“So much beauty”: The album that changed Mark Lanegan’s life
Psychedelic rock came to fruition in the 1960s, with the first use of the term said to have been by one of the original pioneers of psychedelia, The 13th Floor Elevators, fronted by Roky Erickson, on a business card that they had made in 1965. The group, who formed in Austin, Texas, before the West Coast even had a whiff of the movement to come, released their hit single ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ in 1966.
Little did they know, as they printed those business cards, that they would influence some of the greatest bands to follow. The 13th Floor Elevators were together until 1969, with their disbandment ultimately coming as a result of the constant turmoil of drugs and ill health. However, their legacy played forward is profound, outstripping any success they had during their day.
A figure they struck a particular chord with is Mark Lanegan. The vocalist started his musical career in 1984 by forming the grunge band Screaming Trees, who became established in the Seattle scene alongside the likes of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam. However, grunge wasn’t the main driving force behind his first band.
In 2020, Lanegan confessed, “There is so much beauty and mystery in Easter Everywhere, and I’m not exaggerating when I say: the entire idea behind Screaming Trees was not last to emulate The 13th Floor Elevators.”
He told Vinyl Writers, “One cannot overestimate their importance for my artistic path. Who is going to listen to Easter Everywhere for the first time gets one good advice from me: prepare yourself for losing your mind. There is barely any more intense music.“ It wavers and waltzes to the beat of its own drum with Erickson looking to mimic the freeing experience of an LSD trip with their music.
The Screaming Trees frontman also praised the voice of The 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson by saying, “No one sings like [he] does—he served as a role model for my own music later.” There is an apparent sincerity delivered by Erickson, with his voice somehow feeling very close to you when he sings on that record. In Lanegan’s later solo projects, this sense of proximity and fearless imperfection is evident, but of course, with a strong feeling of his own identity.
Lanegan’s captivation with The 13th Floor Elevators was rooted in more than just musical inspiration. In 2020, he explained how the style of the ‘60s band conveyed an image that extended beyond their music into capturing what psychedelic rock would become. It wove its way into culture and society at large, capturing a time and place. In some ways, the rugged passion of The Screaming Trees can also be seen as a wail against the constraints of late-stage capitalism.
Needless to say, Lanegan learnt a lot from the grooving band, concluding, “They established a musical independence that was new in its consequence”. They were born to burn out.
