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Austin in my opinion though much smaller and with way fewer bands and artist had a deeper impact on what happened when things turned psychedelic. The four most obvious guys at this forefront were Chet Helms, Powell St. John, Tommy hall, and Roky Erickson. I like to reinterpret famous passages and assign new meanings while I present my thoughts so lets look at these four guys as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In this scenario the Apocalypse is the end of the Norman Rockwell dream which our parents had grown up during. Salvador Dali and Aldous Huxley had gotten together with Timothy Leary and Muddy Waters and each had contributed a horse for our four heroes to ride in front of the TV children into the swirling multi colored sun rise that had just dawned above the peacefully slumbering world of parents. Lets start with Chet Helms. His recent death brought forth a statement from Barry Melton of COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH where he claimed that without Chet's guidance, emotional/ financial support, and his psychedelic basement... four of the five most important San Francisco bands would not have made it. Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janus Joplin, the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Country Joe and the Fish. Chet had left Austin as things got scary with the local police and moved to San Francisco and had become friends with Big Brother. He returned to Austin briefly and encountered Janis. She returned to the Haight with Chet and joined Big Brother and the rest you know. As far as Austin's connection to the psychedelic goes you could stop right here. The impact of Janis and these four bands alone is world history in the minds of the Hippie generation.

Now lets look at Powell St. John. Powell wrote BYE BYE BABY for Janis and this became the song that first was heard by the general public after the release of their first album. As a harmonica player,singer,song writer he showed up in Austin before all of this happened and presided over the initial events. Tommy Hall's friendship with Powell helped set the stage for Tommy's upcoming lyric explosion and miraculous jug playing. Janis showed up in Austin as a novice and after Powell brought her into the folk scene at the student union building on campus she quickly connected with her destiny. She had never performed in front of a real audience and, stunned by her voice, Powell knew she would knock everyone out. I guess thats an understatement. Not to long after this he witnessed Tommy's creation of THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS and wrote three songs fot their first album. If you know about the ELEVATORS then you know that once again as far as Austins connection to the Psychedelic goes.....we could again pack up and go home. Powell's influence and participation in the raw energy that fueled these events make this very humble and soft spoken musician a world stage player in the underground cosmic events that help heal the world. Hows that for hippie talk! Anyway next Powell left Austin for San Francisco where he became part of MOTHER EARTH for their first two albums and wrote many of his best songs including I THE FLY....now yer talking psychedelic.

Tommy hall could be considered the fulcrum in that his story is a factors build up of magnificent proportion. Tommy's interest in Science, Literature, Music and metaphysics created a window of opportunity for him to jump through and for a moment live outside the constraints that bind even the most creative minds. I'm describing it like this because its one thing to do a powerful moving piece of art and another to do a powerful moving piece that is directly connected to the energy of love. Simply put Tommy's lyrics alone is another place where you can once again throw your hands up and go OKAY THATS IT!!! In the minds of many this reclusive esoteric gentlemen is responsible for the all time best lyrics written during the sixties.Tommy is an enigma and his position in this grand scheme is the least possible to explain partially because the Elevators and his lyrics are reasonably obscure. The other side to this is that generally the most content is found in places where you have to look harder than usual.

Roky Erickson Is a local legend and was basically already that with his teen rock band and their regional radio hit. They were playing around Austin in the early mid sixties as the change occurred. To the 13th Floor Elevators Roky brought a talent and presence that put them in a position to become the first psychedelic band to emerge in not only Texas but arguably the whole U.S.A. Their impact was mainly noticed in Texas but the legend and the songs endure. Without Roky's extraordinary sense of melody, his unique voice. and his wild screaming stage presence the Elevators would have been a different story. Roky wrote and had already had a hit with YOU"RE GONNA MISS ME which was the song that catapulted them to AMERICAN BANDSTAND and gigs in center of the San Francisco scene. To this day Roky is still performing and blowing minds.? - to be continued