Dust (Another Go) ( #BOTB )

If at first you don't succeed then try again or just give up.  Well, I don't like to give up...

Almost Like a Dream

       As I compose this post, it has been one week since my wife and I returned home from another epic road trip.  During the course of 23 days at the end of May and beginning of June we travelled about 7400 miles through seventeen states with destination points in Florida, New Jersey, and Tennessee. These rounds gave us pleasant visits with many friends and family members.   Considering the scope of this trip, everything went very smoothly in all respects.  The weather was a bit cooler than we had expected, but it was quite pleasant compared to the hot temperatures we have typically encountered when we took this trip in July and August.  And now, this near perfect vacation is behind us with summer just beginning.   Now how do we top this for the rest of the summer?

      Looking back the whole adventure seems like a dream.  My wife and I have both been rather tired since our return and it has felt good to be resting in our own home.  But we sure did have a great time.  It's been mostly cloudy and cool here in Los Angeles since our return.  That's fine with me.  If we don't see a day over 80 degrees the rest of the year I wouldn't be disappointed. Now if only it would rain.  Of course, it never rains in Southern California--or so that song says.  Let's forget about that song for now and move on to another as I present another...

Battle of the Bands

        Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and now hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month.  My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months.   The premise is simple:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.

Dust (After the First Dusting)

       In my June 1st Battle I used the 13th Floor Elevator song "Dust".  If you missed that Battle then you can hear the versions here.  Those of you who did participate in that Battle will likely opt not to hear those versions again, but being the contrarian that I can be I've decided to use the same song again with different versions.  I'm not sure how many visits I'll be getting on this Battle so maybe it doesn't matter what I use or whether I do a midmonth Battle or not.  If nothing else, I'm just practice writing.  I've got to get back in the swing of things in respect to writing because I want to do some other writing in the coming weeks.  And damn!  I'm lazy of late.  So rather than wallow in the dust, I'll have another Battle for the song "Dust".  

        Although I have long considered The Elevators album Easter Everywhere to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time (and one of the most influential), I was never particularly enamored with the song "Dust"--it was one of my least favorite songs of the album.  Now after having immersed myself in the song and actually understanding the lyrics, this song is now perhaps my second favorite song from that album (after the incredible "Slip Inside This House").  I think "Dust" is a beautiful song with such poetic lyrics.  I'm standing by my opinion of the greatness of this song.  It took many close listenings to come to this appreciation, but now it plays in my head with frequent regularity if I'm not actually listening to it.  

        To attest to my argument that the song requires several hearings to fully appreciate, I played this song often during our recent road trip.   My wife, who is not much of a rock music fan, having been subjected to my obsessive playing of the song begin to like it quite a lot and by the last leg of the trip home would sometimes ask me to play the song.  Now she too is a fan of the song.  I do think this song is somewhat addictive.  It's worth the addiction in my opinion.

         I hope you will consider the following versions carefully and let us know which version you like the best.  I think you will appreciate this Battle more than the previous one.   

 

Tommy Hall Schedule  "Dust"   (2006)

         I'm not sure if Tommy Hall actually has anything to do with this band that carries his name.  And if you are wondering who Tommy Hall is, he was one of the original members of 13th Floor Elevators and the one who wrote most of the lyrics on their albums.  His namesake band seems to be primarily a 13th Floor cover band, but I didn't find too much detailed information about the group.  However they have several videos on YouTube of them covering the Elevators songs.  I like that the lyrics are very easily discerned which what attracted me to the piano/vocal cover by TW that I used in my earlier Battle.  Do you like this version any better?

Misty Lane   "Dust"   (2020)

      As best as I can determine this band comes from Australia.  I don't find much about them other than they do psychedelic pop music.   Their version of "Dust" is mostly about production.  The lyrics are somewhat muddled behind an array of synthesizer sounds and backing vocals and sound effects.  Whatever it is they are doing, I like it.   I think they have a cool sound and despite the lyrics not standing out, they capture the sound of pop psychedelia well.  What do you think?

Time to Vote!

           I don't know how much participation I'll get for this Battle, but I do hope you vote and tell all your friends to do the same.  Just listen and see what you think.  Which song version do you prefer?   Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind.  You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

        Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.


Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

  'MIKE'S RAMBLINGS'

'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle 

Landmark Sounds (Diedre Knight)

BATTLE OF THE BANDS BY DEBBIE D

Battle Results on Wednesday June 21st

   

       I plan to be there.  Hope you will too.

        

Dust ( #BOTB )

     Here again in a sense.  Isn't the modern computer age amazing!  Later in the month I'll have something more to say, but for now it's that musical extravaganza that we know as...

Battle of the Bands

        Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and now hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month.  My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months.   The premise is simple:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.

Dust

      During the month of April I was reading the book Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound  by Paul Drummond (which I wrote about on my E post for the A to Z).  During this time I went back to immerse myself in the band's music and discovering many cover versions of their songs.  I've done several blog posts in the past on a couple of my sites and even used their song "Slip Inside This House" in a 2015 BOTB match.  

        Of late I've had a particular fascination with the song "Dust" from The Elevators album Easter Everywhere.  I think this is such a beautiful song with thoughtful lyrics.  It's almost like a hymn.  Since this is a unique song by a group that most people haven't heard of I will offer the original version.  Please save your votes for the two artists that follow this first video.  So listen if you wish or just skip on down to the first of the two competing videos. 

Don't vote on this first video please!  It's the original version for comparison if you wish.

13th Floor Elevator   "Dust"   (1967)

Vote on the Following please!

Brian Jonestown Massacre  "Dust"  (2015)

       I couldn't resist using a band with this name.  They're described as "a musical project and band" who have been around since 1990 with a slew of albums behind them. Sounds good to me. The sound of this version is growing on me as I listen to it more and I get where they're coming from.  I think it's an interesting cover of the song.

TW   "Dust"  (2021)

      I don't know anything about this artist, but he really has a lot of videos on his channel and they all look essentially like this video.  His performance reminds me of some of Neil Young's work.  I think he takes a nicely peaceful creative approach to the song.

Time to Vote!

           Dust off your musical appreciation skills and open your mind   Just listen and see what you think.  Which song version do you prefer?   Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind.  You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

        Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours.


Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

  'MIKE'S RAMBLINGS'

'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle 

Streampebbles (Diedre Knight)

BATTLE OF THE BANDS BY DEBBIE D

Battle Results on Thursday June 8

           

            I do hope I can get to everyone's Battles without too much problem.  I'll hopefully have more info and updates on the 8th,  Right now though...

            

Encyclopedias Etcetera ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

       Encyclopedias everywhere--or at least it would seem.  When I was about 9 years old my mother bought our first set of encyclopedias book by book from the grocery store.  Over subsequent years she would purchase some newer sets.   These encyclopedias helped get me through school as I would use them regularly to research reports and term papers.  Then, at other times, our encyclopedias provided me and my friends hours of entertainment as we just perused the pages and read about things that caught our attention.  A household without encyclopedias is somewhat literarily empty in my eyes.  

Encyclopedias

       As soon as you step foot in our home, one of the first things you would encounter is a shelf filled with encyclopedias.  My wife's late husband was a professor and author in Ecuador and he liked having an extensive library for his research and entertainment.  He had good taste in books.  The encyclopedias he chose are decent representations of what was on the market when he purchased them.

       On the top shelf is a 1986 printing of the mainstay of many homes:  The Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia.  This was the line that my mother purchased twice in far earlier editions than we have now.  Those have since been discarded.  It's a simple set, but it works for general information and reasonable for young people's school research.

        The next two shelves have 1990's printings of Encyclopedia Britannica and Hispanica (the Spanish language product put out by the Britannica company).  There are excellent in depth articles to be found in these and I refer to the English version with some regularity.  Sure, some of the info gets outdated, but there is still solid information that answers questions that I might have.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia

         Taking a look upstairs in our home you will find a few other encyclopedia sets, including one for young readers.   Also there are a number of single books that are identified as "Encyclopedias" either of general knowledge or specific fields of study. Pictured below is one such book that I ordered from a book club maybe 20 or so years ago.  Like other books of a similar nature, I rarely or never refer to these books but I like the way they look on my shelf.

Eye Mind by Paul Drummond

          This is the book I have been currently reading and it's turning out to be one of my favorite books of recent years.  This might be no surprise when you consider that this book is about one of my favorite rock groups--The 13th Floor Elevators, their most famous member--Roky Erickson, and the psychedelic era of the later 1960s. Looking at the current Amazon pricing I am apparently not alone in my passion for this book.  I better keep this one in good condition as it seems to have some value.  So far I give this book a big recommendation for anyone who is interested in Rock and Roll music history or the psychedelic era.  Five stars!

Do you own any encyclopedias?    Do you find encyclopedias to be useful?   Do you keep any books on your shelves just because you think they look good?

13th Floor Elevators for Friday the 13th

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Best Rock Band Ever?

         In honor of Friday the 13th (the day not the movie) I thought I might pay tribute to the incredible 13th Floor Elevators.  For those who recognize the name you may or may not agree when I suggest that arguably the Elevators were one of the greatest rock and roll bands to emerge from the 60's.   That's saying a lot when so many great bands came on the scene during that decade that produced so much revolutionary music that completely changed music history.  But I'm saying it--or if maybe not the greatest, the 13th Floor Elevators certainly wield an aura of influence over much of the rock music that came after them

Innovators of a Genre?

        They are often attributed as being the first psychedelic rock band and credited as being the first to even use the term "Psychedelic Rock".   This immediately becomes a turn off for many of you I know, but this may also be partly due to a lack of knowledge about the entire genre.   There has been some highly creative music connected with the psychedelic music movement.

          But then there's that drug thing.  The connection between mind-altering drugs goes hand in hand with the creation of music back to the earliest days of jazz and beyond.  The sixties saw the increased popularization of the hallucinogens such as LSD as well as the continued popularity of marijuana which was commonly used among earlier jazz and blues musicians.  The drugs may have influenced some of the creation of the music, but it also took talented musicians to actually create and perform that music.

What About the Band?

          Austin, Texas has given us many a fine musician, one being Roky Erikson, the guitarist/ lead singer for the Elevators and later as a solo artist.  In 1965 Roky combined forces with fellow Texan Tommy Hall to form the 13th Elevators.   Hall provided the unique sound of the electric amplified jug which provides the signature sound of the Elevators.  We've seen jugs used as a novelty in bands before this, but Hall gave jug playing a whole new dimension where the sound has often been mistaken for a synthesizer or some sort of electronic instrument.  The Elevators style is in the tradition of such bands as The Rolling Stones, Them (with Van Morrison), and The Animals.

          The group made an immediate impact on the music scene with a relatively minor chart single and their seminal album Easter Everywhere which some musicians and critics consider to be one of the best rock albums of all time.  Moving on from Texas to the San Francisco scene the band wowed the emergent bands from the hippie movement providing inspiration for such groups as Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.  Sadly, though popular with the counterculture crowd, the very talented 13th Floor Elevators never gained widespread national fame.

           The group eventually fell apart due to internal strife, disillusionment, and drugs.  In one of the saddest stories of rock music, Roky Erickson, who had been struggling with mental illness, was busted in Texas for possession of a single joint and was eventually committed to a mental hospital for reasons of insanity rather than accept imprisonment.  During his stays in mental facilities the treatments with drugs and electroshock therapies only worsened his condition.   He recorded a number of albums as a solo artist for a couple of decades as he struggled with his mental condition.  The albums of the Elevators became difficult to find and the band became an anomalous footnote of modern music history.

The Resurgence of a Legend

         In 1990 a resurgence of interest in Roky and the Elevators with the release of the outstanding tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye.   Roky was back in the limelight albeit in a cult status.  With the help of his brother Sumner, Roky has returned to the music scene regularly touring and recording.   Roky's comeback story is documented in an outstanding documentary You're Gonna Miss Me--highly recommended for fans of rock music or anyone interested in the subject of schizophrenia and other mental illness.

        This post is as some of you might have already surmised is a lead in to my upcoming Battle of the Bands post that will appear this Sunday February 15th.   I will be featuring two covers of the most well-known song by the 13th Floor Elevators.   And before you avoid this Battle dismissing it as some kind of weird psychedelic song, it's one of my favorite songs and many rock artists would probably concur with my taste in liking this one.  I do hope you will listen to and vote on this Battle.  You might be pleasantly surprised--or not.

         My post tomorrow at Wrote By Rote will be about my discovery of the music of The 13th Floor Elevators and my decades long quest to obtain recordings by the band.

         Are you familiar with The 13th Floor Elevators or Roky Erickson?   If you don't like psychedelic music, what about it don't you like?    Do you think the traditional methods for treatment of mental illness often worsens the condition?

For more info about 13th Floor Elevators:


Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound by Paul Drummond

http://funky16corners.blogspot.com/2004/11/1116-13th-floor-elevators-slip-inside.html

All Music

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