13th Floor Elevators "Headstone: The Contact Sessions" LP

This album contains the contents of The 13th Floor Elevators' recording sessions for Contact Records in early 1966. On January 3rd 1966, the band taped both sides of their debut 45 You're Gonna Miss Me/Tried To Hide, which Contact released on January 17th. That same month the (on the 27th) The Elevators were busted for possession of marijuana, and fearing that Texas' draconian drug laws could imperil the band's future, they felt the need to document their unique, garage-infused brand of early psychedelia as a means to document their very existence -- at the time, possession of marijuana could result in a prison sentence of 2-10 years. These recordings were, therefore, meant to be the band's debut LP, which Tommy Hall titled Headstone. The album was essentially split in two; Side 1 featured both sides of the debut 45 alongside teen-oriented covers, while Side 2 was made up of the band's early forays into psychedelia. The recordings are in mono, the sound quality a touch lo-fi, but the primal magic the band were able to conjure is already in evidence, especially on the albums second half - all of which would re-recorded for their debut LP proper The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators later that same year. Aside from the debut 45, the remaining tracks on Side 1 would be left in the can, and would re-emerge (with overdubbed applause) on 1968's duplicitous Live album.