The Moving Sidewalks was a 1960s American psychedelic blues-rock band, most notable for giving future ZZ Top guitarist, Billy Gibbons, his start in the music business. The band consisted of Gibbons on guitar, Don Summers on bass, Dan Mitchell on drums and Tom Moore on keyboards.
Gibbons founded the Texas psychedelic group in the mid-1960s and quickly drew a large following, especially in the Houston "teen scene". They recorded several singles and one full-length album, Flash. Their single "99th Floor" was a hit and topped the charts at No. 1 in Houston for six weeks. The success of this record led the Sidewalks to sign with Wand Records which then released "Need Me" which also became a Top 10 Hit. The group was asked to open for many rock tours, including Jimi Hendrix and The Doors.
After Tom Moore and Don Summers were drafted into the United States Army, Gibbons and Mitchell added Lanier Greig and formed the original ZZ Top. They recorded the first ZZ Top record, "Salt Lick", which was released on London Records.
The Moving Sidewalks opened for the 13th Floor Elevators at the Houston, psychedelic venue, Love Street Light Circus, located on Commerce Street. The Elevators set was stopped after only a few songs by the Houston police department, who arrested the band's lead singer Roky Erickson.
Famous quotes containing the word moving:
“His moving impulse is no flabby yearning to teach, to expound, to make simple; it is that “obscure inner necessity” of which Conrad tells us, the irresistible creative passion of a genuine artist, standing spell-bound before the impenetrable enigma that is life, enamoured by the strange beauty that plays over its sordidness, challenged to a wondering and half-terrified sort of representation of what passes understanding.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)