George Starostin's Reviews

13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS

READER COMMENTS SECTION

Become a Certified Commentator today by following this link!

!!Before adding new comments, please check the GUIDELINES. Don't say I didn't warn you!!


Introduction

Darren Finizio (13.08.2003)

idunno, either i should be more critical or i am much more open to things than critics...ok,i admit,as a musican first and an aquarian second i rarely relate to critics...i don't know where your coming from when you keep saying that the elevators songs don't have memorable melodies:to you they don't...and,yes,i love "dust"and "had to tell you"-two very beautiful songs...all of the elevator songs have beautiful melodies or i wouldn't love them...and what critic would welcome the jug:none...myself,well its like chinese hotoil,when i first had it i was shock and awed,now i love it...i admire eccentric qualities and,as a musician,admire toms ability to do that with his voice...and stacys music on bull is really a treat,his voice is haunting and his guitar playing is stellar...i love the juxtapostion of the clean rythm guitar against the tastefully delayed fuzz guitars and the drumming is great...the problem i have with the elevator lps,ingeneral,is the crappy sound...your cd of the first lp,forinstance,probably sounds exactly like the vinyl...even the mixes are atrocious:perhaps you'd enjoy the jug sound more if it was mixed into the music and theres too much reverb on everything..bull sounds like it was mixed by a five year old with all sorts of horrendous equalizations...you can't beat a good live recording,its much more touching to hear a band mix themselves as opposed to an incompetant studio engineer:i'm dying to hear the live lp you reviewed,never knew it existed...yea,give the songs more time,they're all very memorable and hummable...yes,i've lived with this stuff since around 1982 so its on par with classic rock for me...lol...keep up the enthusiasm,boost up the imagination...take care.

Mike (12.07.2006)

I've enjoyed the Elevators since the sixties and tend to be agreeable with your reviews. Easter Everywhere was in my opinion the band's best outing although the recording quality is lacking. Maybe being a hillbilly, I don't find the electric jug as obnoxious as you but agree it was placed to far "upfront".
I still get chills listening to "Slip Inside This House". I still have the old vinyl I bought in '67 while living in Houston. Listen to the lyrics as they do make sense. This is first song, as far as I'm aware, that speaks of the third eye. All the freakin' hippies would show up at a place called Love Street Light Circus with yo-yos after Easter Everywhere came out.


ALBUMS
THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF

Nick Vesey (15.11.2002)

Now, I've looked and looked but I haven't yet found a source that states the exact release date of the album. However, in at least a dozen places I've read that this preceeds such albums as Revolver, 5D, Roger The Engineer and Freak Out!, thus making this the first psychedelic album. That said, I enjoy it alot, but most of it's importance stems from the originality of it and how groundbreaking it was. I'd have to say I prefer the Elevator's next album more, Easter Everywhere, because Erikson's singing had gotten even better at that point, especially on the best song the band ever did, 'Slip Inside This House'. For awhile the Elevators were one of my favorite groups, because I was interested in their philosophy (definitly a heavily philosophical group, based mostly in psychedelic drugs and Eastern religions) and also because Roky is my favorite vocalist. Did you know he is also John Fogerty's favorite singer as well? Well, he is. Also, the electric jug was played by Tommy Hall, the lyriscist and leader of the band, and 'You're Gonna Miss Me' was originally written in Roky Erikson's first band, The Spades. No doubt if they didn't have that one, Tommy would have included another tripped-out raveing, like the rest of the album is.


EASTER EVERYWHERE

No reader comments yet.


BULL OF THE WOODS

No reader comments yet.


LEVITATION

No reader comments yet.


Return to the main index page