13th Floor Elevators - "Sign of the 3 Eyed Men" 10 CD Boxset

So it looks as if there's a decent bit of un-padding, and that the original stereo mixes are NOT included...

 

Per Paul Drummond:

psyps Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 12:50 pm

Joined: 05 Aug 2008

Posts: 2

Location: London
".... The Elevators box set doesn't include the straight stereo Lps of Easter and Psychedelic Sounds.... however amongst Charly's stash of tapes stereo dub of the original tapes made in 1976 for Masterphonics reissues . BTW Masterphonics pressings are actually rarer than originals and don't exist for the other 2 lps.

Hopefully after the box set is out I'll try and do a double Cd reissue of the Mono/Stereos and maybe the Red Crayola material.

None of the IA singles appear to still exist on tape....but two track stereo- mixed down masters exist for all the lp's .... I went through all the unmarked tapes and the only unreleased material was 3 reels of studio chatter from the Lightnin' Hopkins sessions - basically they left the tape rolling ..."

 

So, they're saving the ORIGINAL stereo LP mixes for upcoming "deluxe edition" of the individual albums? Am I reading that corrrectly?

Why the alternative stereo mixes on this set? I would rather have had the original stereo and mono mixes on the box set and save the alternative stuff for another set, but I guess that's the idea of a box set?

Did someone say there was a stereo remix of YGMM on this box set? Is that part of the alternative Psychedelic Sounds LP?

It looks like I will be ordering this set after all. It will make up for all the guilt I have. I still regret selling my original IA LPs!

 

Just a heads up for those already preordering the box set: It won't be released until the Spring but a few people I know who have preordered are saying their credit cards have already been charged the $138.

Not too cool in this already-expensive Christmas season.

 

From the tracklisting, can any of you Elevators devotees tell if there is anything missing that has previously been bootlegged, or does this cover everything?

 

Can some of the Elevators experts tell about this? I've read that most of the tracks will be new to collectors. Is Roky on this stuff?

A Love That’s Sound (Lost 3rd LP)
Wait For My Love; It’s You; May The Circle Remain unbroken; Livin’
On; Never Another ; Dr Doom; Sweet Surprise; Moon Song; Livin’ On
(Acetate); Never Another (Rehearsal/Demo); It’s You (Rehearsal/Demo);
Moon Song (Rehearsal/Demo)

 

Gaps

I don't see The Spades (Roky's pre-Elevators band) material listed, or The Elevators studio take of "Gloria" (the Them hit) which have all been on a previous collection. Some of the later unreleased tracks on the box set are Stacy Sutherland songs (a good thing). Stacy is probably THE most underrated American rock guitarist. His songs on EASTER EVERYWHERE and BULL OF THE WOODS are some of my favorites from this band. In a perfect world, he could have easily replaced Skip Spence in the 1968/69 Moby Grape line-up.

 

I don't remember a studio take of Gloria. I think that was only a bonus live track on one of the CD issues of the "Psychedelic Sounds" album a couple years back.

 

Indy Mike, you've got to give Easter Everywhere another shot. It's their best. I guess it's more intensely droney, so harder to get into? But give it another shot.

 

Hope the Texas live show is the one from the Charly box; it was the best sounding of the live sets on that 3 disc release, IMO.

 

That's my take, too. "Slip Inside this House" is a fantastic song.

Ken

 

Only my favorite track!

 

Yes.

Of course they should have been included, but the good news is that almost all of the alternate mixes (I have) surpass the originals. Especially "Dust" is nothing short of breathtaking, and the best sounding Elevators, period!

There's a lot of bitterness in the Elevators-camp, especially from the Texas Psych-group, because Paul Drummond - who wrote the biography, and put together this set, didn't give the group credit for the all the stuff he got (took) from them. And even if this set may not contain material lifted directly from the group's CD-R's (if it does, the war is on again), it is still their work - and their war against Snapper/Charly who've laid the groundwork for Paul's research.

Kiloh and Mike did not give Paul the masters for Easter Everywhere, because it meant dealing with Charly, citing what they did with the recent Never Ever Land as just another nail in the coffin, which is a great shame, because Paul did not intend to represent Charly, and just wanted to put an end to all the third rate material that's been put out, and give Elevators the releases they deserve. An argument broke out between Paul and Kiloh, which ended with Paul calling Kiloh a "tool".

Kiloh has however recently (just a week ago) stated that he now wishes to make peace with Paul, Patrick, Sumner, and the rest of the Roky Trust, saying that he "hopes this (the box set) portends great things".

I sympathise with both Kiloh and Roky Trust, and just hope they eventually decide to join forces. With the massive shift in consciousness we see here on the planet nowadays, I don't think it's utopian at all to believe that the Elevators are one of only a handful of bands from the 1960's that will be considered relevant 500 years from now.

 

I did a quick check of this: while the version of "She Lives" on the sampler sounds a lot like the fan-club version, it doesn't sync. Make of that what you will.

 

Do the mono tracks sound better than what's going around the Texas Psych group?

Also, did I read somewhere that there's a stereo remix of "You're Gonna Miss Me" on this box set?

 

Kiloh really has the Easter Everywhere masters? I remember he was all over the internet a few years ago with a story about how he found the "Easter Everywhere 8 tracks" in a bus in Austin or something similar.

 

This all makes me nervous. I pre-ordered the box and am wondering if this will be a definitive release, or not? If Kiloh wishes to make peace then will he give Paul the Easter Everywhere masters in time for the box? Sounding like a soap opera.

 

That's funny; this 'ultimate' box set may end up opening the floodgates!
Who knew???

 

How could Kiloh possibly end up with the masters? That would be like if one of us had the masters.

 

I think that the TexasPsych group should be given great credit for their attempts at "spreading the texas psych word". I, for one, would have never heard of the 13FE to the extent that I did (and by extension, become a great fan) if it wasint for that online group; hearing "Easter Everywhere" with true stereo separation from the original LP is a godsend in itself. It's unfortunate that the 13FE web is a tangled one. It seems that nothing has ever been easy for that group from the 60s onward - let's hope that things start to be done right by Charly/Snapper, after such a long period of wrong doing. I've already pre-ordered my box-set - I'll (along with many others) be pretty pissed if there's no audio miracles on it. But I'm sure it'll be a "keeper".

 

I don't think The Spades version of You're Gonna Miss Me has had a legit reissue since it was originally released. I prefer the Contact Records version that ended up with IA - it's a more menacing and driving sound in the Elevator's version.

 

Perhaps I'd like it better coming from good sources - those early Decal/Charly cds were craptastic sounding, and got dumped in the trade-in bins long ago.

 

It's not too hard to find.

 

Those tracks are from a really dark period, with the whole band disintegrating mentally and physically to the point where Stacy, even with a massive heroin addiction, is the one carrying all the weight. Tommy and Roky were actually banned from the studio when the band started recording, and were brought in after the first couple of sessions.

- "Wait For My Love" is the original title for "Till Then", and was first demoed on February 7th in Studio B, Gold Star Studios with Fred Carroll as engineer. It has Stacy on vocals. Stacy recorded two more tracks on February 13th ("Now The Time Is Autumn" and "I Still Miss Someone") that are both missing, and then spent seven hours on the 14th reworking "Wait For My Love". There is a demo of this song on one of Texas Psych's CD-R's. Stacy reworked it again with Tommy in the summer, and it was re-recorded as "Till Then", and included on Bull Of The Woods.

Stacy and Danny were also busy working with Lightnin' Hopkins at the time, and those tapes are said to exist by Paul, as mentioned earlier in this thread. 4 cuts ended up on the resulting Lightnin' Hopkins-album Free Form Patterns, released on International Artists [IA LP #6], fall '68.

Stacy's self-doubt meant that he dismissed a lot of his demos rather than risk rejection from Tommy and Roky, but he finished enough material to enlist them on February 22nd.

- "It's You" is one of the few songs Stacy presented to them that evening. It had the backing track recorded on February 18th, and around 1:00 AM on the 22nd, they recorded the vocals, which were a combination of ensemble vocals mixed with Roky's lead. We've never heard it before!

After they finished "It's You", Roky and Tommy left the studio, and the band recorded the backing track for "Moon Song", which engineer Corroll noted on the session sheet as "several bad takes". The session ended at 8:30 AM, and Roky returned to the studio at midday to find it empty - save for the IA bosses, who talked him into recording material on his own. In three hours he recorded several takes of "May The Circle Remain Unbroken", singing, playing guitar and Vox organ by himself.

The rest of the Elevators returned to the studio later that day (February 23rd), and they recorded their swan song "Livin' On". After completing that in one session, the band focused on "May The Circle Remain Unbroken". Takes 2 and 3 were spliced together, and everyone in the studio began softly joining in on backing vocals (mixed out of the final version). Stacy got John David Bartlett to clink a large glass ashtray, while he manipulated the sound through a series of Echoplex units daisy-chained to create a haunting effect. This was a trick Stacy had often deployed on stage to build up an echo-ridden wall of guitar sound, but this was the first time he'd recorded the technique - albeit using an ashtray.

Either Fred Caroll or Jim Duff took terms to mix and edit the recordings, and Stacy returned on February 29th for an all night session.

- "Never Another" was recorded that night. Stacy did several complete takes. We've never heard the demo/rehearsal, but it has a verse that was omitted in the final take:

"Right now with Robin Hood, a woman's on the run,
never rested in our hearts and our love turns to die,
It's in the ark of us together, many eyes can see,
Another world when we're together, give your love to me,
Never another like you, never another like you..."

On March 2nd, Tommy was allowed in the studio to overdub his jug parts, and on the 3rd Roky came in to overdub vocals on "Never Another" and "Livin' On". We have an acetate of "Livin' On" on boot.

The band came back to record several more backing tracks on the 12th, including:

- "Dr. Doom"
- "Moon Song" (further "ill-fated attempts")
- "Sweet Surprise"

On the 13th, Roky came back to record guitar and vocals for "Dr. Doom", and the band re-cut "Sweet Surprise". We've never heard any version of that one.

After another session on the 20th, and overdubbing on the 23rd with ten tracks in the can - just enough for a new album, but without completed vocals, the project was put on hold, when Roky only three weeks later was admitted to the psychiatric ward at the Holy Cross Hospital. Stacy's relationship with Tommy was wearing thin, and he nearly died from an OD not long after this. Then, with Stacy recovering, Roky locked up and Tommy disappeared, IA decides to put together the fake live-album, and...

Hope this was to any help!

 

Wow. What a post. Thanks for sharing that Devotional. That makes up for having to endure all the Beatles remasters threads