13th Floor Elevators - Headstone: The Contact Sessions

 

Charly Records 2009

01 You're Gonna Miss Me

02 Tried to Hide

03 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love

04 Take that Girl

05 You Can't Hurt Me Anymore

06 I'm Gonna Love You too

07 Monkey Island

08 Roller Coaster

09 Now I'm Home

10 Where Am I?

11 Fire Engine

12 You Can't Hurt Me Anymore [Take 1]

13 Fire Engine [Take 8]

14 You're Gonna Miss Me [Take 6]

15 Tried to Hide [Take 7]

16 I'm Gonna Love You too [45 rpm Single Version]

17 All Night Long [ as The Bad Seeds]

18 You're Gonna Miss Me [Vocal Track]

Early 13th Floor Elevators now. Originally released as part of the VERY limited box set 'Sign Of The 3 Eyed Men' and then as a stand alone release on the same label the following year, this is a collection of pre 'The Psychedelic Sounds of...' recordings.

The band secured a recording session with Gordon Byden to record a single in January 1966 and released debut single 'You're Gonna Miss Me' b/w 'Tried to Hide' on the hastily arranged Contact records. That single is included on this album, as well as other tracks recorded at an additional session in February 1966.

Taking advantage of the time at Andrus Studio, Houston, Texas, the band recorded an albums worth of songs.

After the release of the single, the band went on tour and were promptly signed by International Artists. These recordings were dropped as the band started to record their debut proper.

A lot of the tracks from that debut album appear here. I imagine this collection was the bands live repertoire at the time. 

A cool lo-fi alternate debut album from Texas' finest, Roky is already great.