Tag 923 mit Corona (Tag 219 des Krieges) und: The 13th Floor Elevators

Der 13. Buchstabe des Alphabets ist M: Marihuana. Der "Elevator" bringt einen nach oben, hoch hinauf ("makes you high"). Das soll hinter dem Namen stecken. In der Tat traten die Elevators meist unter dem Einfluss von Drogen auf. LSD war ja in den USA bis 1968 straffrei zu konsumieren.

Naja. Zur Band und ihrer Musik.

Sie gilt nach wie vor als die risikofreudigste psychodelische Band der 60er Jahre und viele andere Musiker:innen orientierten sich an ihr, was Musikstil und Drogenkonsum anging. Ihr Markenzeichen war der elektrisch verstärkte Jug.

Das exzessive Leben machte der Band 1969 den Garaus, weil Leadgitarrist und -sänger Roky Erickson immer unzuverlässiger wurde und gegen seinen Willen in eine psychiatrische Anstalt eingewiesen wurde. An sich schade, die Band war erfrischend und vielversprechend.

Eine Bob Dylan Coverversion: 13th Floor Elevators - Baby Blue (Live, 1967)

Der Gitarrist Stacy Sutherland sagte Jahre später über dieses Livekonzert: "The most mystic vision I ever had was concerning a show we did here in Houston, Theatre In The Round . And I had taken some acid, I hadn't had any in quite a while, and it was a super strong dose, about a 1,000 microgram or something. And we had to do a concert, and all of a sudden everyone started glowing. They had a foot of light, like a neon light around them in the room... real bright. And everyone started glowing away, and I freaked out that I was going to die or something. I had some bad trips before, but nothing like this. And then everybody turned into wolves, and I thought that our band was evil, because of some of the things we had advocated. We had had a controversy going on quite a while about advocating drugs and so forth, and mixing it with religion, you know. 'Cause I felt like that was pretty dangerous ground to tread. And Tommy and I were arguing about that quite a bit. I got on a bummer about it evidently. And I was tryin' to escape the room, I didn't know what I was gonna do, but I was gonna get out of there. I didn't want anything to do with it 'cause everybody was turning into animals. And all of a sudden there were angels, and I couldn't move my body anymore. I lost physical feeling all over and I was laying on the floor. And everybody turned into angels, and everybody in the room was the judge at my trial to decide whether I was worthy to enter heaven or hell. Because it was absolute that I was going to die anyway you know. And there was one good angel, and I felt like I'd been there before, many times, not just once. But, I'd been in this circumstance with these same people, and the whole time that I was there I was talkin' with these cosmic spirits you know, as judges. I knew who they were as people, as models, but I knew that they didn't realize what role they played in my existence on this earth. And this one angel told me that two or three different events were going to take place in my life. And every one of them came true within 2 years."

So erging es damals nicht nur ihm.

Wer noch nicht genug hat, hier ist ein Link zu einem Roky Erickson Konzert vor 15 Jahren in Schweden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZU53HRaVI