The 40 Essential Albums of 1967

The 13th Floor Elevators Easter Everywhere International Artists [Listen]

Pioneers have it tough everywhere. But these Texas acid eaters paid especially hard for their zealotry, harassed by local lawmen to the point that in 1969 singer Roky Erickson went to a mental facility on a marijuana-possession bust. In 1967, the Elevators were still true believers and just back from a spell in San Francisco, reflected in this title's promise of heaven on earth and the sinewy raga guitar all over the record. The Elevators were punks, too, and the spiritualism was salted with the rare intensity of Erickson's wolf-man bleating and the bubbling-lava menace of Tommy Hall's electric-jug blowing. Forty years later, when Erickson crows, "I've got levitation," you still get liftoff.