Posing for Pictures

13th Floor Elevators & Roky Erickson Photos - For Sale

I've been a member of the TexasPsych discussion list for ten or so years now, and they've been responsible for unleashing dozens of otherwise unavailable live recordings of the 13th Floor Elevators and Roky Erickson upon the world, all for free, all for the love of the music. They also helped put thousands of dollars in Roky's pocket at a time when he most needed it.

Now, the list moderator has arranged a deal to present the fans with one of the coolest offers in rock memorabilia history - exclusive limited edition prints of rare 'Elevators and Roky photos from the 60s!

Here's what the photographer, William Warner has to say about these photos:

For a number of reasons, mostly interpersonal with the usual suspects and also professional and temperamental, these pictures have remained under wraps and unseen, for the most part, for over forty years. The only examples that have been published are the few pictures that once appeared in Mother Magazine, way back when, and a small set that were derived from some prints that I loaned to a friend, who then gave them out without my permission, leading to them be endlessly ripped off and used on bootleg CDs and so forth. The rest remained something for Indiana Jones to get ahold of.

Unlike most of the people who took photos of the Elevators back in 1967-68, who were, for the most part, just taking snapshots at the time, I was working hard, even though just a teenager, at my goal of producing pictures just like my role models at the time, the photographers of Life Magazine. People like W. Eugene Smith, Alfred Eisenstadt, and so forth. I was also, at the age of fifteen, out of school and at liberty to do what I wanted and go where I wanted, with a pretty much bottomless supply of film. So, I met the Elevators in February 1967 and then began hanging with them and photographing almost their every appearance in Houston, right up through the time the group disintegrated, after Easter Everywhere.

As a result, my work was not only in depth, but I was "on a mission" to do good quality portraits and coverage of the bands back then. My negatives and slides were also well organized and kept in order for all the years after, so nothing was lost or misplaced. I also worked as the backstage photographer for KILT and concert promoters back then, and so got up close and personal pics of Hendrix, Jim Morrison, The Stones, and many others.

Wow, is all I can say. They are taking pre-orders now and have to reach a minimum number of only 25 sets in order to make this a reality, for a measly $199.97 + $24.97 Shipping to US Addresses!

I don't intend to shill stuff here like this very often if ever again, but I wanted some hardcore music lovers to know about this. And that's you folks!