13th Floor Elevators - Legacy

Legacy

Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continue to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, Richard Lloyd, David Leonard, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Primal Scream — recorded covers of Elevators songs on Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson, one of the first tribute albums, in what would become a fad. In 2005, a panel at the SXSW music festival discussed the music of the Elevators and Powell St. John, one of the Elevators' songwriters.

The song "You're Gonna Miss Me" was covered by influential Australian group Radio Birdman on their 1977 album Radios Appear.

Seminal 1980s drone/space-rock band Spacemen 3 were hugely influenced by the 13th Floor Elevators, covering Roller Coaster twice, for debut album Sound of Confusion and as a 17 minute version for debut EP "Walkin' With Jesus". Vocalist/guitarist Pete Kember also covered "Thru the Rhythm" with his post-Spacemen 3 project Spectrum.

Other notable covers are "You're Gonna Miss Me" by the Psycotic Pineapple, "(I've Got) Levitation" by Julian Cope, and "Reverberation (Doubt)" by the Jesus and Mary Chain. ZZ Top also covered "Reverberation (Doubt)" for the Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye tribute album in 1990 and re-released it again on their Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box compilation in 2008.

Le Bonne Route, a 1996 album by Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman features a song titled 'Lunatics at the Edge of the World', which Tek described as "An ode to Syd Barrett and Roky Erickson."

In the 2000 movie High Fidelity, "You're Gonna Miss Me" was used in the opening scene and is the first song on the movie soundtrack.

In 2006, Dell Computers used "You're Gonna Miss Me" in one of their ads for their XPS laptop.

On April 24, 2007, during a radio promotion/interview before a concert, Jesse Lacey of Brand new credited the inspiration and a few lyrics for the song Degausser to Roky Erickson.

In 2009, "You're Gonna Miss Me" was used at length during a scene in episode 21 of Alan Ball's HBO series True Blood, culminating in a frantic, ultimately unsuccessful attempt by Lafayette Reynolds and Lettie Mae Thornton to remove Tara Thornton from the demonic influence of maenad Maryann Forrester.

The band have also been an influence on the "stoner rock" scene the likes of Queens of the Stone Age and Nebula and Names and Faces have regarded them as a big influence.

Noted Hollywood actor Johnny Depp praised the Elevators in a 2005 interview with Esquire Magazine: "Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, a band out of Texas. They were basically the first psychedelic-rock band. 1965. And if you listen to old 13th Floor Elevators stuff—Roky Erickson especially, his voice—and then go back and listen to early Led Zeppelin, you know that Robert Plant absolutely copped everything from Roky Erickson. And it's amazing. And Roky Erickson is sitting in Austin, Texas; he's just there. And Robert Plant had a huge hit. It always goes back to those guys, you know? I love those fucking guys."

Texas recording artist Ray Wylie Hubbard notes "no band was cooler than the 13th Floor Elevators" in his song "Screw You, We're from Texas" from his album "Growl," 2010.

In 2011, garage rock preservationists Thee Dirtybeats acknowledged the influence of Elevators on NC garage bands past and present with a recording of "Fire Engine".