Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
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Free Music Notes for In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Free Music Review: Oldie but goodie
Hit: 4 Stars
I really liked the three different versions of the title song on the CD. The clarity of sound was great and I enjoyed hearing it again.Free Music Review: Get the Reissued and Re-mastered US Version
Hit: 4 Stars
1968 was not so long ago. Yet, when I listen to this music from my youth, the Summer of Love and psychedelic music seem a lifetime ago. The moment I heard "Most Anything You Want," the first track on this expanded re-release of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," 1968 came flooding back into memory as though a door had been opened.
The opening song is a simple love song that is relatively middle-of-the-road for the 60s. The combination of instruments is standard, with a lead guitar, bass guitar, organ and drums. This song contains elements that, in retrospect, we identify with songs associated with the summer of love. The song places the album in its era and allows you to realign yourself with that time before moving on.
Some categories are overused. Hippie music is perhaps one of those overused categories. However, "Flowers and Beads" seems to fit in that category, given that both were characteristics of those people called hippies in the 60s. The song is, similar to the opening song, very middle-of-the-road for that era with a recognizable sound. I like this song better than the opening song because of the harmonies.
The music changes tone for "My Mirage," veering from the middle-of-the-road into psychedelic music. The allusions to either the results of chemically enhanced activities or to a meditative state are unmistakable. The music matches pace with the lyrics with several riffs that are very interesting and catchy and move this CD from the pop-like opening tracks to something that would be more at home on a Doors album. Note that Iron Butterfly and the Doors were contemporaries and had debut albums in consecutive years.
The next song moves into a genre with a harder edge. This music contains flavors of hard rock and progressive rock, both of which were still in their formative years. There were moments in "Termination" that sounded similar to moments on some of Yes's early albums. This psychedelic flavored hard rock song is one of the best songs on this CD.
The order of the songs gives you the feeling that the album is building to something. The final song on the first side of the original album was "Are You Happy," which contains musical elements similar to earlier songs on this CD. I also enjoy the bridge, which has moments that are similar to some of Jethro Tull's later music. There is a power guitar section that seems derived from Jimi Hendrix's music. The lyrics are almost unnecessary as the guitar noodling in the last half of this song really make up the essence of this song. There are a series of wonderful riffs in this song that may have inspired a number of later songs. This song is yet another of the better songs on this album, and with the previous song makes this album one for fans of early hard rock.
At last we reach the end of the album, and the anthem of psychedelic rock, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." This version is the 17:10 song that originally filled the second side of the vinyl album, though the current listing on Amazon shows that version at 17:05. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a vehicle to allow the hard rock bridge to go on for a lengthy period of time, coupling the opening and closing vocals. The lyrics are incredibly simple and yet are among the most memorable lyrics of rock music from any era.
The song does move into the kind of instrumental noodling that was significantly more common in the 1970s. Because of the drive of the song and the relatively free form of the music, this song stays away from progressive rock. The song does combine things being done by other artists of the era, notably Jimi Hendrix and the Doors, adds in other elements uniquely those of Iron Butterfly, and comes up with one of the early milestones in hard rock.
While the group was likely not seeking the kind of notoriety that the song brought, the album was incredibly successful by any standard. The album was the first album to earn an RIAA platinum award. The song itself was considered one of the first songs of hard rock, and is considered by some to be the first acid rock song. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart, and spent 140 weeks (nearly three years) on the chart.
The song and album were recorded by the second Iron Butterfly lineup of Doug Ingle singing and on keyboards, the late Erik Brann on lead guitar, Lee Dorman on bass, and Ron Bushy on drums. Unfortunately, they were unable to duplicate their success on subsequent albums and the group broke up in 1971.
I love this album and the song. However, there is a U.S. version that has a 36-page booklet and three versions of the song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." The three versions are the original album version, a live version, and the single version. Also, that version is significantly cheaper than this version.
Fans of classic hard rock need a verion of this album for their collection. I recommend the U.S. re-maseter, because it is supposedly from first generation master tapes. Fans of psychedelic rock, acid rock, and classic rock will also want a version of this album. Listening to "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is pure bliss. You will enjoy this one!
Free Music Review: Side A Rules
Hit: 5 Stars
Praise the Lord ! There's someone else who thinks Side A is the best.This album was huge back in the day.The first side is 5 underrated gems from the late 60's( this album practically means psychedelic)which are much better than the famous title track.In-A-Gadda Da-Vida was over played and is very repetitious.In the late 60's the song was huge(the drum solo's great and some of the strange noises are incredible),but over time I liked Side A a lot better than Side B.There's some pop-flavorings and Doors -like organ and this album takes me back to the late 60's everytime.From the fuzzed-out guitar and badass bass of "Termination"to the poppish "Flowers and Beads", I love this album.The bass on this album really kicks butt, it's loud and solid.I think the '95 CD's mix is better than the earlier one.It's the only album I like from this group also.Free Music Review: A sludgy, psychedelic classic, but it's all about Side A
Hit: 5 Stars
For some reason, it's Side A of this album that really made an impression on me. I remember discovering "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" in my dad's record collection when I was a teenager. The 17 minute title track is a classic, taking up the entire second side, but to be honest, I never gave it much play. The under-appreciated first side consists of songs within the 3-5 minute range, and they're all psychedelic gems.
The album opens with "Most Anything That You Want", flower-power pop that calls to mind The Doors. Doug Yule, the band's primary songwriter, rivals just about any organist from the era.
"Flowers and Beads" is undeniably catchy. A love song that's very much of it's era, but Iron Butterfly have a great sense of melody that frequently saves them from sounding dated.
"My Mirage" is easily my favorite track. It's sludgy and complex, yet it's still a pop song. The droning organ and eerie vocal are offset by Erik Brann's beautiful, twisting guitars. One of the era's underrated classics.
"Termination" is bad-trip music with gloomy lyrics and fuzzy guitars. One of the better songs, it finally culminates in a mystical swirl of organ and wind-chimes.
"Are You Happy" is a bit more straight-forward. It's good early heavy metal, with jamming that prepares the listener for the upcoming title track.
Which is, of course, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", the song Iron Butterfly are known for. With it's unmistakable riff, this 17 minute monster is certainly an example of psychedelic excess, but it's also become a vital stone in the wall of rock history. Nevertheless, it didn't grab me like the first side of the record.
I didn't realize how important this album was to me, until the other day, when I found the CD in a pawn shop. Everything came back to me on the first listen. I could even detect hints of Iron Butterfly influence in my own songwriting, that must've been planted there as a teenager. It took ten years to realize that In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida influenced me, but I'm glad I re-discovered it. If you want to dig further, try the follow-up, "Ball".
Free Music Review: Absolutely the LONGEST one-hit wonder song of all-time
Hit: 4 Stars
When my father was stationed in Japan at the end of the Sixties we only had Armed Forces Radio to listen to and one weekend they did the top 100 songs of all time ("Satisfaction" was picked #1). But for many of us the big treat came early in the countdown when they played the legendary "long" version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (17 minutes and 5 seconds to be exact). The funny thing about owning this CD is that I have heard the first couple of seconds of the five songs before the title track for the first time since I bought the original vinyl record and listened to the first side exactly ONE TIME (and I know I am not alone in that).
There are certainly hard rock classics with compelling guitar riffs and driving drum beats that you have to own and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is on the short list, along with "Sunshine of Your Love" and "Whole Lotta Love," and the bottom line is that the only way of having this song is to have this CD. It does not matter than you cannot name any other song on the album let alone the names of any of the members of the band (I do seem to remember several were self-described "nomads" in the liner notes on the back of the album). All that mattered was having the long version of the title track (which has been "translated" as both "In the Garden of Eden" and "In the Garden of Life"), which is why this album sold over four million copies while spending over a year in the Billboard Top Ten, making it to #4. Their other 1969 album, "Ball," made it one slot higher, but I could not tell you a single song on that album.
You are never going to find this song on a hit collection. In fact, I do not think I have ever seen one with the "short" version of this song, the abbreviated single that made it to #30 on the charts. But at least once a year you have to take this one out and listen to the whole 17 minutes and five seconds because you have to know your rock and roll roots. I have found that is usually inspired by watching the Michael Mann film "Manhunter" (based on the Thomas Harris novel "Red Dragon"), where "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is the song blaring in the murder house when the hero shows up. In case you were wondering, yes, it is a long sequence and while I have never actually timed it, Mann might have managed to play most of the song.