and More! by Kim Adelman in Back Matter

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	80% buy the item featured on this page: Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound 4.1 out of 5 stars (16) $15.61
	8% buy You're Gonna Miss Me : A Film About Roky Erickson 4.2 out of 5 stars (17) $24.98
	5% buy The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13, and The Source Family 5.0 out of 5 stars (9) $22.45
	4% buy CREEM: America's Only Rock 'N' Roll Magazine 4.2 out of 5 stars (26) $22.76

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.1 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true cult band..., November 5, 2007

By	Hollywood Gourmand "Hollywood Gourmand" (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This amazingly detailed biography of the original Texas psychedelic band and its legendary singer goes a long way toward setting the record "straight" on the subject of Roky Erickson and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. The sincerity and innocence of their original concept as an LSD-driven cult of personality that was trying to "elevate" their audiences' consciousness with rock & roll music--and their tragic failure and ultimate destruction--is THE great untold story in Texas music history. There are heroes and villains here--and they are not always the ones that you might expect if you know this band's mythology. The author's research thankfully approached primary sources, and there is information here that is more reliable and detailed than has ever been collected before. The book is also blessed with a wealth of unseen photographs that are worth the price of admission in and of themselves. The only negative present here is the need for more diligent editing and fact checking in regard to Austin and Texas geography, place names and history. Austinites will cringe when the late John Henry Faulk is referred to as "John Henry Faulkner" and the J.R. Reed Music is placed on "South Congress" instead of Congress Avenue & 8th Street. Minor quibbles for sure, but the biggest gaffe is, unfortunately, on page one: The Sex Pistols DID NOT play a gig in Kerrville, TX in 1978. That show was at Randy's Rodeo in San Antonio. I know, because I was there (and still have my ticket stub to prove it).

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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drummond's Book - The Authoritative Source, October 21, 2007

By	Gregory Forest "BAKslider" (Red State, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Paul Drummond has done his homework and research. He spent years here in Texas and looked under every rock (I know - he found me under one.) He interviewed everyone out to third cousins. I was at first skeptical that Paul could get the job done - he's hardly a Texas cow-hippie or a denizen of the 70's drug culture. Many had gone before him - attempting to write "the story" of the Elevators - and they all came up short.

Drummond's persistence and objectivity was essential to getting this portrait of one of rock music's great innovative bands. The story of the 13th Floor Elevators is not always a pretty one but Drummond pulls no punches. I think this book put the Elevators and Roky in the context of the times and revealed them as people and not just heroic and tragic rock icons.

I am convinced that this will be the best book ever written on the subject and have to give massive thanks and praise to Drummond and his publisher for this heartfelt and scholarly work.

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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, but a little too detailed, October 13, 2007

By	Robert Whitaker Sirignano "Robert WS--" (Directly above the center of the earth) - See all my reviews

[[ASIN:B000P0J060 You're Gonna Miss Me : A Film About Roky Erickson]]

This book lifts the veil off the history of THE THIRTEEN FLOOR EVELATORS. Within this tome is given a lot of detail to the band and the members and to Tommy Hall and Roky Erickson. Roky Erickson has one of the most interesting voices in rock, from an angelic cry to a Satanic scream. Tommy Hall was one of the most ill informed users of LSD --he thought it should be taken whenever and while the band was playing.

Most of the story of this band has been given over to rumor, hearsay and bad copies of the available recordings. Mismanagement prevailed with the band, signing up to one of the more inept record companies in the USA. Texas Police Officers thought they should be busted and frequently arrested them and planted evidence. When they gained a reputation in San Francisco, band members moved back to the Austin area. No one did the right things to help the band. The band members felt helpless as well.

Even making two albums did not help the band, because the record company they worked with had no idea about promoting the group. The band memnbers were sleeping on other people's couches, borrowing money and living off soup and promises.

And Tommy Hall's ideas of promoting human evolution.He read deeply in Guerdjieff, occult literature, Korzybsky, and esoteric ideas. All twenty year olds know what to do, especially those who take lots of LSD. Roky Erickson became strung out and fractured.

Arrests were made, people were imprisoned, Roky opted for a mental instiution. Electroshock. With small bits like this surfacing and the impressions of concerts long gone (and never recorded), four impressive albums marred by bad sound quality. One band member murdered...all these bits and stories and evidence created a larger fable.

And Roky. Came out of a mental institution to record albums much stranger than most could imagine, dealing with two headed dogs, creatures with atom brains, and images from 1950's and 60's horror films. An Acid casualty if there ever was one. The voice is there, the playing is there, the energy intact. But he's helpless as a human being without a guitar in his hand (that can be seen in the DVD documentry YOU'RE GONNA MISS ME).

The book's attention to detail often smothers a great story. There are a lot of opinions given that don't deal with the stories of the band, but facet a memory of times gone by. But I'd still plow through a book twice as thick as this just to pick up the story that has long fascinated me. Not too much about Roky in times closer to now. Not too much of later recordings and not too much of Tommy Hall saying anything like "I could have been wrong, you know."

A good post script somewhere might be nice.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Info; Why No Lyrics?
I would have given 5 stars if more of the Elevators' lyrics had been quoted or, better yet, provided in their entirety. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Stefan

2.0 out of 5 stars Roky Erickson book
The book was described as in good condition with no damage, but arrived with a crushed corner. I could tell that the damage was done in the mailing, because the envelope was... Read more

Published 5 months ago by RCF

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to love this book, but...
I'm a huge fan of Roky's work, so purchasing this book was a no-brainer: it has "Roky" prominently in the title. In short, though, the book lives in the weeds. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Brian Salk

1.0 out of 5 stars A Roky Road To Enightmenment
I gave this book one star (*) to get you the potential reader's ATTENTION. It's actually a Five-Star book EXCEPT for a fatal flaw; WHY do they go on and on about HOW BAD the... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Michael Hummel

5.0 out of 5 stars Profile of a 60s Psychedelic Band
This is an outstanding book. Having lived through the era it describes and having owned one of the albums produced by the 13th Floor Elevators, I can testify to its real-life... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Daniel Raphael

5.0 out of 5 stars Information and Emotion
This is without a doubt the best, most well researched rock biography I've ever read. True, the author may have trouble distinguishing between 'affect' and 'effect,' and he may... Read more

Published 11 months ago by TransmittingButNotReceiving

5.0 out of 5 stars Twice Born Gypsies
One of the BEST music biographies ever written that tells the story of a decade in American music history with all of the uncensored truths intact. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Aniel Pouadahka

5.0 out of 5 stars The book I've always wanted
This is a crucial book for anyone who's a fan of the 13th Floor Elevators or the American psychedelic music scene in the 60's. Read more

Published 15 months ago by B. Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Slip Into This House
Paul Drummond's book finally delivers all the details behind the story of one of America's finest and most idiosyncratic rock bands, the 13th Floor Elevators. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Mark Lansing

3.0 out of 5 stars Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson
Comprehensive book. Leaves out the fact that John Ike Walton was married to me -- Gloria Greenfield (at the time, I was in college at UT Austin) from 1971 thru 1975. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Gloria Mccollum

› See all 16 customer reviews...

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