MOVING SIDEWALKS 99TH FLOOR '67 TANTARA PYSYCH 7"ZZ TOP

$

158

MOVING SIDEWALKS 99TH FLOOR 7"
Category / Style / Moods: Rock 60's Psyche Psychedlic Garage 100 / ?

1967 TANTARA 7"
TITLE: 99TH FLOOR

ARTIST: MOVING SIDEWALKS

CONDITION
VINYL: VG+
COVER: N/A

RARE ORIGINAL TANTARA
PRE-LP RELEASE SINGLE!

 TRACKS:

 Disc:       1

 1. 

99TH FLOOR

 2. 

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

The Origins of Psychedelic Music in Austin, Texas - Part 8 by Kelly Lawler Beyond International Artists, the Elevators' influence was pervasive both directly and indirectly. Out of those directly influenced, arguably the most well-known outside of Texas is Billy Gibbons, lead guitarist and vocalist of ZZ Top. While still attending high school, Gibbons was playing lead guitar in a R&B band, the Coachmen. After hearing "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the Thirteenth Floor Elevators as well the accompanying album Psychedelic Sounds of . . . in 1966, the Coachmen, with the urging of Gibbons, determined a shift in style was necessary. Adopting the new psychedelia, as "presented" by the Elevators, the band shifted on original material over the standard R&B covers which had been the foundation of their performances. In addition to the new direction in their music, the group also sought a more befitting band name-the Moving Sidewalks was deemed appropriate. Gibbons, Don Summers, Dan Mitchell, and Tom Moore, the only line-up the Moving Sidewalks would have, began performing extensively in the Houston area to enthusiastic crowds, performing, among other garage fare, "You're Gonna Miss Me." This notoriety earned the Moving Sidewalks an opportunity to record a single with the local Tantara Records label. As a token of appreciation, Gibbons penned a dedicatory piece in honor of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, a track entitled "99th Floor." Once described as a "collision of Them's 'Gloria' and the Elevators's `You're Gonna Miss Me,' " the single was quite popular in Houston and the surrounding areas, topping the local charts for five consecutive weeks (Ortman 1987, 45). Wand Records, capable of nationwide distribution, which worked in conjunction with Scepter Records, took notice of the young band's surprising success and offered to carry the single on the label; neither it nor a subsequent release, "Need Me" backed with "Every Night A New Surprise," fared well. Wand graciously brought the contract to a close. Initially the Moving Sidewalks were clearly emulating the Psychedelic Sounds-era Elevators both instrumentally and vocally-Gibbons, especially on "99th Floor," was able to mimic near perfectly Erickson's own banshee wail. This granted, the Sidewalks never matched the lyrical strength of their musical heroes and predecessors. The closest the band would come to reaching such lofty standards was on their only album Flash, another release on the Tantara label, recorded and pressed in 1968. Instead of merely flirting with psychedelia as did their two previous singles, Gibbons and his cohorts sought to immerse the album in all the trappings of the day, especially studio effects. Most prominent were tape loop manipulations (taking pre-recorded material and altering the sound by slowing it down, something used to great effect on Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun," or speeding it up as in the work done by David Seville to create the Chipmunks, or even playing it backwards, splicing various tapes together to form a found-sound collage, etc.), which comprised the full content of both "Eclipse" and "Reclipse," the album's two final songs. Backward tape looping is found frequently applied to previously recorded guitar solos. Lyrically, Gibbons makes awkward attempts to create "cosmic" images such as on the track "Pluto-Sept. 31." Despite this progression toward more complex music, in hindsight Billy Gibbons points out just how highly he regarded the unreachable, at least to him, levels of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators in the following statement: "They were a big influence on us-a big influence .... Those lyrics that they were singing, I don't think anybody has touched them since. There's genuine wisdom in what they were singing about; it wasn't all mindless drug dreams. I think it transcends age, transcends time" (Rodriguez 1991, 8C). Outside of Texas, the Moving Sidewalks were never able to encounter much success. However, during a tour of Texas, Jimi Hendrix did sign the band as his opening act for four separate dates...

This exquisite piece of retro music history is a 7" vinyl sound recording (not a CD) in either single or EP (extended play) multi-track record format. Visit the A Sound Deal store for information on grading, shipping, abbreviations and general info.

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