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Dead Man is a 13th Floor Elevator descent headlong into southern-fried
bloody Sabbath. Released on the Hookah imprint in 1970, the LP's gaping
cranium cover, sludged-up blues, and bone-bleached riffs outsold Let It
Be, if only locally, being far "too psychedelic" and skull-crushing for
Houston's International Artists label to touch. A Texas-bound band
except in tracking Dead Man inside the furnace of Phoenix, Josefus
strode loud and longhaired amid the oil fields, peddling their own brand
of black gold.
As US involvement in the Vietnam War peaked and human boots sunk into
lunar dust, Josefus powered across the Texas plains, shaking its
coliseums awake as openers for the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver
Messenger Service. Heavier by tonnage than both the Stones they cover
and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," Doug Tull, Pete Bailey, Ray Turner,
and Dave Mitchell watched their 17-minute funeral pyre title track burn
through statewide airplay, glorying in the evil looseness of the FM format.
Tracklisting
Side A: 1. Crazy Man 2. I Need A W oman 3. Gimmie Shel ter 4. Country
Boy 5. Proposition
Side B: 1. Situation 2. Dead Man
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