Higher Ground

Bottom/ It's a Beautiful Day (CBS, 1969) is the self-titled debut album by San Francisco psychedelic band It's a Beautiful Day. It's a Beautiful Day was a band formed in San Francisco, California in 1967, the brainchild of violinist and vocalist David LaFlamme. Although they were one of the earliest and most important San Francisco bands to emerge from the Summer of Love, It’s a Beautiful Day never quite achieved the success of their contemporaries such as The Grateful Dead and Santana, with whom they had connections. It’s A Beautiful Day created a unique blend of rock, jazz, folk, classical and world beat styles during the seven years the band was officially together. Top/ 13th Floor Elevators was a garage rock band formed in Austin, Texas, from late 1965 until 1969. As one of the first psychedelic bands, they have been cited as an influential proto-punk group. Their biggest hit "You're Gonna Miss Me", a Billboard #55 hit in 1966, was featured on the 1972 compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, which was later to be considered a landmark in the history of garage rock and the development of punk rock. Singer Janis Joplin was a close associate of the band. She sang with the band at a few shows, and considered joining the group in Austin, before she headed to San Francisco and joined Big Brother and the Holding Company. Her style of singing was much influenced by singer/guitarist Roky Erickson's trademark screaming and yelping, as in "You're Gonna Miss Me". Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continues to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, 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. The band have also been an influence on the "stoner rock" scene the likes of Queens of the Stone Age.